Here's a question that came to me out of the "aphorisms" thread in Miscellany. I think we may have discussed this is these pages once before; but I'm trying to remember the word for an aphorism or epigram that serves to introduce a chapter or the title page of a book. (it's not epigram, is it?)
here's an example from a book I have in front of me right now, it appears on the page before the title page of
The Book of Salt, by Monique Truong.
We had certainly luck in finding good cooks, thourgh they had their weaknesses in other ways. Gertrude Stein liked to remind me that if they did not have such faults, they would not be working for us. - Alice B. Toklas
[
The Book of Salt is written from the point of view of one of their cooks when they lived in Paris. Alice and GertrudeStein (it's how she wanted to be nymed by her employees) mostly provide background for the story.]
edit - uncle bill reminds me that the word is epigraph. do'h! maybe one day I'll remember this. to help me, here is a link to the apposite thread; interestingly, in a crossthreading way, Ms. J. uses the word (and I use the word "word" advisedly)
dord in this thread. and precisely at that.
http://wordsmith.org/board/showflat.pl?Cat=&Board=wordplay&Number=40480&page=&view=&sb=&vc=1edit[2] - now that I've revisited that thread, I am reminded of how circular these discussions can become; e.g., dord, epigraphs, Meaningless Maxims -- so how come no one has yelled
yart! at me?! what a chance at payback y'all have been missing.
OP
