word

Author notes

Trismegistus

smbhax

on April 12, 2010

"Knave" actually used to mean just "male offspring"; baby Jesus is described to the Roman commander (later emperor) Titus as "A kyng and a knave child" in the Middle English alliterative poem "The Siege of Jerusalem." "Trismegistus" means "thrice great," although it actually has to do with Hermes Trismegistus, an ancient conflation of the Greek god Hermes and the Egyptian god Thoth, in the Middle Ages and Renaissance said to be a pagan sage who was the father of alchemy–among other things. :p