Language: en
Meaning: (idiomatic,literary,chiefly in theplural)Awordorstatementwhich is veryaptfor anoccasion, ormemorable.[late 16th c.]Synonym:mot juste1591,Ed[mund] Sp[enser], “The Teares of the Muses”, inComplaints. Containing Sundrie Small Poemes of the Worlds Vanitie.[…], London:[…]William Ponsonbie,[…],→OCLC:[Polyhymnia] For the ſweet numbers and melodious meaſures, / With which I wont thewinged wordsto tie, / And make a tunefull Diapaſe of pleaſures, / Now being let to runne at libertie / By thoſe which haue no skill to rule them right, / Haue now quite loſt their naturall delight.1633,[Guillaume de Salluste] Du Bartas, “[Bethulia’s Rescue.[…].]The Third Book.”, inJosuah Sylvester, transl.,Du Bartas His Diuine Weekes and Workes[…], London:[…]Robert Young,→OCLC,page490, column 1:The ſubtleTyrians, who did firſt invent, / Ourwinged words, in Barks of Trees to print:[…]1715May 10,[Lewis Theobald], “Friday, April 29[1715; Julian calendar]”, inThe Censor, 2nd edition, volume I, number 9, London:[…]Jonas Brown,[…], published1717,→OCLC,page63:There is the gay Mr.Trimeterwho never opens his Mouth without aFlightofWinged Words, as the Poets call them, which are gone paſt the Recovery of himſelf, or his Hearers, and ſtill followed by a Second and a ThirdFlight, and you are obliged to him for holding his Tongue, meerly becauſe he is out of Breath.1773,Homer, “Book XXI”, inJames Macpherson, transl.,The Iliad of Homer.[…], volume II, London:[…]T. Becket and P. A. De Hondt,[…]; and sold also byT[homas]Cadell,[…],→OCLC,page296:His ſupplicating voice he raiſed: And poured theſewinged words, in his ruthleſs ears:[…]1831December,[Thomas Carlyle], “Art. IV.—1.An Essay on the Origin and Prospects of Man.ByThomas Hope.[…]London: 1831. 2.Philosophische Vorlesungen, insbesondere über Philosophie der Sprache und des Wortes. Geschrieben und vorgetragen zu Dresden im December 1828, und in den ersten Tagen des Januars 1829.(Philosophical Lectures, especially on the Philosophy of Language and the Gift of Speech, Written and Delivered at Dresden in December 1828, and the Early Days of January 1829.) ByFriedrich von Schlegel.[…]Vienna: 1830.[book review]”, inThe Edinburgh Review, or Critical Journal, volume LIV, number CVIII, Edinburgh:[…]Ballantyne and Company, forLongman, Rees, Orme, Brown and Green,[…]; andAdam Black,[…],→OCLC,page356:Often by somewinged word, winged as the thunderbolt is, of aLuther, aNapoleon, aGoethe, shall we see the difficulty split asunder, and its secret laid bare; while the Irrefragable [Doctor;i.e.,Alexander of Hales], with all his logical roots, hews at it, and hovers round it, and finds it on all hands too hard for him.1915November, Edith Wharton, “The Tone of France”, inFighting France: From Dunkerque to Belfort, New York, N.Y.:Charles Scribner’s Sons,→OCLC,page220:The tone of France after the declaration of war was the white glow of dedication: a great nation's collective impulse (since there is no English equivalent for thatwinged word,élan) to resist destruction.1966,George Steiner, “Silence and the Poet”, inLanguage and Silence: Essays 1958–1966, London:Faber and Faber, published2010,→ISBN,page56:Homer, the master-builder and rebel against time, in whom the conviction that the ‘winged word’ shall outlast death speaks out in constant jubilation, goes blind.Orpheusis torn to bleeding shreds. Yet the word will not be quenched;[…]1998,James L. Crenshaw, “The Pursuit of Knowledge:Proverbs”, inOld Testament Wisdom: An Introduction, revised edition, Louisville, Ky.:Westminster John Knox Press,→ISBN,page56:[A] proverb is awinged word, outliving the fleeting moment.2007,Piero Boitani, “Epilogue: Winged Words”, inWinged Words: Flight in Poetry and History, EasyRead Large edition, U.S.A.: ReadHowYouWant.com, published2010,→ISBN,page387:Homeroften speaks ofepea pteroenta, "winged words": in traditional interpretations, this metaphor stood for the swift and lofty birdlike flight of language, particularly poetic language.
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