[lit-ideas] Idioticon
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 8 Oct 2011 10:02:20 -0400 (EDT)
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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