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#113901 10/21/03 02:19 AM
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Jackie Offline OP
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I tuned in partway through a Nova episode on TV the other night, and stayed, on the edge of my chair, to the end. It was about the archeological dig in Zeugma, Turkey. I was stunned by the sheer beauty of the mosaic floors they uncovered. And the detail!! Oh my gosh, they had actual shadings of color: say, light pink along the cheekbones of the faces, and a slightly darker pink making the "hollows" of the cheek. I saw a closeup of a pair of eyes that not only had pupils, but a white piece to indicate light reflection! You can see about the site at this site (ha):
http://www.zeugma2000.com/ Click on your language of choice. I first had put the link to the English page, then realized not everyone here would prefer that.

Something, possibly a bit buried in my subconscious, told me to Search on the word Zeugma here. There are several citations, beginning with Dr. Bill's back in 2001. But for those like myself who forgot the meaning, here:
zeugma
zoog'-ma Gk. "a yoking"
adnexio, iunctio
single supply

A general term describing when one part of speech (most often the main verb, but sometimes a noun) governs two or more other parts of a sentence (often in a series).

Zeugma is sometimes used simply as a synonym for syllepsis, though that term is better understood as a more specific kind of zeugma: when there is disparity in the way that the parallel members relate to the governing word (as a vice or for comic effect).
http://humanities.byu.edu/rhetoric/Figures/Z/zeugma.htm

I haven't done any research on the ancient site Zeugma at all. Does anyone know if its name has any bearing on the present-day grammatical meaning?



#113902 10/21/03 06:58 AM
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Good a place as any to put this. http://www.frankandernest.com/images/archive/101/1011217.gif

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#113903 10/21/03 08:58 AM
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Zeugma is mentioned in Plutarch's Life of Crassus.

Now, as Crassus was taking his army across the Euphrates at Zeugma, many extraordinary peals of thunder crashed about them, and many flashes of lightning also darted in their faces, and a wind, half mist and half hurricane, fell upon their raft, breaking it up and shattering it in many places.

See the footnote to this passage at: http://makeashorterlink.com/?L33322846

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#113904 10/21/03 01:50 PM
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Jackie Offline OP
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Footnote: [huge grin e]
And, Hail, Caesar--ha!


#113905 10/21/03 02:56 PM
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if you had seen the entire episode, you would have had the answer to your question.. Zeugma was the site of one of the earliest bridges across the euphraties.. which is why it was a rich city.. traders and caravans passed throught the city to use the bridge.
(i thought they should have been looking for history/archiology of the bridge.. yes, the mosiacs were beautiful, but they have been found everywhere there were rich romans and greeks.. but ancient bridges.... now that would have been interesing!)

no doubt there were sites where you could ford the river (and thinking about it, ford/fjord seem definately germatic words.. what is the latin term for a ford (a place where one is able to cross a river with oxen, horses, etc?)
and there were ferries, but a bridge is a secure way to cross a river. (NY just had a ferry accident, i suspect in times past, they were more frequent, and costlier)

(we have lots of post on bridges/remember, a title for the pope is pontiff, (bridgebuilder) partly that is symbolic (a connection between christ in heaven and church here on earth) and partly its because bridge builders, were so important and esteemed in ancient times, that it was a title of extreemly high reguard.)



#113906 10/21/03 05:00 PM
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Thanks Jackie, I had recently tried to remember the words syllipsis and ellipsis and was unable to do so. I recall a sentence that emplys both: In preparation for the party, Mary watered the plants and John, the drinks.


#113907 10/22/03 12:20 AM
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And thanks, of troy, for the bridges to the bridges. I imagine that your own mind is a network of most remarkable bridges.


#113908 10/22/03 04:21 AM
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Poros is Greek for ford, ferry, or bridge. Basically covers any way of getting from one side to the other. See: http://makeashorterlink.com/?M4E025B46 There are quite a few Greek words for bridge. See: http://makeashorterlink.com/?Z60112B46

The Latin for bridge is pons. Ford is vadum: http://makeashorterlink.com/?W14161B46

For links to info. and photos of Roman briges see: http://makeashorterlink.com/?Z66125B46 and http://makeashorterlink.com/?J25126B46

Bingley


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#113909 11/05/03 04:39 PM
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Jackie Offline OP
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While searching for hadal, I noticed this:
Date: Thu Dec 3 00:04:22 EST 1998
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--syzygy
X-Bonus: Life is like a dog-sled team. If you ain't the lead dog, the scenery never changes. -Lewis Grizzard

syzygy (SIZ-uh-jee) noun

1. Astronomy. Either of two points in the orbit of a celestial body where
the body is in opposition to or in conjunction with the sun. Either of
two points in the orbit of the moon when the moon lies in a straight
line with the sun and Earth. The configuration of the sun, the moon,
and Earth lying in a straight line.

2. The combining of two feet into a single metrical unit in classical
prosody.

[Late Latin syzygia, from Greek suzugia, union, from suzugos, paired : sun-,
syn- + zugon, yoke.]


Zeugma and syzygy surely share an origin: yoke? Or not?



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and no double the city was named for the bridge- the yoked the two half of the city together!

cities/town, locations are still named for bridges.. (as a child i lived on kingsbridge road..(but not in the area of the bronx known as kingsbridge!--London has knightsbridge..
which curiously has the most intersting set of letters stuffed in the middle-ghtsbr-- one that is said to 'stump' those new to english!
bridge is a common part of many place names!


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