winged word

plural winged words

1. idiomaticin pluralliteraryA word or statement which is very apt for an occasion, or memorable.First known use late 16th c.

   His ſupplicating voice he raiſed: And poured theſe winged words, in his ruthleſs ears: […]

   1773, Homer, “Book XXI”, in James Macpherson, transl., The Iliad of Homer. […], volume II, London: […] T. Becket and P. A. De Hondt, […]; and sold also by T[homas] Cadell, […], →OCLC, page 296

   5 more examples

   [Polyhymnia] For the ſweet numbers and melodious meaſures, / With which I wont the winged words to 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.

   1591, Ed[mund] Sp[enser], “The Teares of the Muses”, in Complaints. Containing Sundrie Small Poemes of the Worlds Vanitie. […], London: […] William Ponsonbie, […], →OCLC

   The ſubtle Tyrians, who did firſt invent, / Our winged words, in Barks of Trees to print: […]

   1633, [Guillaume de Salluste] Du Bartas, “[Bethulia’s Rescue. […].] The Third Book.”, in Josuah Sylvester, transl., Du Bartas His Diuine Weekes and Workes […], London: […] Robert Young, →OCLC, page 490, column 1

   There is the gay Mr. Trimeter who never opens his Mouth without a Flight of Winged 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 Third Flight, and you are obliged to him for holding his Tongue, meerly becauſe he is out of Breath.

   1715 May 10, [Lewis Theobald], “Friday, April 29 [1715; Julian calendar]”, in The Censor, 2nd edition, volume I, number 9, London: […] Jonas Brown, […], published 1717, →OCLC, page 63

   Often by some winged word, winged as the thunderbolt is, of a Luther, a Napoleon, a Goethe, 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.

   1831 December, [Thomas Carlyle], “Art. IV.—1. An Essay on the Origin and Prospects of Man. By Thomas 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.) By Friedrich von Schlegel. […] Vienna: 1830. [book review]”, in The Edinburgh Review, or Critical Journal, volume LIV, number CVIII, Edinburgh: […] Ballantyne and Company, for Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown and Green, […]; and Adam Black, […], →OCLC, page 356

   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 that winged word, élan) to resist destruction.

   1915 November, Edith Wharton, “The Tone of France”, in Fighting France: From Dunkerque to Belfort, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, page 220

   Synonyms: mot juste