[lit-ideas] Re: Idioticon
- From: Mike Geary <jejunejesuit.geary2@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 8 Oct 2011 23:53:51 -0500
JL: "Misused: if it's a "Bronx idioticon" (cfr. "Memphis idioticon") we
don't
mean, say, the idioms of Memphis. It's a "Speranza idioticon" that starts
to
make sense: the idioms of a particular genius, or other."
Other what?
Mike Geary
uncontested idiot of Memphis
On Sat, Oct 8, 2011 at 9:02 AM, <Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx> wrote:
> From today's World Wide Words, ed. M. Quinion:
>
> "In Greek, "idiotikos" could also mean ignorant or uneducated; its
> neuter singular "idiotikon" was taken into Latin after the classical
> period in this sense. In the eighteenth century German scholars used
> it for a dictionary of a dialect or a minority language - the view
> that they were barbarous tongues spoken only by the unschooled was
> still very powerful. Early examples included the Idioticon Frisicum,
> the Idioticon Hambergense and the Idioticon Prussicum. Later it
> became a standard German word, spelled "Idiotikon".
> "Idioticon" appeared in English in the early nineteenth century in
> the same sense but has always been extremely rare.
> I often wished for a Bronx idioticon and a Yiddish
> dictionary to clarify some of the words.
> [Sydney Morning Herald, 6 Jul. 1996.]"
>
> Misused: if it's a "Bronx idioticon" (cfr. "Memphis idioticon") we don't
> mean, say, the idioms of Memphis. It's a "Speranza idioticon" that starts
> to
> make sense: the idioms of a particular genius, or other.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Speranza
>
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