XPost: alt.usage.english, alt.fish   
   From: HenHanna@dev.null   
      
   On Thu, 19 Sep 2024 4:59:08 +0000, Aidan Kehoe wrote:   
      
   >   
   > 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.   
      
      
      
   i did sorame  and  thought it was    ichthyphallic   
      
                             ---------  "Fish-penised"   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)