Tricia Lockwood @tricialockwood.bsky.social

often it was printed with a diacritic — quotidiã or quotidiā — and referred to something called a quotidia fever, which if you’re lucky could be “converted into phrensie”

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Tricia Lockwood @tricialockwood.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 12, 2024 at 14:29 UTC

we’ve got it in handwriting! we’ve got it in the epicure! we’ve got it in harper’s! someone’s using it in reference to eliot!why isn’t it a word?

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robert p. baird @bobbybaird.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 12, 2024 at 14:41 UTC

FWIW, in medieval paleography that sort of diacritic over a vowel often meant you were supposed to mentally add an "m." (e.g. "aliā" = "aliam") Might be something similar going on in these cases for an implied "n."

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Ace Discourse @vinceness.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 12, 2024 at 14:26 UTC

please rescue me from desire with an ice bucket of courtesy

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Nil Grebster @screator.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 12, 2024 at 18:03 UTC

The "diacritic" is a standard abbreviation mark for "n" or "m", used in older printed texts, brought over from scribal practice.

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