This content is taken to have been put there by the ancient namegivers: giving an etymology is thus a matter of unwrapping or decoding a name to find the message the namegivers have placed inside. As practised by Socrates in the Cratylus, etymology involves a claim about the underlying semantic content of the name, what it really means or indicates. As "an account of the particular history of a word" from mid-15c. Flaubert wrote that the general view was that etymology was "the easiest thing in the world with the help of Latin and a little ingenuity."Īs a modern branch of linguistic science treating of the origin and evolution of words, from 1640s. Classical etymologists, Christian and pagan, based their explanations on allegory and guesswork, lacking historical records as well as the scientific method to analyze them, and the discipline fell into disrepute that lasted a millennium. a confused mixture hodgepodge medley: a farrago of doubts, fears, hopes, and wishes. In classical times, with reference to meanings later, to histories. Fittingly, it was a novelist, Nevil Shute, who chose the term ‘The Great Panjandrum’ for the explosive device.Late 14c., ethimolegia "facts of the origin and development of a word," from Old French etimologie, ethimologie (14c., Modern French étymologie), from Latin etymologia, from Greek etymologia "analysis of a word to find its true origin," properly "study of the true sense (of a word)," with -logia "study of, a speaking of" (see -logy) + etymon "true sense, original meaning," neuter of etymos "true, real, actual," related to eteos "true," which perhaps is cognate with Sanskrit satyah, Gothic sunjis, Old English soð "true," from a PIE *set- "be stable." Latinized by Cicero as veriloquium. In the twentieth century, the term The Great Panjandrum was used to describe a large experimental rocket-propelled, explosive-laden cart designed by the British military during the Second World War, introducing the phrase, and the word, to a whole new generation. Also Grand Panjandrum, Great Panjandrum.’ The word then grew to have a secondary meaning: ‘Ceremonial fuss or formality rigmarole, affair.’ This meaning is now rare, although it gives a sense of how widespread the term may once have been. Here’s how the Oxford English Dictionary defines it: ‘(A mock title for) a mysterious (frequently imaginary) personage of great power or authority a pompous or pretentious official a self-important person in authority. ![]() Aashish Chandorkar posted the following graph: And here is how Twitter exploded: Highlights FYI: Farrago, according to. Before Lewis Carroll’s coinages ‘chortle’ and ‘galumph’ (both invented for his poem ‘Jabberwocky’) entered more mainstream usage, ‘panjandrum’ was spreading from the realms of nonsense writing and becoming a household word. The word Farrago went viral, making it a trending search on Google. ‘Panjandrum’, then, became a word in its own right. ![]() Whether Macklin triumphed has not, it appears, been recorded. Settings and more Limited Time Offer: Get 50 off the first year of our best annual plan for artists with unlimited uploads, releases, and insights. ![]() SoundCloud SoundCloud Home Feed Library Search. Foote would attend Macklin’s lectures and heckle, and it was on one such occasion that he put his friend’s boast to the test that he could memorise and recite a piece of writing having only heard it spoken once. Play Farrago and discover followers on SoundCloud Stream tracks, albums, playlists on desktop and mobile. ![]() Later in their careers, in the 1750s, Macklin opened a school of oratory where he taught young men how to speak properly (I picture it as being much like that scene from Blackadder the Third, pictured right). Foote was the younger man by thirty years, and Macklin took the young British actor and playwright under his wing. What inspired Foote to write it? The Oxford English Dictionary notes of the word ‘panjandrum’: ‘The word is supposed to have been coined in 1754 or 1755 as part of a farrago of nonsense composed by Samuel Foote (1720–77), actor and dramatist, to test the memory of his fellow actor Charles Macklin, who had asserted that he could repeat anything after hearing it once.’ Macklin, an Irish actor, lived a remarkably long life – he died at the ripe old age of 106, in 1797 – and was a well-known figure on the stage at the famed Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. Those ‘Joblillies’ seem to be the ancestors of Lear’s Jumblies, and Picninnies is dangerously close to (and was probably inspired by) a derogatory racial term in common use at the time. late 14c., ethimolegia 'facts of the origin and development of a word,' from Old French etimologie, ethimologie (14c.
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