Logomachy

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Logomachy \Lo*gom"a*chy\, n. [Gr. ?; lo`gos word + ? fight,
     battle, contest: cf. F. logomachie.]
     1. Contention in words merely, or a contention about words; a
        war of words.
        [1913 Webster]
  


              The discussion concerning the meaning of the word
              "justification" . . . has largely been a mere
              logomachy.                            --L. Abbott.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. A game of word making.
        [1913 Webster]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  71 Moby Thesaurus words for "logomachy":
     Kilkenny cats, altercation, apologetics, apologia, apology,
     argument, argumentation, bicker, bickering, blood feud, brawl,
     broil, casuistry, cat-and-dog life, combat, conflict, contention,
     contentiousness, contest, contestation, controversy,
     cut and thrust, debate, defense, disputation, dispute, donnybrook,
     donnybrook fair, embroilment, enmity, feud, fight, fighting,
     fliting, flyting, fracas, fuss, hassle, hostility, hubbub,
     imbroglio, litigation, open quarrel, paper war, passage of arms,
     polemic, polemics, quarrel, quarreling, quarrelsomeness, rhubarb,
     scrapping, set-to, sharp words, slanging match, snarl, spat,
     squabble, squabbling, strife, struggle, tiff, tussle, vendetta,
     verbal engagement, war, war of words, warfare, words, wrangle,
     wrangling
  
  

From THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993) [devils]:

  LOGOMACHY, n.  A war in which the weapons are words and the wounds
  punctures in the swim-bladder of self-esteem -- a kind of contest in
  which, the vanquished being unconscious of defeat, the victor is
  denied the reward of success.
  
      'Tis said by divers of the scholar-men
      That poor Salmasius died of Milton's pen.
      Alas! we cannot know if this is true,
      For reading Milton's wit we perish too.