“A word bearing the acute upon the ultima is known as an oxytone, one with the acute upon the penult as a paroxytone, one with the acute upon the antepenult as a proparoxytone. One which bears the circumflex upon the ultima is called a perispomenon, one with the circumflex upon the penult is a properispomenon. These terms, though formidable, will save much laborious periphrasis.”

- A New Introduction to Greek, Chase & Phillips, 1941


Needless to say, we never did master the terms, and laborious periphrasis has been our lot ever since.

Laborious Brit. /ləˈbɔːrɪəs/, U.S. /ləˈbɔriəs/

Characterized by or involving hard work or exertion; requiring much time or effort; arduous, tiring; painstaking, tiresomely difficult. Also of a physical action: performed with great effort or difficulty; slow or deliberate; heavy.

Periphrasis Brit. /pᵻˈrɪfrəsɪs/ , U.S. /pəˈrɪfrəsəz/

Chiefly Rhetoric. A figure of speech in which a meaning is expressed by several words instead of by few or one; a roundabout way of speaking, circumlocution.

- OED Online, accessed 9/1/12

Monday, September 10, 2012

Today saw me once again waking up later than intended, but it's only half past 2 now, and I've certainly made the day count so far.  I have utterly dispelled any vague initial worries of mine about the effects of a country famous for drinking and fried dough/ meat products on my general health.  I left the house at a quarter to 12 and returned just moments ago, and in that time roamed at least 4 miles of the city.  This is hardly record breaking, and I did spend the time between 12 and 1 receiving a tour of the Bedlam Theatre, but its certainly more footwork than I'm accustomed to in the afternoon.  Perhaps things will change when classes begin and there is less time to spare, but in the mean time, I'm rather enjoying all the wandering - and learning the lay of the place much faster than I ever expected. 

 As usual, there are events all over the place, but I've spent my time walking with one of my flatmates, a theater electrician and light/sound technician, around to various theatres so that she can inquire about job opportunities.  It's a good method for pressing myself to keep an eye on my surroundings.  I have no maps or smart devices to speak of, which means I have nothing to pull out if I wander astray, but which hopefully also makes me look slightly less like one of the hundreds of tourists crawling all over the place. 

-Time Break

This is starting to become a habit - my blog writing was broken off by a proposal to do something else, and go do we did.  This week has been a very vivid reminder of how rubbish I am at names.  Nevertheless, I met a great many more of the people that live in my building (mostly foreign third years like myself, but some freshers), attended a meet and great for the History Society, went to my first pub quiz, and generally tromped through the night with a collective of affable American, English, Dutch, German, New Zealandish, and... whatever Andrews was, people.  I still haven't bought a blanket.  These things come with time.

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