WotD: Demogorgon

Johannes Patruus

unread,

Sep 22, 2014, 2:05:33 AM9/22/14

to

http://www.oed.com/viewdictionaryentry:showfullentry/true?t:ac=Entry/49771

Patruus

Ed Cryer

unread,

Sep 22, 2014, 7:39:04 AM9/22/14

to

Johannes Patruus wrote:
>
> http://www.oed.com/viewdictionaryentry:showfullentry/true?t:ac=Entry/49771
>
> Patruus

Has anybody ever seen a hydraharpieminotaurcyclops?

(:-
Ed

Evertjan.

unread,

Sep 23, 2014, 3:34:34 AM9/23/14

to

Ed Cryer <e...@somewhere.in.the.uk> wrote on 22 sep 2014 in
alt.language.latin:

About Latin hyperlongwordiness:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honorificabilitudinitatibus>

Seems we are in the realm of hapax legomena,
[being the plural of hapax legomenon]:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hapax_legomenon>

My gut feeling would say the greek word should be "haplax", like "diplax",
not "hapax", apparently I am wrong again:
<http://artflsrv02.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/efts/dicos/woodhouse_test.pl?
keyword=^Once,%20adv.>

Ihe Ilias has 1097 hapax legomena, the Odussea 868,
the number of diplaxes being overwelming.
<http://artflsrv02.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/efts/dicos/woodhouse_test.pl?
keyword=twice>

Some Latin hapaxes quoted in the wiki page are:

Deproeliantis, Mactatu, Mnemosynus, Scortillum and Terricrepo.

--
Evertjan.
The Netherlands.
(Please change the x'es to dots in my emailaddress)

Johannes Patruus

unread,

Sep 23, 2014, 4:21:56 AM9/23/14

to

On 23/09/2014 08:34, Evertjan. wrote:
> Ed Cryer <e...@somewhere.in.the.uk> wrote on 22 sep 2014 in
> alt.language.latin:
>
>> Johannes Patruus wrote:
>>> http://www.oed.com/viewdictionaryentry:showfullentry/true?
> t:ac=Entry/49771
>>> Patruus
>>
>> Has anybody ever seen a hydraharpieminotaurcyclops?
>
> About Latin hyperlongwordiness:
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honorificabilitudinitatibus>

English may be an also-ran to German in hyperpolysyllabicity, but ...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longest_word_in_English

Patruus

Ed Cryer

unread,

Sep 23, 2014, 7:15:45 AM9/23/14

to

Johannes Patruus wrote:
> On 23/09/2014 08:34, Evertjan. wrote:
>> Ed Cryer <e...@somewhere.in.the.uk> wrote on 22 sep 2014 in
>> alt.language.latin:
>>
>>> Johannes Patruus wrote:
>>>> http://www.oed.com/viewdictionaryentry:showfullentry/true?
>> t:ac=Entry/49771
>>>> Patruus
>>>
>>> Has anybody ever seen a hydraharpieminotaurcyclops?
>>
>> About Latin hyperlongwordiness:
>> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honorificabilitudinitatibus>
>
> English may be an also-ran to German in hyperpolysyllabicity, but ...
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longest_word_in_English
>
> Patruus

When I was a kid, the longest word we all batted about was
"antidisestablishmentarianism". And then I suddenly heard about
"floccinaucinihilipilification".
The difference between those two in the Wiki list is that one is
"non-coined" and the other is "unchallenged". Now then, that's a fine
distinction.

Ed

P.S. My spellchecker passes "anti......." but suggests
"oversimplification" for "flocci......".

Ed Cryer

unread,

Sep 23, 2014, 7:29:02 AM9/23/14

to

I bet your scientific outlook baulks at an entry I found in L&S; Odyssey 12.

σχέτλιοι, οἳ ζώοντες ὑπήλθετε δῶμ' Ἀΐδαο,
δισθανέες, ὅτε τ' ἄλλοι ἅπαξ θνῄσκουσ' ἄνθρωποι.
(Circe to O when he comes back up from Hades)

L&S gives;
δισθᾰνής, ές,
twice dead,

How many lives does a cat have? How often did Herakles and Odysseus go
down to Hades? How many will I have? One's enough for me.

Ed

Evertjan.

unread,

Sep 23, 2014, 8:51:35 AM9/23/14

to

Ed Cryer <e...@somewhere.in.the.uk> wrote on 23 sep 2014 in
alt.language.latin:

> How many lives does a cat have? How often did Herakles and Odysseus go
> down to Hades? How many will I have?

Many, though by no means the majority of this world, believe,
on punishment of eternal Hades, that a supposed family member of mine
did come back for a few days 2000 or so years ago.

Darwin's resurrecion of the fittest perhaps?

> One's enough for me.

Ah, the poor man's motto: "I have enough".

Ed Cryer

unread,

Sep 23, 2014, 9:02:23 AM9/23/14

to

Evertjan. wrote:
> Ed Cryer <e...@somewhere.in.the.uk> wrote on 23 sep 2014 in
> alt.language.latin:
>
>> How many lives does a cat have? How often did Herakles and Odysseus go
>> down to Hades? How many will I have?
>
> Many, though by no means the majority of this world, believe,
> on punishment of eternal Hades, that a supposed family member of mine
> did come back for a few days 2000 or so years ago.
>
> Darwin's resurrecion of the fittest perhaps?
>
>> One's enough for me.
>
> Ah, the poor man's motto: "I have enough".
>
>

Ever heard of A J Ayer? He was a philosopher; famous for his
logical-positivism in "Language, Truth & Logic".
A convinced (at the least) sceptic all his life, he was always on
British TV.

Well, in old age he got rushed to hospital. And when he came round after
the operation he'd had an out-of-body near-death experience. He told the
nurse, she passed it on to the media and lo and behold immediate
headlines "Atheist philosopher has NDE". In it he'd been directed toward
some light, but as he got nearer a voice proclaimed "Go back, your time
hasn't yet come".

Poor chap! He lived a few years more but all that hung around his neck
like the Ancient Mariner's albatross, or the words to Edward Elgar's
famous march (Land of Hope and Glory) which he never sanctioned and hated.

Ed

Evertjan.

unread,

Sep 23, 2014, 10:03:59 AM9/23/14

to

Ed Cryer <e...@somewhere.in.the.uk> wrote on 23 sep 2014 in
alt.language.latin:

> Ever heard of A J Ayer? He was a philosopher; famous for his
> logical-positivism in "Language, Truth & Logic".
> A convinced (at the least) sceptic all his life, he was always on
> British TV.

Indeed, philosophers should never be convinced.
As shouldn't real people.

> Well, in old age he got rushed to hospital. And when he came round after
> the operation he'd had an out-of-body near-death experience. He told the
> nurse, she passed it on to the media and lo and behold immediate
> headlines "Atheist philosopher has NDE".

Perfectly unprofessional behavour, even while passing [it?] on.

> In it he'd been directed toward
> some light, but as he got nearer a voice proclaimed "Go back, your time
> hasn't yet come".

The delusions ischemia of the brain bring, are perfectly natural phenomena,
and they better should be, as there are no unnatural phenomena.

Ed Cryer

unread,

Sep 23, 2014, 11:34:51 AM9/23/14

to

There's another brain phenomenon regularly experienced and attested.
That where someone falls into extreme peril and later they say "My whole
life passed before my eyes".

That makes very good sense in survival terms. The brain can't find a
solution to the current predicament, but it knows it's extremely
perilous, so it downloads everything ASAP looking for a solution.

Ed

Evertjan.

unread,

Sep 23, 2014, 6:25:20 PM9/23/14

to

Ed Cryer <e...@somewhere.in.the.uk> wrote on 23 sep 2014 in
alt.language.latin:

>> The delusions ischemia of the brain bring, are perfectly natural
>> phenomena, and they better should be, as there are no unnatural
>> phenomena.
>>
>
> There's another brain phenomenon regularly experienced and attested.
> That where someone falls into extreme peril and later they say "My whole
> life passed before my eyes".
>
> That makes very good sense in survival terms. The brain can't find a
> solution to the current predicament, but it knows it's extremely
> perilous, so it downloads everything ASAP looking for a solution.

I am not sure that this is really what is happening,
the "everything" I mean.

The delusion I referred to was more a fatalisitic "apr�s nous",
the panic you refer to is perhaps the fear of the
religiously brainwashed for a revengefull eternal afterlive?

The reaction most seen in the animal kingdom we belong to,
is an extreme parasympatic state where small animals even die instantly
after the sympatic "fight or flie" reaction proved useless.