Old-time religion

[quislibet]

I went to look something up in the Oxford Classical Dictionary and, as often happens in any sort of dictionary, really, I got sidetracked for a bit. (You know, in that way of "Hey, I'm not even looking up a word that begins with 'M,' but did you know 'Marionettenregierung' is the German word for 'puppet government'?")

Anyway.

I provide you with a bit of reading-fruit:

Bouphonia The annual 'ox-slaying' at the Athenian festival of the Dipolieia. During this rite an ox was killed, the sacrificer fled, and the sacrificial knife was cast into the sea after being tried for murder. The slain ox was stuffed and yoked to a plough. -- (OCD, 3rd. ed., 1996, p. 258)

Neat.

I think "Bouphonia" would make a nice name for a cattleman's daughter.

Note also the potential for a neologized adjective "buphonic" = "cow-slaying" (especially in a ritual sense). (Not "cow-voiced" -- we're talking phonos [FONOS], "murder," not phônê [FWNH], "voice." But admittedly the distinction between omicron and omega doesn't come through; perhaps for clarity one should, in the end, use a word derived from -kteino ["buctonic"?] or just stick to a Latin-derived equivalent "bovicidal.")

Comments

[atalanta.livejournal.com]

huh - I never knew about phonos. i'll bet buphonic would get widely misinterpreted.

[phaidros.livejournal.com]

First point: "tried for murder"??? I can only picture this as a bizarre sequence on the Simpsons. (I also think it's an excellent instance of entrapment -- "I'm a sacrificial knife, your honor! It's what they designed me to do!")


Second point: I can't recall the word anymore, but a friend of mine in grad school always maintainted that his favorite German word translates to "piano of the imagination" I believe it was from Nietzsche, but it could have been Wittgenstein, actually. (lesser possibility: Schopenhauer)

[quislibet.livejournal.com]

"I'm a sacrificial knife, your honor! It's what they designed me to do!"

Oh, the fun one could have with a sufficient knowledge of Attic Greek, Athenian law practice, ventriloquism, and time travel...

[aelana.livejournal.com]

If the sheath don't fit, you must aquit?

[dirtymikesell.livejournal.com]

uhhhh, RED SOX RULE! WOO WOO WOOO!

Thank you for learning me. ;)

[munchmeyer.livejournal.com]

OMG It's nice to see that such a journal exists! Etymology! Footnotes! Neologisms! An oasis in the vast and seemingly infinite wasteland of linguistic skills!

Okay, that was a bit much, I'll admit, but after six years of Latin study, I can only take SO much of the modern "English" which I see online without cracking. I've added you for the sake of my sanity. :)

BTW my favorite German word is Streichholzschächtelchen, or a VERY tiny matchbox.