Philologos is an etymology column about Yiddish, Hebrew and Jewish words and phrases. It ran for over 24 years in The Forward, appearing there for the last time on December 7, 2014. The previous day Jane Eisner, the then Editor-in-Chief, had published a tribute to and announced the retirement of "the person known as Philologos" from The Forward.[1] At the end of his column Philologos wrote "After more than 24 years filing his weekly column, Philologos has decided to retire from the Forward. This will be his last column."[2] without any indication of continuing elsewhere.
However in January 2015, it was announced that Philologos had joined Mosaic and that his articles would be written biweekly.[3] They started appearing, still anonymously, on January 14.[4] This continued even after Hillel Halkin confirmed speculation that he was Philologos in August 2021. He said that Philologos had "an independent status as a fictional character" Halkin had invented and "often says things or goes out on a limb by expressing crazy things" that he'd never say.[5]
See also
References
- ^ "Phil, We Hardly Knew Ye — Or Should We Say Vous?". The Forward. 2014-12-07. Retrieved 2024-04-05.
- ^ Eisher, Jane (6 December 2014). "Farewell Philologos". The Forward. Retrieved 13 February 2017.
- ^ "Philologos Joins Mosaic". Mosaic. Bee.Ideas, LLC, an affiliate of the Tikvah Fund. January 7, 2015. Retrieved 13 February 2017.
- ^ Philologos (January 14, 2015). "On the Interpretation of Kebabchik". Mosaic. Bee.Ideas, LLC, an affiliate of the Tikvah Fund. Archived from the original on November 28, 2023. Retrieved April 6, 2024.
- ^ Halkin, Hillel; Ivry, Benjamin (August 31, 2021). "Why a master of languages decided to reveal his true identity". Forward. Archived from the original on August 31, 2021. Retrieved August 31, 2021.