This adjective is used in the masculine nominative singular, i.e. the form given as the headword here, in Nicander, Alexipharmaka 569, where (as elsewhere in that writer) it means deadly or fatal; LSJ s.v., II. But in the neuter plural it is used of earrings in Homer (Iliad 14.183, Odyssey 18.298), and its meaning in that context was disputed in the ancient scholia and commentators. The alternative line of explanation to the one given here (and in Hesychius and Eustathius) is 'everlasting/immortal'.