wwh noted this word on "Weekly Themes"--and I'm wondering whether it may have derived from Joyce's Stephen Daedalus's name...? Seems logical. WordDaedalusly = logodaedaly

Anybody know?

Dear WW: Joyce got it from Greek mythology. I'll PM you.

whether it may have derived from Joyce's Stephen Daedalus's name

Not unless someone back in the early 18th century was psychic. It's from the Greek logo(s), word + daidalos, cunning.

Dear Faldage: which came first, the Labyrinth designeer, or the word describing his talent?
I suspect the talent word derived from the name of the protypic rocket scientist.

I suspect the talent word derived from the name of the protypic rocket scientist

I dunno, Dr Bill. Usually the names of mythic characters are descriptive. Graves defines daidalos as cunningly wrought in his Greek Myths as does my Greek dictionary. Dai is used to express wonder or curiosity and daidallo means to work cunningly.

And we will never know which came first, the hen or the egg.

Thanks, Faldage. I didn't have access to the word's history. I'd just wondered--if it had been a modern creation--whether Joyce might have been the inspiration.

wwh: I well know the Icarus/Daedalus myth. But I was leap-frogging forward and Faldage's frogmarched toward the truth. (Hi, tsuwm! )

daidallo means to work cunningly.

And the meaning of cunning, (OED) is knowledgeable, learned
possessing practical knowledge or skill, dexterous. Ingenious,skilfully contrived or executed. Crafty, deceit and evasive are way down on the list although that is the meaning most people (not all!) associate with "cunning " these days.

Reminds me of a cartoon of a rooster and an egg lying in a rumpled bed; the rooster, taking a puff on a post-coital cigarette, says, "well, that answers THAT question."

that answers THAT question

Well, since there were eggs long before there were chickens…

Here's a new "logo" - logogriph = a confusing or enigmatical statement.
Seems a variant of:
ogogriph
n.
5LOGO3 + Gr griphos, fishing basket, riddle, prob. < IE *grebh3 > CRIB6 a word puzzle, as an anagram

Love it!

Dear WW: you'll like it even better when it's spelled right. = "logogryph". And I can't even claim
it was a typo. I just goofed. Another senile moment. I made a correction, but it somehow got
lost. I also managed to lose a whole page of definitions I had ready for Beheading Words.Sob,sob!