Word of the Day: exergue

exergue (n)

[ek-surg]

A space on the backside of a coin that shows the date of engraving.

"The romantic fragment, far from bringing the dispersion or the shattering of the work into play, inscribes its plurality as the exergue of the total, infinite work."
--Robert K.C. Forman, Mysticism, Mind, Consciousness

Obviously from the above, this word can be used metaphorically as well as literally. Someone once accused me of using too many metaphors while speaking. (It wasn't Jack Nicholson, who, in As Good As It Gets, says, "People who speak in metaphors should shampoo my crotch." Ouch.) I do like a good metaphor, I must admit. Metaphors are, uh...useful tools.

(Exergue, by the way, is one of the words that the late David Foster Wallace circled in his dictionary.)