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Re: [OM] 1910 Amateur Photographer article

Subject: Re: [OM] 1910 Amateur Photographer article
From: Bernard Frangoulis <bernard.frangoulis@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 27 Feb 2003 09:32:20 +0100

It reminded me of an 1880-ish British photography book I once requested
from the closed stacks at the Boston Public Library while waiting for
the books I really needed to arrive.  The eloquent, flourishy,
compound-sentenced preface ended with "... but that would be to
condescend to the <gibberish>" where the gibberish was two words
written in Greek.  Someone I knew who was taking Ancient Greek was
nearby, and he immediately recognized the words.  "Hoi Polloi"

I guess the author didn't want to condescend to a fellow photographer
by transliterating the Greek.

Well, actually, "Hoi polloi" means "the numerous ones", "the mass" - as opposed to what has (erroneously) become the meaning in English nowadays: "the few", "the elite".

Bernard

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