This week’s theme
Words coined after stock characters

This week’s words
zany
punchinello
alazon
eiron
capitano

“Words are the small change of thought.” ~Jules Renard
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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(AY-ron)

MEANING:

noun: A person characterized by self-deprecation and awareness of irony.

ETYMOLOGY:

After Eiron, a stock character in ancient Greek comedy. It’s from Greek eiron (dissembler), which also gave us the word irony. Eiron is the opposite of Alazon. He uses self-deprecation and feigned ignorance to triumph over Alazon. Earliest documented use: 1872.

USAGE:

“Her eiron, her dissembler in this constructed mythical story, is the cyborg, a hybrid creature who takes pleasure in the confusion of boundaries between machine and organism, between human and animal, and indeed between social reality and fiction.”
Jeanne Cortiel; Demand My Writing; Liverpool University Press; 1999.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: