Annotations to James Joyce's Ulysses/Scylla and Charybdis/183
Annotations edit
absit nomen (Latin) let the name be absent.[1] Stephen is alluding to the Latin precept absit nomen, absit omen (If you do not utter an ill-omened expression, you will not incur the bad luck attendant on it). The second half of this phrase, absit omen (let there be no [ill] omen), is used on its own as an apotropaic phrase to ward off any possible bad luck that might attend the uttering of an ill-omened term; today one might knock on wood to achieve the same effect.[2]
References edit
- ↑ Gifford (1988) 207.
- ↑ Spears, Richard A. (1981). Slang and Euphemism. New York: Jonathan David Publishers, Inc. ISBN 0-8246-0273-0.