This vivid compound adjective appears only in Jesus's parable of the Good Samaritan, describing the traveler left barely alive by robbers. The Greek combines 'half' (ἡμι-) with 'dead' (θανής) to create a stark image of someone hovering between life and death. The term emphasizes the victim's desperate condition and helplessness, making the Samaritan's compassion all the more striking. Translators across languages preserve the dramatic half-dead imagery, showing the universal power of this description.