Thursday, February 10, 2011

"Veriest" conjecture

I was re-reading one of my favourite books about Jesus, H. J. Cadbury's The Perils of Modernizing Jesus (New York: Macmillan, 1937), and I enjoyed his use of a word that has fallen out of favour in academic writing, "veriest", as in:
Of the motives of his own action we must admit that we are left to the veriest conjecture" (Perils, 151)
I really like "veriest" and I like "veriest conjecture" even more. A quick google search suggests that the phrase is indeed somewhat archaic, with instances occurring early in the 20th century but falling into disuse thereafter. I might see if I can sneak it into my writing somewhere.

2 comments:

Peter M. Head said...

Mark, I think it would fit into your discussion of the Gospel of Peter. (!)

Mark Goodacre said...

Haha -- nice one (if a bit cheeky!).