Pusillanimous

This word has nothing to do with pugilism, as I mistakenly thought.  Quite the opposite, in fact.  It's an adjective that means cowardly, faint hearted and weak spirited.  It's earliest recorded use was from before 1425 (spelt without the 'o') and came directly from the Latin pusillanumus/pusillanimis, which meant having very little courage.  It was a merging of the Latin for little, pusillus, and the Latin for spirit or courage, animus.  The spelling that we know first appeared in 1586, but sadly the word is rarely seen in literature anymore.

Allow me to leave you with a quote from a classic.  In the film The Wizard of Oz, the Wizard says to the Scarecrow, "Why anybody can have a brain.  That's a very mediocre commodity.  Every pusillanimous creature that crawls on the earth or slinks through slimy seas has a brain."


Sources:
Chambers 21st Century Dictionary (1996), Chambers.
The Wizard of Oz [online], www.imdb.com/title/tt0032138 (Accessed 10 February 2012).
Images:
The Wizard of Oz (1939), Warner Brothers.



Juliana

Panic

I have been given a task by a couple of my regular library borrowers: to find a stronger word than panic.  It has a few subtly different meanings and is both a noun and an adjective, but usually has the sense of unreasoning fear.  In 1627, it was a contagious emotion that was induced by the god Pan.  The meaning that we know today first appeared in 1708.

From 1603, panic was also used as an adjective, for example panic fear or panic horror which came from the Greek Panikos.  Pan was the Greek god who, when not dancing or amorously pursuing nymphs, caused an irrational 'panic' fear in men and cattle that dared trespass in his forests.  The image on the right is a Greek statue from 100 BC that shows Pan pestering Aphrodite, note her shoe in her hand that she is about to use to swat him away.


Unfortunately, I've failed in my task.  I couldn't find anything stronger than panic.  According to the Bloomsbury Theasaurus, there are many possible synonyms, such as dread, terror, horror, distress and alarm, but none convey the same strength of emotion.

Sources:
Alexander, Fran (ed.) (1994) Bloomsbury Thesaurus, Bloomsbury.

Chambers Dictionary of Etymology (1988), Chambers.

Clayton, Peter et al. (1990) A-Z of Mythology, Bison Books.

Hodge, Jessica (1995) Who's Who in Classical Mythology, Bison Books.

Images:

Aphrodite, Pan and Eros (c.100 BC) [online], http://lib.haifa.ac.il/collections/art/gr/aphrodite_pan_and_eros_100.gif (Accessed 12 February 2012)

Juliana 

Esurient

It's not often that I come across a new word (forgive me if this sounds like bragging, but it is more to do with my choice of reading material rather than my 'extensive' vocabulary), so when I do find a new word it's like coming across an antique at a car boot sale.

The word I learnt yesterday was esurient, found on page 103 in Kevin Hearne's novel 'Hounded' (published by Orbit in 2011): "I felt completely restored, albeit dreadfully thirsty and a bit esurient".

Esurient is an archiac expression that means hungry (appropriately used in the novel as the character is an immortal Druid) and comes from the Latin esurire and esuriens, to hunger.  It's so archiac, that the word does not appear in many dictionaries.  I had quite a hunt to find it's meaning.

So, amaze your friends and family.  Next time someone asks you, "Are you hungry?", you can reply "Yes, I'm quite esurient", and watch their faces as they try to work out what you just said...

Sources:
The Concise Oxford Dicitonary of Current English (1995), Clarendon Press.
Hearne, Kevin (2011) Hounded, Orbit.


Juliana

Concrete and Cement

Hands up, who knows the difference between concrete and cement?  Not me.  I kept getting them mixed up, so I decided to find out their etymology and then hopefully, I'd remember which was which.  So...cement is a manufactured powder, which, when mixed with aggregate, sand and water makes concrete.

The word cement is known from before 1300, and is spelt cyment in Kyng Alisaunder.  Later, circa 1330, it became siment, from the Old French ciment, which came from the Latin caementum, which meant rough stone, rubble.  The spelling that we know today appeared before 1398, which also came from French.  Thus, the word was pronounced differently, with the emphasis on the first syllable.  Only recently, in the last century or so, has the emphasis shifted to the second syllable.  In English, cement has always described a pasty mixture that hardens into a rocklike substance.  Originally, though, cement was the rubble that was mixed with lime and water to form mortar.

Concrete has a longer history, with more varied and subtle meanings.  It has only been used as a noun since 1834, where it described a mixture of sand, gravel and water with cement to form a solid mass.  Nonetheless, concrete was used as an adjective from before 1398, to denote an actual substance rather than a quality.  This meaning came from the Latin concretus, which was the past participle of concrescere - to harden, solidify.  Primarily a term used by logicians and grammarians to contrast with abstract, from the 1600s it became to mean real or particular (that is, not abstract or general) and can be found in Milton's poems and Carlyle's philosophical works.

However, a form of concrete was used by the Romans who called it opus caementicium, a mix of lime and stone rubble.  One superb example of Roman architecture that used their form of concrete is the Pantheon in Rome with it's amazing dome (see the pictures on the left).  The Byzantines also used concrete, but the process was lost or forgotten in England until the eighteenth century.  The architecture Smirke used concrete when he built the British Museum in 1823 (see below right).  So the next time you visit, take a look at this structure.  It has housed some of the treasures of Britain for over two centuries.  This does not compare to the Roman Pantheon, but it's a bit closer to home...

Sources:

Chambers Dictionary of Etymology (1988), Chambers.

Curl, James Stevens (1989) Oxford Dictionary of Architecture, Oxford University Press.

Images:

British Museum (date unknown) [online], www.jhstudioglass.com/British-Museum-Designs/ (accessed 30th September 2011)

Pantheon (2011) [online], www.gothereguide.com/pantheon-rome-place/2011 (accessed 30th September 2011)

Tamping

It's time for a vocabulary lesson.

Today's Wenglish word is tamping.  According to Webster's Dictionary, tamping is the act of plugging up a hole prior to blasting with dynamite.  However, in Wenglish it has a very different meaning - very angry.  For example: " 'E was tampin' when 'e 'eard about what 'ad 'appened!".  For more emphasis, you can say " 'E was tampin' mad when 'e 'eard what 'ad 'appened!"

To differentiate from the word in Webster's Dictionary, it's all in the pronounciation.  You place the emphasis on the first syllable with a slight pause after the 'p', ie. TAMP'ing. 

Go on, give it a try...

Sources:
Lewis, Robert (2008) Wenglish: The Dialect of the South Wales Valleys, Y Lolfa.
Websters Third New International Dictionary, unabridged (1993)

Juliana

Field

There's a British actor that's been appearing in some high profile films lately who has an unusual name.  J. J. Feild (left) has come a long way from a small role in Heartbeat to a supporting role in this year's Captain America. 

What struck me about his name was the spelling.  His name is spelt the way we pronounce the commonly used word for an area of open land surrounded by hedges - a field.  The earliest recorded use of field is in 1155, it appeared in Gower's Confessio Amantis c.1393.  The word developed from the Old English folde meaning earth, land.  This is the same as the Old Saxon folda, also meaning earth.  This spelling with 'ie' was most likely introduced to English by Anglo-French scribes during the late 1400s, who represented the long 'e' sound with the grapheme 'ie'.

However, in the Cursor Mundi (written c.1325), we find the spelling of feild.  Which brings me neatly back to the actor's name.  I wonder if it's derived from this fourteenth century word in the Cursor Mundi? 
Sources:
Chambers Dictionary of Etymology (1988), Chambers
J. J. Feild (2008) [online] http://www.tcs.cam.ac.uk/the_bridge/features/move-over-mr-darcy/ (Accessed 12 September 2011)


Juliana

Tawdry

This word has a fascinating history.  Since 1676 century it has meant showy, cheap and gaudy, however, before this it had a different meaning.  It is a shortened form of tawdry lace.  Tawdry is a corruption of Saint Audrey, and tawdry lace was a lace necklace or ribbon sold at annual St. Audrey fairs during the Middle Ages.  In one of Shakespeare's plays A Winter's Tale (c.1610), a shepherdess called Mopsa says "Come, you promised me a tawdry lace and a pair of sweet gloves" (Act IV, Scene 3).

In the Middle Ages, tawdry lace necklaces were believed to have healing powers, to cure illnesses of the throat and neck.  This was derived from the legend of Saint Audrey (also known as Saint Ethelreda), who died in the seventh century from plague.  Before her death, a doctor removed a tumour from her neck, which the Audrey believed was divine punishment for her youthful fondness for pretty and expensive necklaces.  However, when her body was exhumed seventeen years later it was not only uncorrupted (a common sign of saintliness), but the wound from her neck surgery had healed.  Thus the myth of the tawdry necklace was born.

When the Reformation removed all images of saints and attempted to eradicate all belief in their legends, the meaning of tawdry lace changed from being a miraculous amulet to the current meaning of showy and gaudy.

Tawdry is a good example of how a word's meaning can be affected by changes in society.  In this case, religious reformation altered tawdry's meaning from a positive one requiring faith in the saint's\legend to something negative and perjorative.

Sources:
Bridgman, Peter (2004) Shakespeare and St. Ethelreda's, Ely Place [online], available from www.stethelreda,com/pamphlet.doc (accessed 9 June 2011)
Chambers Dictionary of Etymology (1988), Chambers


Juliana