And Now: Block 23!

When I went to seminary, back in the 90s, the first thing that we incoming students did was to spend an entire month, 9-4 M-F, with special optional "extra" sessions in the evenings and on Saturday mornings, all of this time devoted to the study of Koine Greek. Supposedly, we covered one year of language study in one month. The reason for this -- because most of the students were planning to be pastors -- was so that once ordained and serving a congregation, they would each Monday translate the Gospel for the coming Sunday in preparation for their sermons. 

One of the things that was deemed terribly important in Koine Greek was knowing which syllable of a Greek word was to be accented. There was a list of rules about this and we needed to know them. I'm not sure why; it wasn't as though we were walking around speaking Koine Greek to one another. Our learning of the language was purely for translation purposes. But anyway, the rules were based on the last three syllables of a word, no matter how many there were. 

The last syllable, that was easy. And the penultimate syllable, the next to last, that was a word we had heard before. Somewhere. And then, friends, then there was the "one before the one before the end." Who knew there was such a magnificent word as antepenultimate, which before long we had nicknamed "the antepenult"? A word to treasure. And to use as often as possible. Which, truth be told, isn't very.

So here she is, the antepenultimate block for my Boardwalk quilt. The one [some of] you have been waiting for.