bLOGOS/HA HA: I twig

David Jones, artist and poet (1895-1974) begins his PREFACE TO THE ANATHEMATA :

'I have made a heap of all that I could find.' (1) So wrote Nennius, or whoever composed the introductory matter to Historia Brittonum. He speaks of an 'inward wound' which was caused by the fear that certain things dear to him 'should be like smoke dissipated'. Further, he says, 'not trusting my own learning, which is none at all, but partly from writings and monuments of the ancient inhabitants of Britain, partly from the annals of the Romans and the chronicles of the sacred fathers, Isidore, Hieronymous, Prosper, Eusebius and from the histories of the Scots and Saxons although our enemies . . . I have lispingly put together this . . . about past transactions, that [this material] might not be trodden under foot'. (2)

(1) The actual words are coacervavi omne quod inveni, and occur in Prologue 2 to the Historia.
(2) Quoted from the translation of Prologue 1. See The Works of Gildas and Nennius, J.A.Giles, London 1841.

22 March 2015

I twig

twig (1)
noun

1. a slender shoot of a tree or other plant.

2. a small offshoot from a branch or stem.

3. a small, dry, woody piece fallen from a branch:
a fire of twigs.

4. Anatomy. one of the minute branches of a blood vessel or nerve

Related forms
twigless, adjective; twiglike, adjective

Origin : before 950; Middle English; Old English twig, twigge, orig. (something) divided in two; akin to Old High German zwīg (German Zweig), Dutchtwijg; compare Sanskrit dvikás double

Arbor scientie venerabilis et celitus illuminati patris Raymundi Lulii Maioricensis, Lyon 1515.

twig (2)
verb, British (used with object), twigged, twigging.

1. to look at; observe:
Now, twig the man climbing there, will you?

2. to see; perceive:
Do you twig the difference in colors?

3. to understand.verb (used without object), twigged, twigging.

4. to understand.

Origin :
1755-65 < Irish tuigim I understand, with English w reflecting the offglide before i of the velarized Irish t typical of southern Ireland