XPost: alt.usage.english, alt.fish
From: HenHanna@dev.null

On Thu, 19 Sep 2024 4:59:08 +0000, Aidan Kehoe wrote:

>
> I was in the National Archeological Museum in Athens a couple of days
> ago, and
> the English-language description under one of the early exhibits used
> the word
> “ithyphallic,” which was new to me. It is of course no longer 1990 with
> the
> associated need to make a written note of the word and consult a paper
> dictionary when such a difficulty comes up, and I learned fairly quickly
> that
> it means “having an erect penis.”
>
> Interestingly etymonline also mentions the following, also new to me:
>
>   “1795, in reference to a type of meter used in ancient Greek poetry
> (earlier
>   as a noun, “poem in ithyphallic meter,” 1610s), from Latin
> ithyphallicus,
>   from Greek ithyphallikos, from ithyphallos “phallus carried in the
>   festivals,” from ithys “straight, straight upward” + phallos “erect
> penis”
>   (see phallus). Credited to Archilochus, the meter was that of the
> Bacchic
>   hymns, which were sung in the rites during which such phalluses were
> carried.
>   Thus, in Victorian times, the word also meant “grossly indecent”
> (1864) and
>   sometimes was used in scholarly works in its literal sense of “with
> erect
>   penis” (1837).”
>
> In general there is a wealth of English words to be learned from the
> descriptions of the exhibits in that museum, words that will likely not
> be that
> useful unless you are speaking with a scholar of ancient Greece about
> ancient
> Greece. Another one that stuck for me was “metic”, “resident foreigner
> in a
> Greek city state,” apparently not related to meticulous.
>
> If anyone is going to Athens, be aware there is a significant street
> drug
> problem. If you are bringing children check with the hotel about what
> streets
> to avoid, if you prefer not to have to explain what this man sitting on
> the
> ground with a needle and a syringe sticking into his arm is doing.



i did sorame  and  thought it was    ichthyphallic

                          ---------  "Fish-penised"

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
 * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)