Is “Write” Wrong?: A Discussion of Iconology Lingo

Some English-speakers will say that an icon is “written” or that one “writes” an icon. The verbiage has been adopted from the Russian fine arts vocabulary and adapted to English usage. Other English-speakers strongly object to the verbiage. This article, published in the Orthodox Arts Journal, attempts to survey the positive and negative implications of the usage.

See full article HERE.

Inscribing the halo on the icon of St. Anthony

Excerpts from the article “Is “Write” Wrong?: A Discussion of Iconology Lingo”.

“Saying that one ‘writes’ an icon can be, and sometimes is, ‘affected jargon’ – a kind of NEON Orthodox-speak of the cognoscenti who insist upon the verbiage as the only proper way to refer to the process and the product.”

“At the same time, those who police the verbiage to exclude the use of ‘write, writing, written’ in English can be equally totalitarian to the point of correcting Russians.”

See full article HERE.