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And you, who are of that sort, laughed at others in the matter of words and phrases, when you were doing such terrible deeds! For my part, had I not known the word nefandous, I should have been ashamed, so far am I from denying that I used it. In your own case, none of us criticised you for saying “bromologous” and “tropomasthletes” and “to rhesimeter,” and “Athenio,” and “anthocracy” and “sphendicise” and “‘cheiroblime.”Except for rhesimeter (to speak for a measured time, as in court), which Lucian’s Lexiphanes uses (Lez., 9), these words are found only here. Their meaning is: bromologous: stench-mouthed. tropomasthletes: oily-mannered fellows. athenio: to yearn for Athens. anthocracy: apparently, rule of the “flower”; i.e., the select few. sphendicise: to sling, very likely in the sense, to throw. cheiroblime: to handle. May Hermes, Lord of Language, blot you out miserably, language and all, for the miserable wretch that you are! Where in literature do you find these treasures? Perhaps buried somewhere in the closet of some composer of dirges, full of mildew and spiders’ webs, or from the Tablets of Philaenis,The Tablets of Philaenis are frequently mentioned as an ars amatoria. An epigram by Aeschrion (Anth. Pal., VII, 345) says that it was not written by the woman whose name it bore, but by the sophist Polycrates. The book is therefore of the time of Polycrates, the beginning of the fourth century B.C. which you keep in hand. For you, however, and for your lips they are quite good enough.
