logodaedaly

English

WOTD – 11 November 2008

Alternative forms

• logodædaly

Etymology

From Ancient Greek λόγος (lógos, “word”) + Δαίδαλος (Daídalos, “Daedalus, a skilled craftsman of Ancient Greek mythology”) + -y.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˌloʊ.ɡoʊˈdi.də.li/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

logodaedaly (countable and uncountable, plural logodaedalies)

1. (rare) Cleverness or skill in the coining of new words.
   • 1826, Samuel Bailey, A Letter to a Political Economist‎^[1]:

     In questions of philosophy or divinity, that have occupied the learned, I could bring ten instances of logodaedaly, or verbal legerdemain, which have perilously confirmed prejudices, and withstood the advancement of truth, in consequence of the neglect of verbal debate, i. e. strict discussion of terms.

   • 1955, Vladimir Nabokov, chapter 23, in Lolita, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: G[eorge] P[almer] Putnam’s Sons, published August 1958, →OCLC, part 2, pages 251–252:

     He mimed and mocked me. His allusions were definitely highbrow. He was well-read. He knew French. He was versed in logodaedaly and logomancy.

   • 2001, Lewis O. Saum, Eugene Field and His Age, University of Nebraska Press, →ISBN, page 238:

     In "Sharps and Flats," the reader might well get instruction on the proper use of farther and further or an essay on logodaedaly.

2. (rare) A cleverly or skilfully coined new word.
   • ca. 1950 Richard Percival Lister: Defenestration. Yet More Comic and Curious Verse. Penguin Books. 1959

     ...During his flight, he said, he commenced an interesting train of speculation
     On why there happened to be such a word as defenestration.
     There is not, he said, a special word for being rolled down a roof into a gutter;
     There is no verb to describe the action of beating a man to death with a putter;
     No adjective exists to qualify a man bound to the buffer of the 12.10 to Ealing,
     No abstract noun to mollify a man hung upside down by his ankles from the ceiling.
     Why, then, of all the possible offences so distressing to humanitarians,
     Should this one alone have caught the attention of the verbarians?
     I concluded (said McIndoe) that the incidence of logodaedaly was purely adventitious...

Related terms

• logodaedalian
• logodaedalist

Translations

cleverness or skill in the coining of new words

cleverly or skilfully coined new word