"aphorism" = ?

[Seán Fitzpatrick]

I hesitate to add anything after Prof. Grey’s analysis, but I think this is
not so much a case of pretentiousness as of laziness landing the writer in
the right church, but the wrong pew.  The author was looking for a word that
means something like “a terse saying embodying a general truth, or astute
observation”, i.e., an aphorism, except he didn’t mean general truth.  Maybe
the mistake was in looking for a word rather than just saying ‘“Betsy from
Pike” captures in a nutshell the subsistence strategy of late Iron Age
Celts’.  Maybe the mistake was in not using “formula”, or “epigram”, which
is “a short, witty poem expressing a single thought or observation”.

 

Seán Fitzpatrick
Some mornings just aren't worth chewing
through the leather restraints.
http://www.logomachon.blogspot.com/ 

-----Original Message-----
From: Douglas G. Wilson [mailto:douglas at NB.NET] 
Sent: Sunday, 12 November, 2006 01:59
Subject: Re: "aphorism" = ?

 

>Let's see, now. What word can I pull out of my ass to make this

>bullshit seem academic? Oh, WTF, I'll just toss in "aphorism."

 

Well put.

 

Perhaps the writer was groping in the dark for "metaphor" (still maybe not

quite right but ...)?

 

-- Doug Wilson

 

 

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