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see NY Times article (a ‘teritoepiest painter’ capable of rendering a picture in under two minutes of a subject mentally chosen by a spectator) or another handbill these are the onliest online ref's we can find. the word is probably just broadside hyperbole and naught else. the only "help" I get from Lewis & Short is the Latin tero (teritur), to rub. [cf triturate]
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That's a strange one. Is it the superlative form of some bizarre adjective teritoepy? Nothing I could glean from Latin or Greek. The ending -oepy, as in orthoepy, is from Greek for 'pronunciation'. Might just be a nonce word as you surmise. (If we're wrong others will let us know.)
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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In the meantime I'm still wordspotting to find out about this crazy word and will continue to do so.
Looking into painting history so far ads nothing.
Nor Vaudeville or Italian burlesque.
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Egad. Several thoughts, all/most of which are probably wrong. First, that there may be some misspelling anywhere, though teritoepeist first leapt to mind. Second, I wonder if knowing the pronunciation would help, in looking up roots? Is it TERRihto..., tuhREEto..., terrihTOPee-est, tuhreetoEPPee-est?
I also wondered if, like Rego Park (Helen, sorry, but I've forgotten what you told me the Re and go stand for) in that the groupings of letters might stand for the beginnings of other word, as in that the 'te' could be telepathy or telepathic; in which case it is not likely that we will know what the rest could be. And, didn't it say somewhere that the guy was German? I think the most likely explanation is that there was some "science" back then that is not accepted as such today, like phrenology.
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from Anatomy of Melancholy(!!):
Seek that which may be found. Seem not greater than thou art. Take thy pleasure soberly. Ocymum ne terito.
this is footnoted: 4066. Dum fata sinunt vivite laeti, Seneca.
___
again, terito appears to be an inflected form of L. tero, to rub, rub away, wear away, bruise, grind, bray triturate.
one can make an impression by rubbing of course, but that doesn't seem to relate to rendering a picture of a mentally chosen subject.
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Herman Boaz. Boaz is found as a prenom on Israelian Google pages The name turned around: Boaz Herman.
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I saw that too; it's a catalog description of the handbill shown in my second link, above.
NOTE other nonce-sesquipedalianisms: papiromance, meloskelothermick(!)
edit: I wish I could fully make out the descriptions under those headings, for instance:
An Operation in Papiromance; By which Mr Boaz will discover(?) the evil(?) Thoughts of any Person in ?, without asking a single Question; and, however impossible it may appear, he will communicate(?) the Thoughts of one Person to another without the Assistance(?) of lipwork(?) or Writing.
edit˛ - not to by confused with pyromancy
Last edited by tsuwm; 11/16/2007 8:42 PM.
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Mm--I too tried to enlarge the image, with no luck.
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