adoxography
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /eɪdɒkˈsɒɡɹəfi/
ipa: /eɪdɑkˈsɑɡɹəfi/
rhymes: -ɒɡɹəfi
Forms: form: adoxographies
Etymology: From New Latin adoxus (“absurd, paradoxical”) (from Ancient Greek ἄδοξος (ádoxos, “obscure, ignoble”), from ἀ- (a-, “not”) + δόξα (dóxa, “expectation”)) + -γραφίᾱ (-graphíā, “writing”).
Senses: examples: text: "ADOXOGRAPHY," […] The former word, with the still uglier "adoxographical," would seem to be of transatlantic origin. Some years ago I drew attention (9 S. xi. 425) to the use of the adjective in an American periodical (The American Journal of Philology, xxiii. 393).
ref: 1910, William White, Notes and Queries, London: Oxford University Press, →OCLC, page 117:
text: Even Lucian's most playful exercises in adoxography, such as the Iudicium Vocalium or the Musica, can be rewritten and integrated into serious debate on contemporary issues.
ref: 1990, Michael O. Zappala, Lucian of Samosata in the Two Hesperias: An Essay in Literary and Cultural Translation [Scripta Humanistica (series); 65], Potomac, Md.: Scripta Humanistica, →ISBN, page 7:
text: The Voyage is kaleidoscopic composite of dream-vision, ideal journey, literary testament, adoxography, and mock epic.
ref: 1991, Ellen D. Lokos, The Solitary Journey: Cervantes's Voyage to Parnassus [Studies on Cervantes and His Times; 1], New York, N.Y.: Peter Lang, →ISBN, page 236:
text: The common factor among all three authors is the indulgence in paradox: the courtesan represents a notional ‘opposite’ to the intellectual, and therefore scholarship on courtesans has an air of ‘adoxography’ about it.
ref: 1997, Graham Anderson, “Athenaeus: The Sophistic Environment”, in Hildegard Temporini, Wolfgang Haase, editors, Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt (ANRW) [= Rise and Decline of the Roman World]: Geschichte und Kultur Roms im Spiegel der neueren Forschung. Teil II: Principat. Band 34: Sprache und Literatur. 3. Teilband: Einzelne Autoren seit der hadrianischen Zeit und Allgemeines zur Literatur des 2. und 3. Jahrhunderts (Forts.), Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, →ISBN, page 2181:
text: The conflation of these two figures is not only made possible by virtue of Despayre's association with the "unthrifty" vice of sloth, but also, and more importantly, because he justifies that vice through the deployment of sophistical adoxography. Beyond each orator's espousal of "ease," Belial and Despayre share a "rhetorical virtuosity" in the language they use to question divine purposes and manipulate their auditors through a variety of strategies often aimed at inverting the natural relationship between the "noble" and the "ignoble" – the very definition of adoxography.
ref: 2008, T. Ross Leasure, “Spenser's Diabolical Orator and Milton's 'Man of Hell'”, in Christophe Tournu, editor, Milton in France, Bern: Peter Lang, →ISBN, page 169:
text: In The Praise of Folly (1511), [Desiderius] Erasmus, who was one of [Alexander] Pope's favorite authors, effectively revived this classical genre of adoxography, described by Emrys Jones as a "perverse or paradoxical encomia" involving "the rhetorical praise or defence of things of doubtful value".
ref: 2010, Paul Giles, “The Utopia Tales”, in Transatlantic Insurrections: British Culture and the Formation of American Literature, 1730–1860, Philadelphia, Pa.: University of Pennsylvania Press, →ISBN, page 24:
text: Judging by the recent literature of adoxography (a sorely underused word that means “good writing on a trivial subject”), there have been many overlooked things that have changed the world.
ref: 2010, Ammon Shea, “Introduction”, in The Phone Book: The Curious History of the Book that Everyone Uses but No One Reads, New York, N.Y.: Perigee Books, →ISBN:
text: After all it was during this period that sophists tended to rely on the most common topics to push their speeches in the realm of rhetoric (e.g. the proliferation of adoxographies during the Second Sophistic). […] Contrary to [Marcus Cornelius] Fronto's letters, which tend to contain many variants and are taken from very distinct genres (epistolary genres – consolation, greeting and health letters, recommendation – but also adoxographies, treaties, historiography, judicial and political discourses, eroticos), the princeps' letters are generally closer to traditional epistolary themes (news regarding health, greetings, day's and journey's description).
ref: 2012, Marcel van Ackeren, A Companion to Marcus Aurelius, Chichester, West Sussex; Malden, Mass.: Wiley-Blackwell, →ISBN, pages 66 and 68:
glosses: Fine writing on a minor or trivial subject.
Related terms: adoxograph
adoxographer
adoxographic
adoxographical
adoxographically