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From: Aidan Kehoe <kehoea@parhasard.net>
Newsgroups: alt.usage.english,sci.lang
Subject: Word of the day: =?utf-8?Q?=E2=80=9Cithyphallic=E2=80=9D?=
Date: Thu, 19 Sep 2024 05:59:08 +0100
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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.

-- 
‘As I sat looking up at the Guinness ad, I could never figure out /
How your man stayed up on the surfboard after fourteen pints of stout’
(C. Moore)