Thursday 15 January 2015

"Adespota"

Today's trip to the Phrontistery leads to the word 'Adespota', an archaic term which means 'anonymous works'. Now, isn't that interesting, that there was a single word to cover all those texts with no known author? It used to be commonplace, or am I imagining reading that? Am I imagining everything?! Oh, that's a thought that is going to fester!

In the wake of a needlessly tiring day, with several hours of cycling and a punishing trip to the job centre, it's nice to kick back and relax, and think about adespota. The Quirky Muffin might have been adespota, if not for a twinge of fate, and the fact that Blogger is run by Google, and they know my name. Or do they...? Blast, why did I never adopt Herman Schmidtlap for the Internet? Why, world, why?

So, a terribly tiring day ends, and ends with something special to light the way into blissful repose. Someday soon, it will be time to write about this wonderful episode of 'Due South' known as 'Hawk And A Handsaw', which is one of the best of the series, and a great hour of television. How on Earth did they make a series so incredibly good, and why do we never manage to convey how good this excellence in our commentaries over at Film Bin? It's frustrating! The very act of making a commentary sinks us commenters into an analytical frame of mind, which frame of mind is immune to such joys. They may as well be adespota.

'Adespota' is by now pretty much obsolete and only listed on the Phrontistery, along with so many other lost words. Why did it fall away? Why do any of these words fade? Is it just because their contexts occur so infrequently that everyone forgot them? Or was it something darker, something more sinister? Did a dark lexical force eliminate it from usage? Oh, the possibilities...

Here endeth the incoherence.

O

Note: Check out 'Flux', the nifty little program that adjusts your screen brightness for time of day, and potentially saves your eyes a load a strain!

Note: Voynich manuscript, an enduring mystery, read about it.

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