Monday 1 June 2009

The Meaning of Deipnosophist


Words Works - The Meaning of Deipnosophist

How about this:

Deipnosophist (dee-ip-noso-fist) - one who excels at conversations at the dinner table.

Two things that we all love: eating and talking. What could be better?

This comes from two Greek words: deipnon, the chief meal or dinner, and sophistes a clever or wise man. It does in fact originate from a 15-volume work entitled Deipnosophistai, written by the Greek Athenaeus after AD 228, about a group of learned men talking about food at a banquet. But we all knew that didn’t we?

Nowadays it’s probably best used to refer to the more trivial idea of pleasant chit-chat to pass the time while having tea.

“Oh Charles, you simply must come for dinner with my Uncle Fritz. He is an amazing deipnosophist.”

Archived in the category: General musings, Word of the month, Write words
Posted by: Gareth Chadwick on Friday, May 15, 2009

copywriting agency, words, deipnosophist, the meaning of deipnosophist, greek words

No comments: