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

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Professional Copywriting Agency - Followers of Fashion Article

Followers of fashion

It’s funny how certain words or phrases become fashionable. I’m not talking about obvious mots du jour like groovy or wicked, but more discrete verbal fashions. Iteration, last month’s word of the month, for example, seems to have been popping up all over the place in the last few months, as people presumably try and find a more high falutin’ way of saying version.

Take fit for purpose. Ever since John Reid, then Home Secretary, condemned the immigration service as ‘not fit for purpose‘, it’s become a phrase of choice for everyone from politicians to small business owners. A quick Google throws up, among millions, Sequence diagramming that’s fit for purpose and a cover sheet for small guest accommodation businesses to use as checklist when applying to be ‘Fit For Purpose’. We’ve even received press releases about ‘fit for purpose compost’.

Now, we’re all for rediscovering new words and improving our vocabularies, but it does become a bit annoying (not to say cliched) when everyone suddenly starts using the same phrases. Not to mention that there are numerous single words that could make the same point more concisely and just as, if not more, clearly.

Spoonfed is the longest word with its letters arranged in reverse alphabetical order.

Archived in the category: General musings, Writing tips
Posted by: Gareth Chadwick on Friday, May 30, 2008