XPost: alt.usage.english   
   From: kehoea@parhasard.net   
      
   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)   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)