I\u2019ve\nbeen away for a while now, but I\u2019m back with a new word.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A\npalimpsest is, according to Mirriam Webster, \u201cwriting material (such as a parchment\nor tablet) used one or more times after earlier writing has been erased,\u201d or,\nmore broadly, \u201csomething having usually diverse layers or aspects apparent\nbeneath the surface.\u201d Further, according to Mirriam\nWebster<\/a>, <\/p>\n\n\n\n Long ago, writing surfaces were so\nrare that they were often used more than once. Palimpsest <\/em>originally\ndescribed an early form of recycling in which an old document was erased to\nmake room for a new one when parchment ran short. (The word is from the\nGreek palimps\u0113stos<\/em>,\nmeaning “scraped again.”) Fortunately for modern scholars, the\nerasing process wasn’t completely effective, so the original could often be\ndistinguished under the newer writing. De republica<\/em>, by Roman statesman and orator Cicero, is one\nof many documents thus recovered from a palimpsest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to www.etymonline<\/a>,\nthe word is from the \u201c1660s,\nfrom Latin palimpsestus<\/em>, from\nGreek palimpsestos<\/em> \u2018scraped again,\u2019\nfrom palin<\/em> \u2018again, back\u2019 (from\nPIE *kwle-i-<\/em>, suffixed form of\nroot *kwel-<\/strong><\/a> (1) \u2018revolve, move round’ (IE *kw-<\/em> becomes Greek p-<\/em> before\nsome vowels) + verbal adjective of psen<\/em> \u2018to\nrub smooth,\u2019 which is of uncertain origin.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s kind of hard to imagine\ntoday, but in ages past, people didn\u2019t recycle paper by putting it into the\nrecycle bin. They also did not throw away parchment because it was really\nexpensive. So they would take a document and strip off the old ink, which\nfrequently soaked into the parchment (think of writing on paper with a magic\nmarker and how the ink even goes through). They basically used soapy water (an\nalkaline solution) and then scrubbed the parchment (made from the skin of sheep\nor goats so less likely to tear when wet) with a pumice stone (a light, porous\nstone formed by volcanic glass). Then they could write on the parchment again.\nInterestingly, with forensic technology, we are sometimes able to determine\nwhat the original document said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 1906, Johan Heiberg, the\nworld\u2019s leading scholar on the Greek mathematician Archimedes at that time,\npublished seven works by Archimedes that the world had thought was lost. The\ncodex was originally copied in the 10th<\/sup> century. Archimedes\nexplained his ideas about mathematics in letters to friends and colleagues, and\nin the sixth century, Isidorus of Miletus compiled into a complete work. In the\n10th<\/sup> century, an anonymous scribe made a copy of Isidorus\u2019s\ncompilation. Sometime after that, perhaps after 1204, the codex found its way\nto Jerusalem, and then in 1229, the codex was unbound, scraped and cleaned, and\nused, along with parchment from other documents that had received the same\ntreatment, to create a liturgical book. This liturgical book was made of 177\nfolded pages, of which 174 are extant. But the monks who scraped and cleaned\nthe pages did not do a very good job, at least not be modern standards, a\nfailing for which scholars are grateful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then, in 1840, a Biblical\nscholar found this liturgical work in Constantinople and took a page home to\nthe Cambridge University library. This led to a Greek scholar\u2019s cataloging of\nthe various pieces of the codex, which led to Heiberg\u2019s recognizing the\nauthorship of Archimedes and the deciphering of the underlying texts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n There\nare other examples of palimpsests, many of them old copies of the Gospels or\nother Biblical texts. It is a fascinating area of study.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However,\nI recently came across a form of the word using its broader definition, \u201csomething\nhaving usually diverse layers or aspects apparent beneath the surface.\u201d I\u2019m\nreading a collection of essays called The\nInklings and King Arthur: J. R. R. Tolkien, Charles Williams, C. S. Lewis, and\nOwen Barfield on the Matter of Britain<\/em>, edited by S\u00f8rina Higgins. In her opening, introductory chapter, she\nwrites, <\/p>\n\n\n\n I begin in chapter 1, \u201cThe Matter of\nLogres: Arthuriana and the Inklings,\u201d by defining terms and providing an\noverview of the adaptability of cultural appropriations of Arthur throughout\nhis palimpsestuous history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, if you look in your dictionary for the word palimpsestuous<\/em>, you won\u2019t find it. It\u2019s\nwhat we call a portmanteau word, a coinage of Lewis Carroll in 1871. It\u2019s two\nwords (and ideas) blended into one word (linguists refer to this kind of word\nas a blend). Higgins\u2019s blend is really good. <\/p>\n\n\n\n And there really isn\u2019t anything more\nto say.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I\u2019ve been away for a while now, but I\u2019m back with a new word. A palimpsest is, according to Mirriam Webster, \u201cwriting material (such as a parchment or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":4523,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-word-of-the-day","clearfix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4522"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4522\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4524,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4522\/revisions\/4524"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}