In an email conversation today someone decided to sarcastically send me a definition of sarcasm. I hadn’t twigged before, but sarcastic comes from the Greek word sarkasmós, which is derived from sarkázein, which literally means ‘to rend flesh’.
Right, yes, sarx = flesh. I should have known that. After all ‘ho logos egeneto sarx’, is perhaps one of the most controversial phrases ever used by the author of the fourth gospel, and even now the jury is out on what "the word became flesh" is actually supposed to mean.
Perhaps in life, and with another identity always ready in case of emergencies, my tagline could be ‘ho logoi egeneto sarky’ (the words became sarcastic). I like the classical gravitas such a bon mot would give me.
No comments:
Post a Comment