Kefedokhles (term)

First appearance and context

Kefedokhles is documented in The Dictionary as both a person of antiquity and a derived common noun meaning an insufferably smug or pedantic interlocutor. The term is also used colloquially in mathic speech; an avout invokes it during a kitchen conversation in the Refectory to characterize a debating style.

Definition and rationale

The Dictionary gives two senses: - Sense 1: Kefedokhles was a fid from the Halls of Orithena who survived the eruption of Ecba and became one of the Forty Lesser Peregrins. In old age he is said to have turned up on the Periklyne (some hold this was a son or namesake). He appears in several dialogs, notably the dialog Uraloabus, where his timely, long-winded interruption enables Thelenes to recover and proceed with a sustained dismantling of Sphenic thought that ends in the title character’s public suicide. - Sense 2: By extension, “a Kefedokhles” means an insufferably smug or pedantic interlocutor. The pejorative sense follows from the impression given by the figure in the dialogs.

Relationships and references

• Source and usage authority: The Dictionary, 4th edition (A.R. 3000).
• Etymology: Named after the Orithenan fid whose manner in the dialogs inspired the common-noun usage; he is associated with the Halls of Orithena and later the Periklyne.
• Dialogic context: In Uraloabus, Kefedokhles’s interruption aids Thelenes in a rhetorical turn that shifts the debate.

Current status

The term remains a recognizable label in mathic discourse for someone who derails or burdens a discussion with smug or pedantic interjections. It appears in informal speech alongside its authoritative definition in The Dictionary.