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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 "A penny saved is a penny earned", and "haste makes waste".

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: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . 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.

One Response to “Apothegm”

  1. edhird said

    November 10, 2009 at 06:14

    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

    Reply

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