A.Word.A.Day --philippize

A.Word.A.Day

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Jun 19, 2019

This week’s theme
People with multiple eponyms coined after them

This week’s words
Socratic irony
Midas-eared
philippize
hermeneutic
achillize

Philip II on a victory medallion (detail), 3rd century CE

Image: Jastrow/Wikimedia

A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

philippize

PRONUNCIATION:

(FIL-uh-pyz)

MEANING:

verb intr.: To behave, especially to speak or write, as if corruptly influenced.

ETYMOLOGY:

After Philip II of Macedon. It was believed that after Philip took control of the shrine at Delphi, the seat of high priestess Pythia, she began delivering oracles in his favor. Earliest documented use: 1597.

USAGE:

“[Dr. Richard Price] naturally philippizes and chants his prophetic song in exact unison with their designs.”
Edmund Burke; Reflections on the Revolution in France; 1790.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

Experience makes us see an enormous difference between piety and goodness. -Blaise Pascal, philosopher and mathematician (19 Jun 1623-1662)

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