I received the following via email and, what with one thing and yanother, I haven't the time to research it.
can anyone help the lady?

There was a word I was recently introduced to that was a derivative of a (mythic?) Greek city renown for its stupid people and its high humidity and damp climate. I remember it reminded me so much of South Carolina, but I can't find it. Can you help, please?

If she learns to use "renowned" correctly, I might.
And what's stupid about South Carolina? [crossing arms over breast]

"it reminded me so much of South Carolina"
GRR-RR!

for its stupid people and its high humidity
syllepsis used to devastating effect

Good one, Herr Sieber! Thanks for that!

Abdera?


(bd´r) (KEY) or Avdira (ävd´rä) (KEY) , town, NE Greece, in Thrace, near the mouth of the Mesta River. It is a small agricultural settlement. Founded (c.650 B.C.) by colonists from Clazomenae, it was destroyed by the Thracians (c.550 B.C.) and rebuilt (c.500 B.C.) by refugees from Teos. The town passed to Macedon in 352 B.C. and in 198 B.C. became a free city under Roman rule. The term Abderite was used by the ancient Greeks as a synonym for stupid. However, the philosophers Protagoras, Leucippus, and Democritus lived there.
http://www.bartleby.com/65/ab/Abdera.html

that looks good, Jo! I'll pass it along to my interlocutor.

btw, she gives the following as her business addy:
Assistant to the President
Brookgreen Gardens
Pawleys Island, SC
:)

well, she says that Abdera isn't it; it lacks humid and damp (although I'd have thought that was a given for Thrace). thanks anyway, Jo -- abderite made for a good wwftd.

tsuwm, is this a serious question on the part of your correspondent or is she just testing you? How does she know Abdera is not the answer?

You could try out Boeotia on her. It's the region round Thebes. According to the Athenians, people from Boeotia were rather dense country bumpkins. Dunno what the climate's like.

Bingley

OED *does give one of the definitions of bœotian as stupid.

And what's stupid about South Carolina? [crossing arms over breast]

Uhhh...which breast?

And my best friend and his wife live in South Carolina...he's a bookstore manager and she's a biogeneticist!

Brookgreen Gardens
Pawleys Island, SC

These gardens are beautiful! So is Pawley's Island. We'd visit there whenever we were in Myrtle Beach. Don't miss 'em if you're down that way. The founder of the gardens was a writer of some regional repute who left behind a volume or two of verse and such. So, unless she's a transplant from another state, when she's knocking South Carolina's intellignece she must be using irony! [whistling-and-looking-the-other-way-while-rolling-eyes-e]

wsieber's post.

Juan, see 'syllepsis'

from MW:

>2 : the use of a word in the same grammatical relation to two adjacent (ahem!) words in the context with one literal and the other metaphorical in sense<

Okay, AnnaS...gotcha!

Juan, you know what I meant. (you may still retain your position as leading contendah for Chief Nitpicker if you keep this up!)