You Don't Say: Since you're wasting time anyway ... - English grammar, language, usage and journalism blog by John E. McIntyre

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Since you're wasting time anyway ...

Amusement and instruction, the Horatian combination.

Here’s the joke of the week, “A mugging”:

And with it, the word of the week, euhemeristic.

Posted by John McIntyre at 1:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Comments

Okay, Professor, you win--you made me look this one up (although I used to know what it meant) Can anyone use it in a sentence?)

But it reminded me of a more recent bit of dialogue I read in a book I was cataloging. It was from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," and one character says to Buffy "So, you're the slayer, huh? We thought you were a myth." And her reply? "You were myth-taken."

Posted by: Dahlink | February 14, 2011 8:00 PM

Dahlink,

I thought Prof. McI. "joke of the week" was a bit of a groaner, but your, "You were myth-taken" quote in response to our word of the week, "euhemeristic", was by far, a bigger groaner. HA!

Hmm.... "myth-taken" has a decidedly Sylvester-the-cartoon-cat lisping air about about it, don't you think?

I must confess, I too had to check my Funk & Wagnall's (well, actually my Webster's NewWorld Dictionary) on that one.

Philosopher Euhemerus, back in post-Golden-Age Athens, appeared to be quite the contrarian thinker, as the curious notion that the Greek gods were all basically deified humans, and that mythology had its germinal roots in actual past human events, was, I suspect, hardly the widely held view in the learned circles of his day.

Interestingly, in ancient Pharaonic Egypt the divine-right-of-kings did obtain for thousands of years, thru innumerable dynasties. (I think deposed leader Hosni Mubarak thought this ancient ruling principle applied to him, as well. HA!)

Osiris, Isis, Toth, et al, all had their place of reverence in the pantheon of
traditional Egyptian divinities, and the mythology that chronicled their fortunes and misfortunes, until the daring iconoclast, Pharaoh Akhenaten came to power, and summarily declared that there was only one true god, namely Aten, (or Ra), the deity embodied in the eternal sun.

Of course, Akhenaten's bold attempt at monotheism was relatively short-lived, and died w/ his demise, as the Egyptian monarchs who followed his reign returned to their former poli-theistic ways. But, I digress. (Par for the course. HA!)

Dahlink, hope you had a great St. Valentine's Day.

ALEX

Posted by: ALEX MCCRAE | February 14, 2011 9:22 PM

Thanks, Alex--I did. I hope you enjoyed your V day as well. And I was well aware that I was posting a groaner, but couldn't resist!

Posted by: Dahlink | February 15, 2011 6:35 AM

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About John McIntyre

John McIntyre, mild-mannered editor for a great metropolitan newspaper, has fussed over writers’ work, to sporadic expressions of gratitude, for thirty years. He is The Sun’s night content production manager and former head of its copy desk. He also teaches editing at Loyola University Maryland. A former president of the American Copy Editors Society, a native of Kentucky, a graduate of Michigan State and Syracuse, and a moderate prescriptivist, he writes about language, journalism, and arbitrarily chosen topics. If you are inspired by a spirit of contradiction, comment on the posts or write to him at john.mcintyre@baltsun.com.

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