I have spent the last few mornings thinking about terminology in relation to the accents of Greek. It leaves my head spinning, frankly, but I think I’m beginning to get a handle on the precise naming of exactly where and which accents fall on the various transformations words go through in Greek to indicate their function.

I’ll try to keep this brief and clear (sparing you dear reader). Suffice it to say that the position’s names exist in both Latin and Greek.

The last syllable of a word is the “ultimate” syllable in Latin and the “oxytone” in Greek. The next to the last syllable of a word is the “penultimate” in Latin and the “paroxytone” in Greek. Three syllables from the end is the “antepenultimate” in Latin and the “proparoxytone” in Greek.

I figured this all out when the writers of my text dropped the term “paroxytone” into a sentence perplexing this reader.

Similarly when reading about “enclictics” (don’t ask), the writers of the text used the abbreviations “q.v.” and “e.g.” back to back in a sentence.

I could figure out what “q.v.” probably meant by context but realized I didn’t know exactly what these abbreviations meant.

A quick google revealed the answers.

Thinking about it, I knew that I distinguished “i.e.” and “e.g.” without thinking much about it. I used the mnemonic “in other words” to help me remember what “i.e.” means and then just remembered “e.g.” meant for example. I’m sure I read what they meant exactly but did not retain that. “Q.v.” was a new one for me, but I did guess the meaning correctly from context.

Are you asleep yet, dear reader?

In Xi Jinping’s Tears, a Message for China’s People – The New York Times

As the Facebooger meme says, 1984 by Orwell was not meant to be a handbook. Cult of personality, indeed!