Hi,

This is a word I forget right away on what few occasions I hear the word.  It means something like anthology or could be a collection of quotes.  It consists of two meaningful morphemes and one of them is gold in Greek or in Semitic and, if I remember correctly, the other is word or speech or something to that effect.  Does this description ring the bell to somebody?

Flam

A Swedish saying is, "Tala är silver, tiga är guld": ‘Speech is silver, silence is golden’. We probably got it from German, or Dutch "Spreken is zilver, zwijgen is goud".

Not one word, though.

A famous quotation from a Swedish poem would be, in translation, "quotations from Rome, shining like steel". Not much of a help, either.

Greek or Semitic would correspond to ‘chrys-’ or ‘dhahab-’/‘zahab-’, ringing no bells for me.

My final thought this time would be expressions like "a grain of gold", and the analogous "a pearl of wisdom", which I hereby cast before you.

Sorry for this coprolalia.

[quote author=anders link=board=what;num=1105629351;start=0#1 date=01/13/05 at 13:03:45]My final thought this time would be expressions like "a grain of gold", and the analogous "a pearl of wisdom", which I hereby cast before you.

Do you like to cast that pearl?  Do you really know what happens next?

Margarita jacta, sus eam glutivit.

I remember seeing this word as a Marriam-Webster Word of the Day but this is sometime ago.  Sigh.

Flam

Flam, I wonder if you are not confusing Greek «khruseos» («gold», «golden») with «khrêstos» («useful»), and that the word you seek is chrestomathy....

Henri

Apparently I have been.  If I had have found a thesaurus that lists anthology as its entry I could have realised it earlier.

Henri, your tagline looks bigger and bolder to me with several faux pas I made last several days.

Flam

Flam, mistakes and faux pas we make all the time - at least I do. It is turpitude against which we must attempt to guard ourselves….

Henri

Henri

It is turpitude against which we must attempt to guard ourselves….

To me, turpitude is one of those words that is inescapably linked with another, voiced or not; in this case, moral. At any rate, turpitude seems like a fierce pronouncement for a mere faux pas!

Moral turpentine, though, that’s promising… And it might even be helpful in restoration of your gilded anthology.

gailr

Turpitude reminds me of snakes.  Is that odd?

Brazilian dude

Are you thinking torpitude?
gailr

[quote author=gailr link=board=what;num=1105629351;start=0#6 date=01/19/05 at 12:52:28]At any rate, turpitude seems like a fierce pronouncement for a mere faux pas!

I quite agree, Papa gailr ! And that’s why I responded as I did to Flam‘s comparing what he referred to as his faux pas to the turpia mentioned in my tagline….

Henri

Are you thinking torpitude?

You read my mind, Gailr.

Brazilian dude