[Ads-l] Persuasion = suasoria

[Dan Goncharoff]

But is it possible that "Crystal Blue Persuasion" was actually about
persuasion?

Inquiring minds want to know...

DanG

On Wed, Feb 25, 2015 at 5:11 AM, Benjamin Barrett <gogaku at ix.netcom.com>
wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Benjamin Barrett <gogaku at IX.NETCOM.COM>
> Subject:      Persuasion = suasoria
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> J.I. Crump updated his excerpt translations of "Zhan Guo Ce" (戰國策, he
> uses the Wade Giles "Chan-kuo Ts'e") in 1998 with the title "Legends of
> the Warring States."
>
> Discussing the word "persuasion," he says that in the Second Sophistic,
> Greek and Roman rhetoricians would give their pupils
> historical/legendary situations about which the students had to provide
> advice. Those exercises were called suasoriae (singular suasoria).
>
> It is this tradition that he refers to in calling the stories in the
> book "persuasions."
>
> 1. Wiktionary (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/persuasion) has: An
> argument or other statement intended to influence one's opinions or
> beliefs; a way of persuading someone.
> Example sentence: Sadie curses, weeps, then, infected by Mr. Hamilton's
> writhing persuasions, prays and becomes penitent.
>
> I think this definition covers this meaning, though a persuasion in the
> Zhan Guo Ce sense (or a suasoria) would not be obvious from reading the
> meaning or the definition.
>
> 2. Merriam-Webster
> (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/persuasion) includes this
> definition for "persuasion": a persuading argument
>
> Much pithier, this actually seems to fit better.
>
> 3. The Oxford Dictionary site lists "persuasion" as a mass noun in this
> sort of sense, so this meaning is not covered.
>
> Benjamin Barrett
> Formerly of Seattle, WA
>
> Learn Ainu! https://sites.google.com/site/aynuitak1/home
>
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