The entry addresses a set of related terms dealing with digging. The headword seems to be an abstract noun conveying the concept of digging, but is unattested elsewhere apart from one appearance in the scholia to Nicander, Alexipharmaca 514. The word used to gloss it -- a different noun formed from the same stem -- is otherwise unattested in the simple sense of 'digging', but does occur as the name of a gruesome style of execution associated in Eunapius and other late-antique sources with the Persians (LSJ s.v. II).