winged word

Calque of Ancient Greek ἔπεα πτερόεντα (épea pteróenta), often used by Homer[1]. Compare German geflügeltes Wort.

winged word (plural winged words)

1. (idiomatic, chiefly in the plural) A well-known and attributable quotation. [early 17th c.]
   • 1841, Samuel Gilman Brown, The Studies of an Orator: An Inaugural Address, Delivered at the Annual Commencement in Dartmouth College, July, 1840, page 22

     Often by some winged word — winged as the thunderbolt is — of a Luther, a Napoleon, a Goethe, shall we see the difficulty split asunder, and its secret laid bare ; while the Irrefragable, with all his logical roots, hews at it, and hovers round it, ...

   • 2010, Piero Boitani, Winged Words: Flight in Poetry and History (Large Print 16pt), ReadHowYouWant.com →ISBN, page 387

     Homer often speaks of epea pteroenta, “winged words”: in traditional interpretations, this metaphor stood for the swift and lofty birdlike flight of language, particularly poetic language. This meaning has certainly sustained me throughout: as in a ...