exergual

[Jonathan Lighter]

1989 David Bevan _Literature and War_ (Amsterdam: Rodopi) 3:  It is
evident that exergual quotations can serve not only to encapsulate
emblematic wisdom but also to reveal egregious folly. In the case of
war, they can also point appositely both to the multiple dimensions of
the actual experience [etc.].

That's the very first line of the introduction, which is preceded only
by a quote from Defoe, which is what I presume Bevans thinks of as
"exergual," even though ne'er an exergue is in sight.

Note the delightfully subtle alliteration that trips from "exergual"
to "experience."

JL

--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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