Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun etc. See apothegm, etc.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun See apothegm.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun UK Alternative spelling of apothegm.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a short pithy instructive saying

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

First attested 1553, from Ancient Greek ἀπόφθεγμα (apophthegma), from ἀποφθέγγομαι (apophthengomai, "I plainly speak my mind"), from ἀπό (apo, "from") + φθέγγομαι (phthengomai, "I speak loudly").

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Examples

  • On folio 239. occurs the following apophthegm, which is the one relating to the subject before us: --

    Notes and Queries, Number 12, January 19, 1850 Various

  • Collier did so, and found that the moral of the Old Bachelor, the grave apophthegm which is to be a set-off against all the libertinism of the piece, is contained in the following triplet: --

    Critical and Historical Essays, Volume III (of 3) Thomas Babington Macaulay Macaulay 1829

  • Halpern Sr had always had a gift for the grouchy apophthegm.

    Sh*t My Dad Says by Justin Halpern 2010

  • Yeah, my wife is a teacher, so I'm extra biased, but that rubbish apophthegm has always engendered a desire in me to give its adherents a thrashing with a buggy whip.

    from the keyboard of patton oswalt jlundberg 2010

  • Halpern Sr had always had a gift for the grouchy apophthegm.

    Sh*t My Dad Says by Justin Halpern 2010

  • Patriotism having become one of our topicks, Johnson suddenly uttered, in a strong determined tone, an apophthegm, at which many will start: "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel."

    It's a Flee Country 2008

  • For once, however, this apophthegm failed; the next call was altogether as ineffectual as the former; and moreover, attended with a phenomenon which to them was equally strange and inexplicable: this was no other than such a reduction in the size of Mrs. Trunnion as might have been expected after the birth of a full-grown child.

    The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle 2004

  • To do Mrs Wilson justice, her nocturnal harangues upon such occasions not unfrequently terminated with this sage apophthegm, which always prefaced the producing of some provision a little better than ordinary, such as she now placed before him.

    Old Mortality 2004

  • Patriotism having become one of our topicks, Johnson suddenly uttered, in a strong determined tone, an apophthegm, at which many will start: ‘Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.’

    The Life of Samuel Johnson LL.D. 2004

  • Indeed, this apophthegm he seldom repeated since his marriage, except in the company of a very few intimates, to whose secrecy and discretion he could trust.

    The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle 2004

Comments

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  • apothegm

    March 3, 2007

  • JM clears his throat of the apophthegm build up.

    January 10, 2011