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In a Pickwickian sense Chapter 12 of the “Essays” of Francis Bacon, an English philosopher, statesman, scientist, lawyer and pioneer of the scientific method (1561–1626), published in 1625: Mahomet made the people believe that he would call a hill to him, and from the top of it offer up his prayers, for the observers of his law. The people assembled; Mahomet called the hill to come to him, again and again; and when the hill stood still, he was never a whit abashed, but said, If the hill will not come to Mahomet, Mahomet will go to the hill. It was published in John Ray’s 1670 book of English proverbs. Though widely attributed to Muhammad, the prophet of Islam who lived in Arabia in 6th century, there is no written or oral tradition that traces this phrase back to him. In a Pickwickian sense – (шутл.) в пиквикском смысле; в переносном смысле; в безобидном значении (диккенсовское выражение) This word Pickwickian has two completely different meanings, one being straightforward, means simple and kind, marked by generosity, naivete, or innocence: Pickwickian uncle; but the other with very interesting variances in its shades of meaning, perhaps not properly captured by the dictionaries, means not intended to be taken in a literal sense, the opposite of what it would literally seem, an insult whitewashed: a word used in a Pickwickian manner. Mr Pickwick is the hero of Charles Dickens’ novel “The Pickwick’s Papers” (1837). The unsophisticated, innocent founder of the Pickwick Club, Mr Pickwick embarks on a series of delightful excursions with his friends, meeting all sorts and conditions of men in 19th-century England. In the novel Mr Pickwick and Mr Blotton call each other names and it appears later that they were using the offensive words only in a Pickwickian sense and had the highest regard for each other. Hence the phrase in a Pickwickian sense is descriptive of word usage that departs from the sense commonly understood: Now, anybody reading that would realize that is a deadline only in a kind of Pickwickian sense. It’s not a real deadline. 76