"aphorism" = ?

Jonathan Lighter wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM
Sun Nov 12 23:37:02 UTC 2006


Well, I suspect anybody who's familiar with "aphorism" is even more familiar with "metaphor."  Of course in today's media Inglish, "metaphor" is frequently displaced by "allegory."

  So the writer, a cultural anthropologist, may have some entirely different meaning for "metaphor"; something like "synonym" ?  Who knows ?

  Or else anthropologists are using "aphorism" like crazy with some specialized, semi-arbitrary less-than-obvious-to-me meaning, something kinda like "metaphor" or "symbol" or "example" all sort of mixed together. Ineffably.

  JL

  "Douglas G. Wilson" <douglas at NB.NET> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: "Douglas G. Wilson"
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


--
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.1.409 / Virus Database: 268.14.2/528 - Release Date: 11/10/2006

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



---------------------------------
Check out the all-new Yahoo! Mail beta - Fire up a more powerful email and get things done faster.

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



More information about the Ads-l mailing list