Apothegm
Posted by kazvorpal on October 9, 2009

Ben Franklin may be best known for the apothegms he printed in Poor Richard's Almanac, such as "apenny saved is a penny earned", and "haste makes waste".
Apothegm archaic sp: Apophthegm
n. A short witty instructive saying; an aphorism or maxim.
Ben Franklin may be best known for the apothegms he printed in Poor Richard’s Almanac. Julius Caesar did write a collection of apophthegms, as appears in an epistle of Cicero, so did Macrobius, a consular man…they are mucrones verborum, pointed speeches. “The words of the wise are as goads,” saith Solomon. Cicero prettily calleth them salinas, salt-pits, that you may extract salt out of, and sprinkle where you will. — Francis Bacon, “Apophthegms, New and Old” (1625) Etymology As these ten dollar words often are, this one has a neoclassical, Renaissance origin: “To speak plainly”, in Ancient Greek: apo: from; phthengesthai: to speak
This entry was posted on October 9, 2009 at 23:29 and is filed under Knowledge, rhetoric. Tagged: aphorisms, apophthegms, apothegms, bacon, ben franklin, francis bacon, high vocabulary, quotations, quotes, sayings, vocabulary, vocabulary words, word, word of teh day, word of the day, wotd. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
edhird said
Benjamin Franklin had a remarkable impact in so many ways, including his fascinating aphorisms. A Benjamin Franklin article just received the ‘Top 100 Electricity Blogs’ Award http://bit.ly/z8Ckp