X-Nico

3 unusual facts about Ghost word


Ghost word

The supposed Homeric Greek word στητη = "woman", which arose thus: In Iliad Book 1 line 6 is the phrase διαστητην ερισαντε = "two = Achilles and Agamemnon stood apart making strife", where later someone not familiar with dual number verb inflections read it as δια στητην ερισαντε = "two making strife because of a στητη", and he guessed that στητη meant the woman Briseis who was the subject of the strife.

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"Quiz" also has been associated with apparently deliberate false etymology.

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The placename Sarum, which arose by misunderstanding the medieval-type writing abbreviation Sar~ which was intended to mean some early form such as "Sarisberie" (= Salisbury).



see also