Sunday, April 11, 2004

Love those long-winded book titles!

While browsing in an "antique mall" (i.e., consignment secondhand store) recently, I came across a book by Emanuel Swedenborg with the following interesting title. (Slashes indicate linebreaks, and boldface indicates oversize type).

The Delights of Wisdom / pertaining to / Conjugal Love / after which follow / The Pleasures of Insanity / pertaining to / Scortatory Love / by / Emanuel Swedenborg / A swede.

Scortatory -- for those of you who were wondering -- means ‘Pertaining to or consisting in, fornication or lewdness’, and is formed from the Latin word 'scortator', which means 'to associate with harlots'. The English translation of Swedenborg's title, first printed in 1794, is the first known use of the word in the English language.

(I love the Oxford English Dictionary! But not conjugally, since that apparently leads to the Pleasures of Insanity.)

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