Words that you don't see everyday

gotterdammerung

PRONUNCIATION:
(got-uhr-DAM-uh-roong, -rung)

MEANING:
noun: Complete destruction of an institution, regime, order, etc.

ETYMOLOGY:
From German Götterdämmerung (twilight of the gods), from Götter, plural of Gott (god) + Dämmerung (twilight). Götterdämmerung was the name of the last of Richard Wagner's four operas titled Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung). The German word Götterdämmerung is a translation of the Old Norse Ragnarök which in Scandinavian mythology refers to the destruction of the gods in a battle with evil, resulting in the end of the world. The term Ragnarök is from regin (gods) + rok (fate, course) confused by some with Ragnarökkr (literally, twilight of the gods).

USAGE:
"What began as the exuberant union of two college-age strivers is coming to a devastating end after 18 years, and the Gotterdammerung is being fought out not in court but inside the couple's perfect house."
Michelle Green; Dirty Divorcing; People (New York); Feb 19, 1990.

poltergeist

PRONUNCIATION:
(POHL-tuhr-gyst)

MEANING:
noun: A ghost that reveals its presence by making noises or throwing objects.


ETYMOLOGY:
From German Poltergeist, from poltern (to make noise, rattle) + Geist (ghost, spirit).


USAGE:
"The nearest Liverpool player was at least five yards away, meaning Emerson was trying to convince the referee he'd been tripped by a poltergeist."
Paul Doyle; Liverpool v Lille; The Guardian (London, UK); Mar 18, 2010.

weltanschauung

PRONUNCIATION:
(VELT-ahn-shou-oong)

MEANING:
noun: World view; philosophy of life; a framework through which to interpret the world.

ETYMOLOGY:
From German Weltanschauung (world view), from Welt (world) + Anschauung (perception).

NOTES:
When we bring in a word from another language, sometimes we borrow it and at other times make a loan translation. The word weltanschauung appears so useful that English has borrowed the original form and also made a loan translation: world view.

USAGE:
"Gwyneth Paltrow summed up her weltanschauung thus: 'My life is good because I am not passive about it.'"
Richard Dorment; Gwyneth Paltrow Feels Good -- And So Can You; Esquire (New York); Sep 16, 2009.

zeitgeist

PRONUNCIATION:
(TSYT-gyst)

MEANING:
noun: The defining spirit of a particular period: the general cultural, political, intellectual, and moral climate of an era.

ETYMOLOGY:
From German Zeitgeist (spirit of the time), from Zeit (time) + Geist (spirit).

USAGE:
"Once again Lionel Shriver has stomped into the middle of a pressing national debate with a great ordeal of a novel So Much For That that's impossible to ignore. ... If Jodi Picoult has her finger on the zeitgeist, Shriver has her hands around its throat."
Ron Charles; So Much For That; The Washington Post; Mar 17, 2010.

realpolitik

PRONUNCIATION:
(ray-AHL-paw-li-teek, ree-)

MEANING:
noun: Politics guided by practical considerations, instead of principles or ethics.

ETYMOLOGY:
From German Realpolitik, from real (real, practical) + politik (politics).

USAGE:
"Also gone is Sarkozy's former mocking of realpolitik as a political cop-out of cynical diplomats without principles."
Bruce Crumley; Why France is Selling Warships to Russia; Time (New York); Mar 3, 2010.
"Under the strongman Soeharto and Cold War realpolitik pragmatism, Indonesia received large scale US military support that leapfrogged its defense capability among its Southeast Asian neighbors, despite widespread criticism from international civil rights groups."
Ristian Atriandi; Rethinking RI-US Military Ties; The Jakarta Post (Indonesia); Mar 17, 2010.

What are combining forms? You can think of them as the Legos of language. As the name indicates, a combining form is a linguistic atom that occurs only in combination with some other form which could be a word, another combining form, or an affix (unlike a combining form, an affix can't attach to another affix).

This week we'll feature five words made using these combining forms:
theo- (god), oligo- (few), artio- (even number), helio- (sun), hagio- (saint)
and
-gony (origin), -poly (selling), -dactyl (toes or fingers), -latry (worship), -graphy (writing)

Using one combining form from each of the above two groups you could make 25 words. Whether all those words make sense is another matter. In fact, theoretically you could construct billions of words with just these 10 Lego blocks as a word can have more than one combining forms. Consider pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.

What words can you come up with using the building blocks of this week's words? Share your constructions and their definitions on the bulletin board Wordsmith Talk or by email (words at wordsmith.org).


theogony

PRONUNCIATION:
(thee-OG-uh-nee)

MEANING:
noun: The origin of gods or an account of this.

ETYMOLOGY:
From Greek theo- (god) + -gony (origin).

USAGE:
"The poet [Milton] sees the arrival of Christ in the world in terms of its impact on the pagan theogony."
A.N. Wilson; World of Books; The Daily Telegraph (London, UK); Dec 23, 2002.

desideratum

PRONUNCIATION:
(di-sid-uh-RAY-tuhm, -RAA-)

MEANING:
noun: Something considered necessary or desirable.

ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin desideratum (something desired), from desiderare (to desire).

USAGE:

limen

PRONUNCIATION:
(LY-muhn) MEANING:
noun: A threshold of response: point at which a stimulus is of sufficient intensity to generate a response.

ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin limen (threshold).

USAGE:
"Such to the dead might appear the world of living -- charged with information, with meaning, yet somehow always just, terribly, beyond that fateful limen where any lamp of comprehension might beam forth."
Thomas Pynchon; Against the Day; Penguin Press; 2006.

obdurate

PRONUNCIATION:
(OB-doo-rit, -dyoo-) MEANING:
adjective:
1. Stubborn: not easily moved.
2. Hard-hearted: resistant to emotions.

ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin obdurare (to harden), from durus (hard). Ultimately from the Indo-European root deru- (to be firm) that's the source of such other words as truth, trust, betroth, tree, endure, druid, during, durable, duress, trow, and indurate.

USAGE:
"The White Paper outlines no strategy to end government's obdurate resistance to proper pricing of passenger services."
Raghu Dayal; Whither is Fled, Railways' Visionary Gleam? The Economic Times (New Delhi, India); Feb 23, 2010.

quiescence

PRONUNCIATION:
(kwee-ES-uhns, kwi-) MEANING:
noun: A state of rest, inactivity, or quietness.

ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin quiescere (to become quiet), from quies (quiet).

USAGE:
"The Copenhagen debacle could lead to a period of quiescence in which not much is done to pursue climate-change policy."
Anthony Giddens; Start the World, We Want to Get On; NewStatesman (London, UK); Feb 8, 2010.

chicanery

PRONUNCIATION:
(shi-KAY-nuh-ree) MEANING:
noun: Deception by trickery or sophistry.

ETYMOLOGY:
From French chicaner (to quibble).

USAGE:
"Some analysts are claiming that these arrests [of Taliban members] are not good news at all, but merely evidence of still more too-clever-by-half chicanery by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence."
Good News From Pakistan, And That's No Conspiracy; The Gazette (Montreal, Canada); Feb 24, 2010.

No matter where we stand on earth, we can all enjoy an equally wondrous view of the stars. Yet the age-old wisdom tells us there are three important things to look for when the aim is to call a few yards of this land ours: location, location, location. And location is what we want to pay attention to when it comes to this week's words, for they all came from the names of locations. They're known as toponyms, words derived from places.
Whether it's when we drink champagne (from Champagne, France), commit a solecism (after Soloi, an Athenian colony in Cilicia), or when we meet our Waterloo (Waterloo, Belgium), we are (perhaps unknowingly) alluding to a distant land and its history. This week's words take us on a tour of cities and towns in China, Germany, France, Iraq, and South Africa.
shanghai

PRONUNCIATION:
(SHANG-hy) MEANING:

verb tr.: To recruit someone forcibly or by fraud into doing something.
ETYMOLOGY:

After Shanghai, a major seaport in east China. The term derives from the former practice (mid-1800s to early 1900) of luring men, by the use of drugs, liquor, or violence into serving on US ships destined for East Asia. People who recruited sailors in this manner were called crimps. The practice ended with The Seamen's Act of 1915 that made crimping a federal crime.

USAGE:

Munich


PRONUNCIATION:
(MYOO-nik) MEANING:
noun: A shortsighted or dishonorable appeasement.

ETYMOLOGY:
After Munich, Germany, the site of a pact signed by Great Britain, France, Italy, and Germany on Sep 29, 1938 that permitted annexation of Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland by Nazi Germany. WWII began a year later; Sudetenland was restored to Czechoslovakia after the war.

NOTES:
The name Munich is an exonym (a name used by outsiders). The local name (endonym) for Munich is München, derived from Mönch (monk) as the city was founded by Benedictine monks in 1158.

USAGE:USAGE:

"Neoconservatives, writes Jacob Heilbrunn, 'see new Munichs everywhere and anywhere'."
Andrew J. Bacevich; The Neocondition; Los Angeles Times; Jan 20, 2008.

Babylon

PRONUNCIATION:
(BAB-uh-luhn, -lawn)

MEANING:
noun: A place of great luxury and extravagance, usually accompanied with vice and corruption.


ETYMOLOGY:
After Babylon, an ancient city of southwestern Asia, on the Euphrates River. It was the capital of Babylonia and known for its opulence and culture. It was the site of Hanging Gardens, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.


USAGE:
"Tsuyoshi Morimoto said that when the economic crisis hit the international market, many big companies turned to Iraq in hopes that it would save them. 'Big companies talked a lot about Iraq and paid a huge amount of attention to it. It is just like we suddenly built a Babylon, and now the Babylon is collapsing.'"
Qassim Khidhir; "Don't Expect Too Much From Iraq"; Kurdish Globe (Arbil, Kurdistan); Jan 16, 2010.

maffick

PRONUNCIATION:
(MAF-ik)

MEANING:
verb intr.: To celebrate boisterously.


ETYMOLOGY:
Back formation from Mafeking (now Mafikeng), a town in South Africa, where a British garrison was besieged for 217 days during the Boer War. Lifting of the siege on May 17, 1900 sparked wild celebrations in London.


USAGE:
"Colin Milburn had a glazed look of stupefaction in his unseeing eyes and was completely oblivious to the mafficking going all around him in the wake of England's recently completed Test victory over Australia."
Frank Tyson; Driven by Natural Gifts; Sportstar (Chennai, India); Jul 4, 2009.
"Last year, about 300 people who like comics showed up ... It was a successful day of mingling, marketing, and mafficking."
Wayne Alan Brenner; Giant-Sized Annual; The Austin Chronicle (Texas); Mar 3, 2006.


A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Gods are fragile things; they may be killed by a whiff of science or a dose of common sense. -Chapman Cohen, author and lecturer (1868-1954)

When my daughter was little and scraped a knee, what brought the swiftest diversion wasn't candies or toys, but stories. Stories soothe us, teach us, take us to other worlds. Even when we grow up, our hunger for stories remains.
Each of this week's five words is a story in itself. From mythology, fiction, and poetry, they contain tales that are hundreds or thousands of years old. Through the allusions and metaphors in them we'll visit lands afar.

vanity fair

PRONUNCIATION:
(VAN-i-tee fair)

MEANING:
noun: A place characterized by frivolity and ostentation.


ETYMOLOGY:
After Vanity Fair, a fair that lasted all year long in the town of Vanity, in the novel Pilgrim's Progress by writer and preacher John Bunyan (1628-1688). In the fair were traded houses, honors, titles, kingdoms, pleasures, and much more -- sounds like an early version of eBay.

USAGE:
"[The Millionaire Fair] was a vanity fair of thin beautiful women sporting mink fur coats and low necklines decorated with glittering jewelry and dark-suited, elegant men shadowed by beefy bodyguards."
Maria Danilova; In Moscow, A Nouveau Riche Showcase; The Associated Press; Nov 3, 2006.
"In one corner was Karl Rove, presidential adviser and global-warming denier. In the opposite corner was the An Inconvenient Truth tag team of singer Sheryl Crow and documentary producer Laurie David. Their encounter took place Saturday night in Washington at the annual White House Correspondents Dinner, a vanity fair for journalists, politicos, and celebrities."
The Lightning Round; The Philadelphia Inquirer; Apr 24, 2007.

Old Man of the Sea

PRONUNCIATION:
(old man ov the see)

MEANING:
noun: A tiresome burden, especially a person, difficult to free oneself from.


ETYMOLOGY:
After Old Man of the Sea, the sea-god, who forced Sinbad to carry him on his shoulders and refused to dismount. In this story from The Arabian Nights, Sinbad the Sailor eventually released himself from his burden by getting the Old Man drunk. Also see albatross.

USAGE:
"Deirdre has Ken the Cardie Wearer ever at her side, an Old Man of the Sea she can't ditch. He grows daily more brain-sapping as he takes up local causes like t'cobbles in Coronation Street."
Molly Blake: The Mail's First Lady of TV; Evening Mail (Birmingham, UK); Dec 6, 2000.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Cautious, careful people, always casting about to preserve their reputation and social standing, never can bring about a reform. Those who are really in earnest must be willing to be anything or nothing in the world's estimation. -Susan B. Anthony, reformer and suffragist (1820-1906)

Pygmalionism

PRONUNCIATION:
(pig-MAY-lee-uh-niz-uhm)

MEANING:
noun:
1. The state of being in love with an object of one's own making.
2. The condition of loving an inanimate object such as a statue or image.

ETYMOLOGY:
In Greek mythology, Pygmalion was the king of Cyprus who carved a female figure in ivory so realistic and beautiful that he fell in love with her. The goddess Aphrodite took pity on him and responded by bringing the statue to life as Galatea. Pygmalion married her.

USAGE:
"Sarah Palin has been an exercise in Pygmalionism gone wrong. The most famous female politician in the world today is a vain and sanctimonious woman of boundless ambition and no vision."
Janet Bagnall; Setback for Women; The Gazette (Montreal, Canada); Feb 12, 2010.
"The aim was to show the reverse Pygmalionism of cinema, which takes live bodies and makes cool, untouchable idols of them."
Hold On to Your Popcorn; The Observer (London, UK); May 20, 2007.

Sisyphean

PRONUNCIATION:
(sis-ee-FEE-uhn)

MEANING:
adjective: Endlessly laborious and fruitless.

ETYMOLOGY:
After Sisyphus, a king in Greek mythology who was cursed to push a huge boulder to the top of a hill, only to watch it roll back down and to repeat this forever. Roll, rinse, repeat.

USAGE:
"Even making the bed together in the morning, an act that had hitherto struck me as Sisyphean, took on meaning."
Tim Page; Parallel Play; The New Yorker; Aug 20, 2007.
Explore "sisyphean" in the Visual Thesaurus.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Punishment is the last and least effective instrument in the hands of the legislator for the prevention of crime. -John Ruskin, author, art critic, and social reformer (1819-1900)

Achates

PRONUNCIATION:
(uh-KAY-teez)

MEANING:
noun: A trusty friend or companion.

ETYMOLOGY:
After Achates, the faithful companion and friend of Aeneas, in the epic poem Aeneid by the Roman poet Vergil (70-19 BCE). In the story, Achates is called fidus Achates (faithful Achates) and he accompanies Aeneas everywhere in his adventures.

USAGE:
"I was baffled by the lack of reference to the sleuth of Baker Street and his trusty Achates."
John Banville; Bloomsday, Bloody Bloomsday; The New York Times; Jun 13, 2004.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
A few minutes ago every tree was excited, bowing to the roaring storm, waving, swirling, tossing their branches in glorious enthusiasm like worship. But though to the outer ear these trees are now silent, their songs never cease. Every hidden cell is throbbing with music and life, every fiber thrilling like harp strings, while incense is ever flowing from the balsam bells and leaves. No wonder the hills and groves were God's first temples, and the more they are cut down and hewn into cathedrals and churches, the farther off and dimmer seems the Lord himself. -John Muir, naturalist, explorer, and writer (1838-1914)

Which came first, editor or edit? This may sound like a chicken-and-egg question, but it's not. It's easy to assume that the word editor was formed from the verb edit. In reality, the word editor came first (from Latin edere: to give out). Then we formed the verb edit from it. Words such as babysit, vaccinate, donate, all were derived from their noun forms, not vice versa.
This re-interpretation of a word to coin a new word is called back-formation: devising a word from what appears to be a derivative word.
This re-analysis of words can be in error or in humor, done on purpose. About 110 years ago British troops were released after a long siege in a town called Mafeking in South Africa. It sparked wild celebrations in Britain. The town name Mafeking was jocularly treated as a gerund and a verb form was coined: to maffick (to celebrate).
The word we now know as cherry was originally cherise (in French it's still called cerise today), but as that seemed to be plural, people erroneously spoke of a cherry when referring to a single fruit.
In the beginning back-formations are usually frowned upon, for example, the verb enthuse (a back-formation from enthusiasm) is not yet well accepted. Scores of other back-formations are now full-fledged members of the English language: greed (from greedy), injure (from injury), beg (from beggar).
The verb to back-form itself is a back-formation. We'll look at five more this week.

cathect

PRONUNCIATION:

(kuh-THEKT) MEANING:

verb tr.: To invest mental or emotional energy in an idea, object, or person.
ETYMOLOGY:

Back-formation from Greek kathexis (the investment of emotional energy in something). Ultimately from the Indo-European root segh- (to hold) that is also the source of words such as victory (to hold in a battle), hectic, scheme, and scholar.
USAGE:

"Mortimer divorced Jane Goodall's mother, Vanne, in 1950, consigning Jane to the fate of so many children who cathect with the animal kingdom to compensate for missing parents."
Judith Lewis; Observing the Observer: Jane Goodall, The Woman Who Redefined Man; Los Angeles Times; Nov 19, 2006.

sass

PRONUNCIATION:
(sas) MEANING:
noun: Impudent talk; back talk.
verb tr.: To talk disrespectfully, especially to someone older or in authority.

ETYMOLOGY:
Back-formation from sassy, alteration of saucy, from sauce, from Latin salsa, from sallere (to salt), from sal (salt). Ultimately from the Indo-European root sal- (salt) that is also the source of silt, sausage, salad, salami, salary, and salmagundi.

USAGE:
"Madea ran to the edge of the stage with a gun after thinking someone in the audience was sassing her."
Kevin C. Johnson; Love Him or Hate Him, Tyler Perry is All Over the Place; St. Louis Post-Dispatch; Apr 18, 2010.
"I raised you so you wouldn't talk back to me or sass me."
Lawanda Randall; Telling Tales: The Tree of Love; The World & I (Washington, DC); Feb 1995.

callithump

PRONUNCIATION:
(KAL-uh-thump) MEANING:
noun:
1. A noisy, boisterous celebration or parade.
2. A mock serenade with pots, pans, kettles, etc., given for a newly married couple. Also known as charivari or shivaree.

ETYMOLOGY:
Back-formation from callithumpian, alteration of English dialect word gallithumpian (disturber of order at Parliamentary elections in 18th century).

USAGE:
"'Our clothes,' Bono said, 'got somewhat fusty in the rebels' little New Year's callithump."
M.T. Anderson; The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing; Candlewick Press; 2008.

accrete

PRONUNCIATION:
(uh-KREET) MEANING:
verb tr., intr.: To grow gradually by accumulation.

ETYMOLOGY:
Back-formation from accretion, from accrescere (to grow). Ultimately from the Indo-European root ker- (to grow) that is also the source of words such as increase, recruit, crew, crescent, cereal, concrete, and crescendo.

USAGE:
"Protoplanets accrete more material and grow into full-sized planets."
Lisa Grossman; Saving the Earth With Dynamical Simulations; Science News (Washington, DC); Jan 8, 2010.

cerebrate

PRONUNCIATION:
(SER-uh-brayt) MEANING:
verb tr., intr.: To use the mind: to think, reason.

ETYMOLOGY:
Back-formation from cerebration (act of thinking), from cerebrum (brain). Ultimately from the Indo-European root ker- (horn or head) that is also the source of words such as unicorn, horn, hornet, rhinoceros, reindeer, migraine, carrot, carat, and Hindi sirdar (leader, from Persian sar: head).

USAGE:
"Since Galatea, Richard Powers has been cerebrating more than he's been feeling, but with his latest book, as if in wild overcompensation, he has led with his heart and entirely lost his head." Thomas Mallon; Going to Extremes; The Atlantic (Boston); Jan/Feb 2003.