Dictionary.com

Word of the Day Archive
Friday June 9, 2000

apothegm \AP-uh-them\, noun:
A short, witty, and instructive saying.

Nineteen Eighty-four the most contemporary novel of this year and who knows of how many past and to come, is a great examination into and dramatization of Lord Acton's famous apothegm, "Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely."
-- Mark Schorer, "When Newspeak Was New", New York Times, October 6, 1996

The rare talent of compressing a mass of profound thought into an apophthegm.
-- Henry Hart Milman, The History of Latin Christianity

The admirable Hebrew apophthegm, Learn to say I do not know.
-- Frederic Farrar, Life of St. Paul

Apothegm comes from Greek apophthegma, from apophthengesthai, "to speak one's opinion plainly," from apo-, intensive prefix + phthengesthai, "to speak." The adjective form is apothegmatic.

Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for apothegm

 

Share This:  Share This: del.icio.usShare This: digg.comShare This: FacebookShare This: furl.netShare This: www.netscape.comShare This: myweb2.search.yahoo.comShare This: www.stumbleupon.comShare This: www.google.comShare This: www.technorati.comShare This: blinklist.comShare This: newsvine.comShare This: ma.gnolia.comShare This: reddit.comShare This: favorites.live.com