Logodaedaly, logodaedalus, logodaedalist and logodaedale are related words to be found in the larger dictionaries of the English language. Their origin dates back to the seventeenth century. They are derived from a combination of the Greek logos meaning "word", and daidalos meaning "cunning worker". The two words combine to give λογοδαίδαλος which means a person cunning in the use of words, rather like the modern expression "wordsmith". Use of these words in earnest has never been common. Some serious-minded Victorian writers applied them with varying precision, commonly in theological literature and usually with pejorative overtones, suggesting what in the second half of the twentieth century was described by the dismissive catchphrase "semantic arguments" or "semantic quibbles", though that fashion has largely given way to correct use of the term "semantic". Nowadays "spin doctoring" might be a more appropriate expression. Illustrative pre-twentieth quotes include firstly one by George Field: Samuel Bailey used the term with greater precision, distinguishing between logodaedaly and logomachy: Neither however, used either term in anything like a favourable sense. Similarly, during the twentieth century, though "logodaedaly" does appear occasionally in serious usage, it is hardly ever without overtones; for example: and: Its application still is rare in any but unfavourable senses, sometimes grudging, sometimes downright invective: Since the mid twentieth century the terms are prone to appear in humour or satire; for example: Perhaps the finest modern example of its humorous application is in Defenestration, by R. P. Lister. The poem relates the thoughts of a philosopher undergoing defenestration who, as he falls, considers why there should be a word for so obscure an activity when so many other equally obscure activities have no single name. In an evidently ironic commentary on the word that the poem takes as its title, Lister has the philosopher summarize his thoughts with:
