Solecism

Solecism. I was surprised to discover, via Merriam-Webster’s word-of-the-day, that solecism is a toponym.  It derives from the Greek term soloikos, or citizen of Soloi, one of the many cities in ancient Greece. The arrogant Athenians (well, they had a right to think well of themselves) were critical of the speech of the Soloikos, viewing them as unlearned and grammatically challenged. Greeks also had a word for anybody at all who wasn’t Greek: barbaros: that is, a barbarian.  Barbarian is an onomatopoetic word used by the Greeks (probably from an earlier Sanskrit version) that imitates what the speaker thinks of foreign speech.  Bar-bar.  It’s sort of like murmur, only insulting. Don’t please confuse this with solipsism.