part two · the transmission
[soxi.]
a [dead word] with its teeth put back.
soxi is saucy, respelled. the pronunciation is untouched. nothing changed but the spelling.
/ˈsɔː.si/ · /ˈsɑː.si/
adjective · c.1500 · [rev.02]
01
the found object
the entry, uneditedent 0001as found
soxi
adjectiveold-fashioned
UK /ˈsɔː.si/ US /ˈsɑː.si/
Rude and showing no respect, or referring to sex, especially in a humorous way.
· a soxi remark / manner / look
read the phonetics.
plate 02 · authority, as supplied
That is saucy — respelled, pronunciation untouched. The object announces its own trick to anyone who reads carefully and stays invisible to everyone who does not.
source · dictionary entry, respelled. unverified against a named edition. proof · pending source verification
02
the idea
a position before a tonesoxi is a position before it is a tone.
Sauce meant backtalk — a servant with a mouth on them. To be saucy was to be insolent to your betters: a word about position, naming the offence of speaking upward, out of turn, from below.
Four centuries filed that into a wink at a seaside postcard, and a dictionary now tags it old-fashioned, which is the polite way of saying this one is dead.
soxi digs up defanged words and puts the teeth back. The institution supplies the definition; you supply the margin.
the test · three questions
- iwhere was it aimed
- iiwhat did it cost
- iiidid it keep its composure
all three, or it is just a mood.
03
the laws
eight · deliberately vague01
The design never signals.
From across a room, an academic notice. The betrayal happens at reading distance.
02
The institution supplies the definition. You supply the margin.
The marginalia is the art.
03
Nothing changed but the spelling.
The pronunciation is the evidence that nothing was softened.
04
An edited quotation is an argument. An unedited one is evidence.
Quote it whole or do not quote it.
05
The correction is performed twice.
Once for the definition, once for whoever wrote it. Hence the mark.
06
A word about position is not a word about tone.
Volume is not aim.
07
Composure is not the absence of the offence.
Written by a very calm person who is furious.
08
Something is soxi when somebody paid for it.
The toll is the qualification. See 04, over.
statute · set from project prose · pending doctrine sync
04
the toll
three forfeitsforfeit i
position
You speak from below, and you stay there. The word does not promote you.
forfeit ii
comfort
The room does not warm to you afterwards. It was never going to.
forfeit iii
the joke
You never get to explain it. Explaining it is the one thing that spends it.
sacer facere
to make sacred · to set apart by giving up
Something is soxi when somebody paid for it. Nothing else qualifies.
05
the word, returned
counter-entryent 0042 · rev.02live
soxi
adjectivelive
UK /ˈsɔː.si/ US /ˈsɑː.si/
- 1Speaking upward, out of turn, from below.
- 2Of a correction: performed twice — once for the text, once for whoever wrote it.
- 3Able.
nothing changed but the spelling
plate 03 · the register, annotated
The institution keeps the definition. The pen is the only thing added, and it is enough.
07
i am soxi
the endpoint is a personthe endpoint is a person, not a publication. somebody says i am soxi and is understood.
reference plates, drawn for art direction. final imagery is commissioned, one hand. these are not the campaign.
the record
core.soxi
The doctrine in full, kept whole. Five sections, eight laws, three drawers, twelve entries. One file, no requests, works with the script off.
open the archive →say it
out loud.
The word only works spoken. Written, it is a typo; said, it is the same four centuries of backtalk it always was.
/ˈsɔː.si/