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logomachy
lo-GAW-muh-kee
noun
a battle over words; a battle of words
1884Joris-Karl HuysmansAgainst The GrainAnd, in fact, the curiosity, the complicated naivete of the Christian language had also foundered. The balderdash of philosophers and scholars, the logomachy of the Middle Ages, thenceforth held absolute sway. The sooty mass of chronicles and historical books and cartularies accumulated, and the stammering grace, the often exquisite awkwardness of the monks, placing the poetic remains of antiquity in a ragout, were dead.1909Jack LondonRevolution and Other Essays'You are anachronisms. You stand in the way of humanity. To the scrap-heap with you.' To those that protested, and they were many, he said: 'This is no time for logomachy. You can argue for centuries. It is what you have done in the past. I have no time for argument. Get out of the way.'1970Mary RenaultFire From HeavenThe King had forbidden, and the philosopher did not want, the quibbling logomachy of eristics, that science which Sokrates had defined as making the worse cause look the better.

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Entry By: CJ Cooney
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