{"id":277549,"date":"2018-11-18T07:48:00","date_gmt":"2018-11-18T07:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/2018\/11\/18\/caecilius-est-pater-caecilius-est-pater\/"},"modified":"2018-11-18T07:48:00","modified_gmt":"2018-11-18T07:48:00","slug":"caecilius-est-pater-caecilius-est-pater","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/2018\/11\/18\/caecilius-est-pater-caecilius-est-pater\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

caecilius-est-pater<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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caecilius-est-pater<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

caecilius-est-pater<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

I was searching the Latin\/Greek section of a used bookstore for some ~aesthetic~\u00a0antique Latin books, and I came across this beautiful 1889 tome:\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/figure>\n

This is going to look great on my \u201clook at me I\u2019m a pretentious twat\u201d bookshelf.<\/p>\n

But then\u2026 the first few sentences read:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cIn 1875 delegates of the Oxford University Press proposed to me that I should undertake the compilation of a new Latin-English Lexicon, of something the same compass as the Greek-English Lexicon of Liddell and Scott. I acceded to the proposal in the expectation, for which I had at the time what appeared to be good grounds, that I should obtain adequate assistance in the work. My hopes were, however, disappointed.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Ouch.<\/p>\n

He goes on to detail how he spent 12 years working on A all by himself. Then the university asked him to publish what he had, so he threw together the rest of the book, clearly caring less and less the further he got in the alphabet – the entire Q section has four entries – and published\u2026 this.<\/p>\n

<\/figure>\n

Obviously this is going straight onto my pretentious twat shelf as a goofy conversation starter, but it is interesting and potentially useful if obscure Latin words are your thing. (Did you know\u00a0\u201cramen\u201d is a hapax legomenon meaning\u00a0\u201ca small chip or shaving\u201d?)<\/p>\n

So if you ever come across a really obscure Latin word or name that you can\u2019t find anywhere, hmu\u2026 but only if it starts with A.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

idk who\u2019s responsible for this suddenly getting hundreds of notes overnight months after it was posted, but I\u2019m glad you guys are enjoying it. Makes me feel less like my dad was right to go \u201cyou\u2019re spending 25 quid on that<\/i>?\u201d<\/p>\n

Anyway, who wants to see a photo of the place I bought it, which is pretty much the most perfect bookstore on the planet?<\/p>\n

<\/figure>\n

Spiral staircase? Book loft? Stained glass windows? Obviously a repurposed church? Book stacks like a set out of Harry Potter? A pile of actual literal scrolls? A wood-burning stove? OK, that one is maybe not so great since it\u2019s in Inverness aka the cold-ass Scottish highlands, but lack of central heating is a sacrifice I\u2019m very willing to make.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Since so many people in the comments and tags are asking:<\/p>\n

1. The book is Contributions to Latin Lexicography<\/i>\u00a0by Henry Nettleship. I don\u2019t know where you can get a physical copy, but if you just want to read it there\u2019s a scan available online.<\/p>\n

2. The four words starting with Q are quaestuarius, qualitas, qualitativus, and quattuorvir.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

caecilius-est-pater: caecilius-est-pater: caecilius-est-pater: I was searching the Latin\/Greek section of a used bookstore for some ~aesthetic~\u00a0antique Latin books, and I came across this beautiful 1889 tome:\u00a0 This is going to look great on my \u201clook at me I\u2019m a pretentious twat\u201d bookshelf. But then\u2026 the first few sentences read: \u201cIn 1875 delegates of the Oxford … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[452,3959,4],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277549"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=277549"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277549\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}