This week’s theme
Toponyms

This week’s words
Delphian
laconism
Smithfield match
Parthian
Elginism


Wordsmith Games

🧩	Jigsaw Riddle Fooling the Eye
🌍	Langitude Trace bourbon home

A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(EL-gin-iz-uhm)

MEANING:

noun: Cultural vandalism: the removal or plunder of cultural treasures from their place of origin, especially for display in another country.

ETYMOLOGY:

After Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin, who took home Greek sculptures from the Parthenon and other monuments on the Acropolis in Athens, Greece. Earliest documented use: 1850.

NOTES:

If you ever said to yourself, “My grandpa went to [Location] and all I got was this lousy T-shirt,” well, you chose the wrong grandpa. And the wrong time to be born. The right grandpa could have packed real goods: sculptures, mummies, paintings, and what-have-you. If anyone objected, he’d say he was taking their cultural artifacts for safekeeping.

That’s what Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin, claimed when he stole sculptures from the Parthenon and other buildings on the Acropolis. At first, his plan was to make drawings and plaster casts of Greek monuments and sculptures. Then came a bolder thought: why make casts when you can take the originals? He later sold his collection to the British Museum, where the sculptures became known as the Elgin Marbles, or the Parthenon Sculptures.

You might think it’s never too late to do the right thing. Greece has long sought their return, but it keeps getting a “No.” The British Museum: proudly refusing to lose its marbles since 1816.

Maybe they should listen to Lord Byron:


The Earl of Elgin could have done other early work. The Earl of Sandwich gave us the sandwich, for example. See also other words that came with an earl attached.

Many years ago, I visited the Tower of London, where the crown jewels are displayed, including the Koh-i-Noor, one of the world’s most famous diamonds. At the exit was a sign asking for donations for the upkeep of the jewels. I laughed out loud. One solution suggests itself: return the jewels. Or, if you insist on keeping them, sell one bauble and use the proceeds to polish the rest of the loot.

USAGE:

“[Professor Liana] Theodoratou understands that many museums were formed on the basis of Elginism and art colonialism.”
Kaja Andrić; Should Finders Remain Keepers When It Comes to Looted Stones?; News Decoder (Paris, France); Feb 19, 2024.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: