March 27, 2007
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Words
Hey, all you word birds: do you have an “aha” moment when the meaning of word became clear to you? Do share them; I love words and I love aha moments.
I remember:
window = wind holeto make manifest (make clear) = comes from hitting palm (hand, manus) against forehead,
the action you make when you “get it”Here are some words which have tickled me in my medieval history reading:
Canterbury = Kent town (Augustine of Kent)
vassal = Celtic word for boy
cardinal = hinge of door (hinges of the great papal door)
sheriff = shire reeveJanie once again has inspired me – this time to list new vocabulary I learn in my reading. If I wasn’t sure-certain about a word, I looked it up. What a great thing, because the author of this college textbook uses these words regularly.
vicissitude = changeable
hegemony = preponderant influence, authority, especially one nation over others
jejune = lacking nutritive value, dull, unsatisfying
lugubrious = mournful
compurgation = to clear completely, clearing of accused person by oaths
fisc = a state or royal treasury
febrile = or or relating to fever, feverish
autarky = self-sufficient, policy of establishing a self-sufficient and independent national economy
abnegation = denial, especially self-denial
nexus = connection, link, a connected group or series
tautologies = needless repetition of ideas, statement or word
efflorescence = period or state of flowering, blossoming, culmination
turpitude = depravity, inherent baseness
apotheosis = deification, quintessence, the perfect example
eremitic = a recluse or hermit, especially a religious recluse
cenobitic = member of a convent, from koinos, common + bios, lifeWhen I looked up the last two, I found this quirky poem. Does anyone understand the last two lines? Will you make them manifest to me, please?
O Coenobite, O coenobite,
Monastical gregarian,
You differ from the anchorite,
That solitudinarian:
With vollied prayers you wound Old Nick;
With dropping shots he makes him sick.
Quincy Giles
[Addendum:
Old Nick = the Devil.
you = cenobite, one from a group
vollied prayers = simultaneously discharged, from a group
dropping shots = anchorites besides being alone were on mountain tops
he = anchorite
him = Old Nick]
Comments (9)
From Sir Walter Scott’s Letter on Demonology and Witchcraft:
The Old Nick known in England is an equally genuine descendant of the northern sea-god, and possesses a larger portion of his powers and terrors The British sailor, who fears nothing else, confesses his terror for this terrible being, and believes him the author of almost all the various calamities to which the precarious life of a seaman is so continually exposed.
So, who is Quincy Giles?
Aha, the Giles name caught your attention! I looked it up and Quincy Giles seems to be a pseudonym that Ambrose Bierce used in the Devil’s Dictionary.
Very fun and interesting. I have always loved words. As a young child “word power” was my favorite section of Reader’s Digest. I’m glad your friend could help you with the poem–I certainly couldn’t have been so insightful! I’m off to start the new job soon. I’ll let you know what I think!
Oh, pseudonym fits….I couldnt find any other reference.
DD#2 will be *wordsmithing* for Veranda magazine this summer as an intern. We are so excited!
Carol! I’m so glad to see this list! Isn’t vocab fun? Of course, it takes years for a new words to work its way into my speaking vocabulary.
This past weekend I decided that I would try to post some new words every Wednesday as Wednesday Words!
Janie
I thought lugubrious meant foggy! (From Micael Palin’s travel video series, Pole to Pole (which, by the way, was a good series))
Husband= house+band, a girder around the home
Encourage= to put courage into someone. It still gives “aha” moments to my Bible students!
From Genesis 1:2, Et terra inania et vacua erat. (inania= empty of things that have a spirit or mind, vacua=without tangible contents)
I like the last two lines’ martial air- You send multiple prayer-projectiles up/out to wound the Devil, whilst an anchorite sends individual prayer/projectiles downward to disconcert the Devil. Wow, cenobitic sounds good, but wouldn’t cenoagapic be great?
I am printing this one out.
Yes, Ruthie, cenoagapic would be wonderful.
oh-oh I thought of some more! Did y’all know that ark and exercise are related. Ark means enclosure (regardless of size) and to exercise is to get out (ex) of the enclosure (ark).
Companion = with bread. A friend with whom you share bread is a companion.