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sionnach commented on the word cledonism
circumlocution used to avoid speaking unlucky words
April 24, 2008
bilby commented on the word cledonism
Ah, I'm delighted there's a name for this.
April 25, 2008
rolig commented on the word cledonism
as when you say "break a leg" to an actor before a performance of "the Scottish play"?
April 25, 2008
rolig commented on the word cledonism
is there a word for when you avoid words that are too holy to be spoken, such as when translations of the Bible replace the name "Yahweh" with "the LORD"?
April 25, 2008
mollusque commented on the word cledonism
In such cases in the Hebrew Bible where the reading diverges from the text, what is read is call qere (or "kere") and what is written is called ketiv (or "kethib"). Not all instances of qere/ketiv are to avoid pronouncing God's name; some are just grammatical.
Saying "Adonai" instead of pronouncing the tetragrammaton becomes completely automatic when one learns Hebrew. There's nothing quite like it in English (saying "namely" for "viz." or "kernel" for "colonel" are perhaps analogous).
April 25, 2008
reesetee commented on the word cledonism
Apparently, this is related to ornithomancy.
April 25, 2008
sionnach commented on the word cledonism
Would you care to elaborate, r_t? How do the birdies come into this?
April 25, 2008
reesetee commented on the word cledonism
I'll do my best, but I just discovered the connection myself. This word apparently comes from the Greek for "rumor" (or "report") and "avis," so a second meaning for cledonism appears to relate to the ancient Greek practice of augury of birds, mostly through flight and song. Have you heard of this, sionnach, or anyone else who's familiar with ancient Greece?
April 25, 2008
pterodactyl commented on the word cledonism
Mollusque -- what about saying "that is" for "i.e." and "for example" for "e.g."? For me, that's completely automatic.
April 25, 2008
sionnach commented on the word cledonism
r_t: This is what my little researches turned up -
Cledonismancy or cledonismantia:
Divination by first words uttered upon meeting friends, after salutations., Derived from ancient Greek kledonisma a sign or omen.
1855 Edward Smedley in Smedley et al. Occult Sci. 327: cledonism, Or, in full, Cledonismantia, is good or evil presage of certain words uttered without premeditation when persons come together in any way;
it also regulated the words to be used on particular occasions. Cicero says the Pythagoreans were very attentive to these presages; and according to Pausanius, it was a favourite method of divination at Smyrna, where the oracles of Apollo were thus interpreted.
on edit: I assume you are referring to the Wikipedia part of the entries here
answers
My knowledge of Greek is zero, but even taking it at face value that κληδὸν has a secondary meaning 'bird', it seems fairly clear that it is the first meaning (rumor/report) which drives the etymology. In other words, the last sentence, equating it with ornithomancy seems to me not to have been justified by anything that has gone before.
April 25, 2008
sionnach commented on the word cledonism
By the way, the link below is always my starting point when I am trying to figure out any Greek/Latin-based etymology (or construct fanciful faux-etymologies, or new-old 'words'):
most amazing tabulation of various Greek and Latin root words, alphabetically indexed and with a plethora of examples and much other fun stuff - it's a veritable cornucopia of geeky etymological facts
Well worth bookmarking.
April 25, 2008
reesetee commented on the word cledonism
Thanks, s. I hadn't read that Wikipedia entry, but maybe it was picked up by the source I checked.
April 25, 2008
vanishedone commented on the word cledonism
I've quoted it on ornithomancy, but regarding the question of divination from birds' flight, etc. have a look at Aristophenes' Chorus of Birds.
April 26, 2008
chained_bear commented on the word cledonism
I remember reading years ago that Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, who stuttered, was able to deliver entire speeches that avoided any words beginning with the letters he stuttered over. That might not have its own name, but I thought it was interesting....
June 22, 2009