Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A terse, witty, instructive saying; a maxim.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A short, pithy, instructive saying; a terse remark, conveying some important truth; a sententious precept or maxim. Also spelled apophthegm.
- n. Synonyms Aphorism, Axiom, Maxim, etc. See aphorism.
Wiktionary
- n. A short, witty, instructive saying; an aphorism or maxim.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A short, pithy, and instructive saying; a terse remark, conveying some important truth; a sententious precept or maxim.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a short pithy instructive saying
Etymologies
- Greek apophthegma, from apophthengesthai, to speak plainly : apo-, intensive pref.; see apo- + phthengesthai, phtheg-, to speak.
Examples
“The whole “pass now, fix later” apothegm is naive.”
“We'll let Indian and Northern Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl complete that apothegm in the time-honoured way.”
“In practical terms, it becomes akin to the line about owing a bank a billion dollars, though recent events may have given the lie to that apothegm.”
“Wolpert says he's surprised to discover he's 82, and quotes Oscar Wilde's apothegm "The tragedy of old age is not that one is old, but that one is young.”
The Guardian: You're Looking Very Well by Lewis Wolpert – review
“The Burkean apothegm mentioned earlier in the article is very fitting here.”
“But this isn't some random apothegm; it is a dramatic thought, provoked by the life situation of the main character and attributed to him; it certainly is not an Olympian idea delivered from on high.”
“Just remember the apothegm that a government that is big enough to give you everything you want is also big enough to take it all away.”
“Favorite apothegm by Perry Logan on Saturday, Mar 7, 2009 at 6: 09: 52 AM”
“He concludes with an apothegm for the president -- "When you're cooking up a more perfect Union, sometimes you've got to break some eggs" -- apparently innocent of the provenance of this saying in apologetics for Stalin's mass killings of Russian peasants and political enemies: "You can't make an omelet without breaking eggs.”
“Bill Vallicella, the Maverick Philosopher, offers a witty apothegm from the book: “Persistently obscure writers will usually be found to be defective human beings.””
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘apothegm’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4084 more...
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Rhetorical Devices
syllepsis, zeugma, trope, wellerism, anastrophe, anaphora, apostrophe, metonymy, chiasmus, antimetabole, syncope, open-list and 431 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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cicatrix
scar tissue
minatory, naira, Cluniac, embracive, prolix, hierophant, timorous, adduce, veracious, dysphoric, sang-froid, vitiate and 414 more...
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Lyngwistix
semantic, semiotic, linguistic, etc.
lexeme, sonorant, prosody, monophthong, portmanteau, dithyramb, inflection, deixis, mondegreen, screed, persiflage, polysemy and 27 more...
sionnach poth-y mouthed word. Dec 12, 2008
Telofy "Gunnie had been loyal to me and to Urth, not to her comrades; and perhaps we are unable to advance some paragon of loyalty to an apothegm only because loyalty (in the final analysis) is choice." -- Gene Wolfe, The Urth of the New Sun
Oct 7, 2008
rolig the British spelling is apophthegm. Aug 16, 2008