NWR (perhaps): Paideuma

Your mother has been paid?

The search engines I use seem to have a brain fart when I enter this word.
Any idea context?
 
originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:
NWR (perhaps): PaideumaAnyone have an authoritative definition of Paideuma?
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Assuming you've done the google search that will lead you to vague explanations of Frobenius' concept and then how Ezra Pound used it, there's nothing I can add. If you haven't done the search, just google Paideuma meaning and you'll have links to all I know. Given the history of the term, I don't think there can be an "authoritative" definition.
 
originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg:
originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:
NWR (perhaps): PaideumaAnyone have an authoritative definition of Paideuma?
Click to expand...

Assuming you've done the google search that will lead you to vague explanations of Frobenius' concept and then how Ezra Pound used it, there's nothing I can add. If you haven't done the search, just google Paideuma meaning and you'll have links to all I know. Given the history of the term, I don't think there can be an "authoritative" definition.
Click to expand...

Thanks. Yes, I had checked google out, but had found no OED-worthy definition.
 
originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg:
The OED does not have an entry for the word, if that matters.
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I was asking because it appears in a short text (which I translated into English) by a Brazilian artist who is opening a show in NY on March 15. His knowledge of the term comes from Brazilian Concrete poets, who used it based on Pound. Since most readers wouldn't know the meaning, I thought maybe we should provide a definition. And I wanted to provide an "official" definition, not my own.
 
originally posted by Cole Kendall:
This may provide help to the above problem: https://www.jstor.org/stable/24726807
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Thanks, from that aptly-named source I had found Pound's definition:

In Guide to Kulchur, 57, Pound explains the meaning of Paideuma as follows: “To escape a word or a set of words loaded up with dead association(s), Frobenius uses the term ‘Paideuma’ for the complex of the in-rooted ideas of any period.”

In “For New Paideuma” (Pound) writes: “The term ‘Paideuma’ as used in a dozen German volumes has been given the sense of an active element in the era, the complex of ideas which is in a given time germinal, reaching into the next epoch, but conditioning actively all the thought and action of its own time.” (Selected Prose, 294).

Doesn't provide an "official" definition, but gives a clear sense of what he meant.
 
originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:
originally posted by Cole Kendall:
This may provide help to the above problem: https://www.jstor.org/stable/24726807
Click to expand...

Thanks, from that aptly-named source I had found Pound's definition:

In Guide to Kulchur, 57, Pound explains the meaning of Paideuma as follows: “To escape a word or a set of words loaded up with dead association(s), Frobenius uses the term ‘Paideuma’ for the complex of the in-rooted ideas of any period.”

In “For New Paideuma” (Pound) writes: “The term ‘Paideuma’ as used in a dozen German volumes has been given the sense of an active element in the era, the complex of ideas which is in a given time germinal, reaching into the next epoch, but conditioning actively all the thought and action of its own time.” (Selected Prose, 294).

Doesn't provide an "official" definition, but gives a clear sense of what he meant.
Click to expand...

I haven't read Pound, but I am guessing he takes his inspiration for 'his' word from the Greek paideia, cf Werner Jäger. And since the translations / inspirations are coming from the antique, rather than the demotic, OED might not make the connection.
 
originally posted by Tristan Welles:
originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:
originally posted by Cole Kendall:
This may provide help to the above problem: https://www.jstor.org/stable/24726807
Click to expand...

Thanks, from that aptly-named source I had found Pound's definition:

In Guide to Kulchur, 57, Pound explains the meaning of Paideuma as follows: “To escape a word or a set of words loaded up with dead association(s), Frobenius uses the term ‘Paideuma’ for the complex of the in-rooted ideas of any period.”

In “For New Paideuma” (Pound) writes: “The term ‘Paideuma’ as used in a dozen German volumes has been given the sense of an active element in the era, the complex of ideas which is in a given time germinal, reaching into the next epoch, but conditioning actively all the thought and action of its own time.” (Selected Prose, 294).

Doesn't provide an "official" definition, but gives a clear sense of what he meant.
Click to expand...

I haven't read Pound, but I am guessing he takes his inspiration for 'his' word from the Greek paideia, cf Werner Jäger. And since the translations / inspirations are coming from the antique, rather than the demotic, OED might not make the connection.
Click to expand...

Pound got the concept from Frobenius, as the article Cole links to makes clear.

The OED has an entry for any word that appears in English frequently enough to be considered English, regardless of whether it's of foreign origin, classical or demotic, or not. It aims to be an historical record of the language. If Paedeuma does not appear, I expect it's because print appearances mostly are by Pound or quote his use of it, which is not enough to make it a word. I don't know if this is the case, but non-inclusion will never be based on the source of the word.
 
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