centesimusnonus

Theme for the month: Hapax legomena

sicilicissito, sicilicissitare

Definition: to affect the Sicilian manner

Sententia: Context from the prologue of Plautus' Menaechmi:

"atque adeo hoc argumentum graecissat, tamen

non atticissat, verum sicilicissitat."

"and so thus this argument/plot of a play imitates the Greeks, yet it does not imitate the Athenians, but it affects the Sicilian manner. "

This word is found in the prologue of Plautus' play Menaechmi. Just before this part, the narrator essentially had been on a rant against poets who write comedies in the style of the Athenians just because they think that they are the best. So, now the narrator feels obliged to say that Plautus doesn't just assume that the Athenians are the best and so he doesn't imitate them. In case you are interested, a text of the play can be found at http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/plautus/menaechmi.shtml.

And there was an editorial in the New York Times today which used Latin! The link is http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/12/opinion/12dowd.html?_r=1&ei=5070&emc=eta1&oref=slogin . I am NOT trying to be partisan or anything with this article--I just want to share the Latin-ness of the editorial!