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A.Word.A.Day--mythopoeic Pronunciation: WAV or RealAudio mythopoeic or mythopeic (mith-uh-PEE-ik) also mythopoetic (-po-ET-ik) adjective 1. Of or relating to the making of myths. 2. Serving to create or engender myths; productive in mythmaking. [From Greek muthopoios, composer of fiction, from muthopoiein, to relate a story : muthos, story + poiein, to make.] "This is one of many pieces of nonsense in his book, the most delicious of which appears not in the main text but in a brief biographical summary which informs us that he `lives with his wife, Ruth, on a lake in Minnesota.' Bly has been described by his admirers as mythopoeic but are we to take it that he walks on water? Not, as we perpetual adolescents sneeringly say to one another." Joan Smith, We're all fish swimming in a tank of half-adults, Independent, 30 Nov 1996. This week's theme: words that violate the "i before e" rule. X-Bonus I'm somewhat shy about the brutal facts of being a carnivore. I don't like meat to look like animals. I prefer it in the form of sausages, hamburger and meat loaf, far removed from the living thing. -John Updike, New York Times, 1982

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