Driving on Franklin St today I saw a car with a bumper sticker that read:
oppugn nescient lurdanes
What the heck does that mean? So I looked it up. They’re all English words, though archaic. I leave it as an exercise to the reader to look it up for yourself. Extra credit if you can look up all 3 words in any single source other than the OED. Major extra credit if you can define these words without looking them up.
6 Comments
Paul Jones
stop ignorant blockheads?
Zwack
Oppugn Nescient Lurdanes!
Hmmm…
Taking the easy one first. Nescient is obviously at least in part from the same root as omniscient. As Omniscient means all-knowing and Omni means All. I am going to guess that Nescient means unknowing.
Oppugn Unknowing Lurdanes!
Oppugn looks like it is closely related to Oppose (or Impugn)(checks online dictionary) and yes it is.
Oppose Unknowing Lurdanes
OK I’ve got this far… and I’m going to declare defat on the Lurdanes… But checking the Online dictionary it suggests I meant lurdan meaning stupid or blockish or as a noun a blockhead. So…
Oppose Unknowing Blockheads.
I checked Nescient at dictionary.com as well so I get extra credit for finding a non-OED source for all three. I get major extra credit for being able to define two without looking them up…
Thanks for the diversion…
Z.
paradisevendor
sounds like Joyce. Ulysses?
RD
I just came to your blog because I saw a car with that same bumper sticker driving on 15-501. This page is the only reference to that phrase on the internet. I imagine we all saw the same car. Who is this mysterious Piedmont vocabulary maven?
Luther Blissett
Saw a car with this bumper sticker parked on Lakewood Avenue in Durham this morning. A Google search to find out what it meant brought up this post as the first hit. If this bumper sticker spreads, you’ll be an internet phenomenon, Jeff!
PomeRantz
I’d never have expected when I posted this originally that it would become my citation classic, so to speak. But I’ve gotten more comments on this post than on any other. So I feel compelled now to actually define these words, rather than just be a tease.
Here are the definitions from the OED. These are only the first definitions, as the OED has several for each word, though they’re all closely related.
oppugn: To attack or oppose with words, action, influence, etc.; esp. to call into question, controvert, or dispute the truth or validity of (a statement, belief, argument, etc.).
nescient: Ignorant.
lurdane: A general term of opprobrium, reproach, or abuse, implying either dullness and incapacity, or idleness and rascality; a sluggard, vagabond, ‘loafer’.
Interestingly: b. rarely applied to a woman.
Also interesting, at least to me, is the apparent derivation of the word “lurdane” from “Lord Dane.” Makes me think that some Middle English speakers must have really had it in for their Viking Overlords.
So: oppugn nescient lurdanes? Question ignorant rascals. Oppose ignorant dullards. The shades of meaning here make translating this especially fun, I think.
Of course Paul Jones, our resident poet, got it correct right out of the box.