Saturday, August 15, 2015
A Game
Robert A. Rankin (1915-2001), "George Campbell Hay as I Knew Him," Chapman 40 (Winter 1984) 1-12 (at 2):
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George early showed his phenomenal powers of learning other languages. I do not think he ever needed to consult a Latin or Greek dictionary. In comparison with classical Greek, Homer's Greek is like the English of Chaucer compared with present-day English, and we had a special Homeric dictionary for use when studying the Iliad or the Odyssey. I remember playing a game with George, in which I opened the Homeric dictionary at random and asked him the meaning of a word. I was never able to catch him out. A few years later we played the same game with Maceachan's Gaelic dictionary, and with the same results.Hat tip: Eric Thomson.
