cledonism

chained_bear I remember reading years ago that Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, who stuttered, was able to deliver entire speeches that avoided any words beginning with the letters he stuttered over. That might not have its own name, but I thought it was interesting.... Jun 22, 2009

vanishedone I've quoted it on ornithomancy, but regarding the question of divination from birds' flight, etc. have a look at Aristophenes' Chorus of Birds. Apr 26, 2008

reesetee Thanks, s. I hadn't read that Wikipedia entry, but maybe it was picked up by the source I checked. Apr 25, 2008

sionnach By the way, the link below is always my starting point when I am trying to figure out any Greek/Latin-based etymology (or construct fanciful faux-etymologies, or new-old 'words'):

most amazing tabulation of various Greek and Latin root words, alphabetically indexed and with a plethora of examples and much other fun stuff - it's a veritable cornucopia of geeky etymological facts

Well worth bookmarking. Apr 25, 2008

sionnach r_t: This is what my little researches turned up -

Cledonismancy or cledonismantia:

Divination by first words uttered upon meeting friends, after salutations., Derived from ancient Greek kledonisma a sign or omen.

1855 Edward Smedley in Smedley et al. Occult Sci. 327: cledonism, Or, in full, Cledonismantia, is good or evil presage of certain words uttered without premeditation when persons come together in any way;

it also regulated the words to be used on particular occasions. Cicero says the Pythagoreans were very attentive to these presages; and according to Pausanius, it was a favourite method of divination at Smyrna, where the oracles of Apollo were thus interpreted.


on edit: I assume you are referring to the Wikipedia part of the entries here

answers

My knowledge of Greek is zero, but even taking it at face value that κληδὸν has a secondary meaning 'bird', it seems fairly clear that it is the first meaning (rumor/report) which drives the etymology. In other words, the last sentence, equating it with ornithomancy seems to me not to have been justified by anything that has gone before.



Apr 25, 2008

pterodactyl Mollusque -- what about saying "that is" for "i.e." and "for example" for "e.g."? For me, that's completely automatic. Apr 25, 2008

reesetee I'll do my best, but I just discovered the connection myself. This word apparently comes from the Greek for "rumor" (or "report") and "avis," so a second meaning for cledonism appears to relate to the ancient Greek practice of augury of birds, mostly through flight and song. Have you heard of this, sionnach, or anyone else who's familiar with ancient Greece? Apr 25, 2008

sionnach Would you care to elaborate, r_t? How do the birdies come into this? Apr 25, 2008

reesetee Apparently, this is related to ornithomancy. Apr 25, 2008

mollusque In such cases in the Hebrew Bible where the reading diverges from the text, what is read is call qere (or "kere") and what is written is called ketiv (or "kethib"). Not all instances of qere/ketiv are to avoid pronouncing God's name; some are just grammatical.

Saying "Adonai" instead of pronouncing the tetragrammaton becomes completely automatic when one learns Hebrew. There's nothing quite like it in English (saying "namely" for "viz." or "kernel" for "colonel" are perhaps analogous). Apr 25, 2008

rolig is there a word for when you avoid words that are too holy to be spoken, such as when translations of the Bible replace the name "Yahweh" with "the LORD"? Apr 25, 2008

rolig as when you say "break a leg" to an actor before a performance of "the Scottish play"? Apr 25, 2008

bilby Ah, I'm delighted there's a name for this. Apr 25, 2008

sionnach circumlocution used to avoid speaking unlucky words Apr 24, 2008