Meanings
- uncountablehatred between philologists over academic points of disagreement
Odium pholologicum is a notorious infirmity. Scholars will lash out at one another with unbridled malignancy over what appear to the laity to be minuscule, often risible points of debate.
George Steiner (1987), George Steiner: A Reader, Oxford University Press, page 1992 more examples
a Renascence scholar had to justify himself, even if that meant denigrating other mens' learning. To the odium theologicum of the period was added odium philologicum. Sic Shavius putride, says a late scholiast: « thus Shaw stinkingly » — he is referring to a rival commentator's interpretation.
Jack Arthur Walter Bennett (1982), The Humane Medievalist: And Other Essays in English Literature and Learning, from Chaucer to Eliot, Ed. di Storia e Letteratura, GGKEY:552YP7WE2FC, page 283The scholarly wars between British and German academics in World War I are to be seen in the context of a more general odium philologicum which can be traced back to the growth of nationalism in the nineteenth century.
Christopher Stray (2018), From odium to bellum: classical scholars at war in Europe and America, 1800–1924, volume 10, number 4, Classical Receptions Journal, →DOI, retrieved 01 Apr 2019
Origin
Contemporary Latin coinage based on odium theologicum.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
odium philologicum. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/odium%20philologicum
“odium philologicum.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/odium%20philologicum. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “odium philologicum,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/odium%20philologicum.
Source: odium philologicum on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.