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Category Archives: words
Of Men and Mollusks
Came across this choice bit of abuse this afternoon: πλεύμονα αὐτὸν ἐκάλει καὶ ἀγράμματον καὶ ἀπατεῶνα καὶ πόρνον.—Diogenes Laertius 10.8 I render this as: “He <Epicurus> calls him <Democritus> a mollusk and an illiterate and a cheat and a whore.” … Continue reading
Posted in academia, Adventures in the Public Domain, books, history, language, words
Tagged Greek, insults, philosophy
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Et Thew, Brute?
Some discussion of thews and thewbilation in the Sword and Sorcery Tavern on Discord made me curious about the etymology of thew. I consulted my friend, the democratic AHD, and it hit me in the face with this. Did not … Continue reading
Posted in books, fantasy, language, Myth & Legend, sff, sword-and-sorcery, words
Tagged Homer
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CW: Trumpolatry
Many things about Trumpism are disgusting, but there’s a specific kind of abject ecstacy in Trumpolatry that is really repulsive. “It’s like something from Tacitus,” I always think. Today I ran across the quote I’d been not-quite remembering. clamor vocesque … Continue reading
Posted in politics, Roman history, Rome, words
Tagged EverythingIsBetterWithLatin!™, Tacitus
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Water We Fighting For?
Typo of the day: Tuhursday (for an intended Thursday). Easily fixed, but now I’m wondering who Tuhur was. Mr. Internet tells me it’s a Sundanese word meaning “dry”. Maybe Tuhur was the archenemy of that Wonder Twin who turned into … Continue reading
Posted in cartoon, language, Typo of the Day, words
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18th Century Mashup: White’s MISTRESS MASHAM’S REPOSE
I came to T.H. White’s brilliant fantasy Mistress Masham’s Repose (Putnam, 1946): immediately after reading two much inferior (but not worthless) books. One was by White himself, The Age of Scandal (Putnam, 1950), a social history of the later 18th … Continue reading
Posted in Adventures in the Public Domain, books, fantasy, history, language, sff, words
Tagged T.H. White
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King Leer
Reading some Middle English this afternoon, I came across the word lere, meaning “face”. ”That’s got to be where leer comes from,” I said, with the unwavering confidence of a folk etymologist, and then my confidence wavered a bit and … Continue reading
Swords Against Style
For various reasons I’ve had a couple different essays under my eyes this afternoon: “Epic Pooh” (Moorcock’s Titanic body-slam against Tolkien and other “high” fantasists) and Tolkien’s “On Fairy-Stories”. All critical writing about fantasy needs to be taken with a … Continue reading