Saturday, December 15, 2012

Logodaedaly

Meaning: Skill, craft or cunning with words.

Usefulness: 1 (Particularly with regards to Sir Thomas; will come in handy next time I update the About... page.)

Logofascination: 1 (The OED's first citation is from 1611, and it appears that it was coined to describe Thomas Coryate. It's formed from logo- - words, obviously - and Daedalus, father of Icarus and builder of the Labyrinth.)

In the wild: Nope, but World Wide Words has an entry on logodaedalus.

Degrees: 2

Connections: logodaedaly - word

Which is used in: a number of places, but I rather like the end of the Prologue in the Second Book (Pantagruel) - Rabelais warns what will happen if you disbelieve his story:
And therefore, to make an end of this Prologue, even as I give myself to a hundred panniersful of fair devils, body and soul, tripes and guts, in case that I lie so much as one single word in this whole history; after the like manner, St. Anthony's fire burn you, Mahoom's disease* whirl you, the squinance with a stitch in your side and the wolf in your stomach truss you, the bloody flux seize upon you, the cursed sharp inflammations of wild-fire, as slender and thin as cow's hair strengthened with quicksilver, enter into your fundament, and, like those of Sodom and Gomorrah, may you fall into sulphur, fire, and bottomless pits, in case you do not firmly believe all that I shall relate unto you in this present Chronicle.

*I think this is epilepsy, mainly because Frame translates the French (mau de terre) as falling sickness.  

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