#13664
12/20/2000 6:27 PM
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 2
stranger
|
|
stranger
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 2 |
Hello,
If a dualogy is 2 works and a trilogy is 3 works, what are the correct words for 4,5,6... works?
PHH
|
|
|
#13665
12/20/2000 7:25 PM
|
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
tetralogy = 4 works pentalogy = 5 works? series = 4 or more 
|
|
|
#13666
12/20/2000 8:35 PM
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
jabba the drunk (love that handle) asks: If a dualogy is 2 works and a trilogy is 3 works, what are the correct words for 4,5,6... works?
If it's Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy it's still a trilogy no matter how many books there are.
|
|
|
#13667
12/20/2000 8:52 PM
|
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 1,094
old hand
|
|
old hand
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 1,094 |
what are the correct words for 4,5,6... works?
a box set?
|
|
|
#13668
12/21/2000 2:49 AM
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 2
stranger
|
|
stranger
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 2 |
Well, I'm guessing now...
4 = Quadrology or quadrilogy ?
5 = Quintology or quintilogy ?
6 = Sextology or sextilogy ?
Help! This is confusing.
|
|
|
#13669
12/21/2000 2:52 AM
|
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,146
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,146 |
Faldage says: If it's Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy it's still a trilogy no matter how many books there are.That's right. On the cover of the paperback edition of Mostly Harmless, at the bottom in friendly white letters, it says: "The fifth book in the trilogy". I think that settles any further argument, don't you? 
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
|
|
|
#13670
12/21/2000 4:06 AM
|
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 347
enthusiast
|
|
enthusiast
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 347 |
In reply to:
Well, I'm guessing now...
4 = Quadrology or quadrilogy ?
5 = Quintology or quintilogy ?
6 = Sextology or sextilogy ?
Help! This is confusing.
jabba,
At the risk of sounding rude, why did you post the question if you were going to ignore the first, best and only sensible answer you got, namely, from tsuwm:
tetralogy = 4 works
pentalogy = 5 works?
Check these two words out in http://www.onelook.com/ and you will find that they return the definitions you were expecting. Your alternatives above do not.
|
|
|
#13671
12/21/2000 4:47 AM
|
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 3,065
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 3,065 |
There is also quartet for four works, see Lawrence Durrell's "Alexandria Quartet".
Bingley
Bingley
|
|
|
#13672
12/21/2000 8:32 AM
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 393
enthusiast
|
|
enthusiast
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 393 |
Where do you get 'dualogy'? The Greek prefix for 'two' is di or occasionally dyo; thus 'dilogy', though that doesn't occur in Chambers's. For one it would be 'monology', if there was call for such a term.
Beyond that: tetra-, penta- hexa-, hepta- (we have all the chemists joining in a chorus now), octa-, ennea- (oops, wrong-footed the chemists there, who'd expect nona-), deca-, hendeca-, dodeca-, triskaideca-, tetrakiskaideca-, and so on (with option variation between c and k) up to icosa- or eicosa- '20'.
Now I bluff slightly but I think we go hencosa- '21', dicosa-, tricosa-, tetracosa-, pentacosa-, up to triaconta- '30', then hentriaconta-, ditriaconta-, tritriaconta- etc. And so to tetraconta- '40', pentaconta- '50' k.t.l..
A group of a hundred connected plays would be a hecatology... I don't think I can do the compound numbers between there and chiliology '1000' and myriology '10 000'.
N.B. 'Dialogue' doesn't contain di 'two': it's sometimes mistakenly supposed to be between just two people.
|
|
|
#13673
12/21/2000 3:30 PM
|
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
>thus 'dilogy', though that doesn't occur in Chambers's.
dilogy is used in rhetoric to mean "the use of an ambiguous or equivocal expression; the word or expression so used", from dilogia ambiguity -- I find nothing to suggest a homonym (which would make dilogy self-referential... :).
|
|
|
#13674
12/21/2000 5:45 PM
|
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 1,289
veteran
|
|
veteran
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 1,289 |
In reply to:
a hundred plays would be a hecatology
and a hundred obituary notices would be a hecatomb.
|
|
|
|
|
