Vocabulary List 12

SESSION 39

In this chapter we are going to discuss a number of things to be found in the world and in the minds of its inhabitants—poverty and wealth; secondhand emotions; the relativity of time; praise of various sorts; small talk and how to indulge in it; animals; longings for the past; sounds; eating habits; and many kinds and conditions of secrecy.

IDEAS

for want of the green stuff

There are people who are forced to live without the pure necessities of living—food, heat, hot water, vermin- and rodent-free surroundings, decent clothing, etc.
Such people live: in penury.

at least watch it

All normal people want and need love and at least a modicum of excitement in their lives—so say the psychologists. If love is not received, they may often satisfy their emotional longings and needs by getting their feelings secondhand—through reading love stories, watching soap operas, movies, etc.
These are: vicarious feelings.

time is fleeting

Anything that lasts for but a short time and leaves no trace is: ephemeral.

how not to call a spade…

   Words are not only symbols of things—they are not the things themselves. (This, by the way, is one of the basic tenets of semantics.) But many people identify the word and the thing so closely that they fear to use certain words that symbolize things that are unpleasant to them.
   Words having to do with death, sex, certain portions of the anatomy, excretion, etc. are avoided by certain people.
   These people prefer “circumlocutions”—words that “talk around” an idea of that mean or imply something but don’t come right out and say so directly.

For example:

WORD CIRCUMLOCUTION

Die expire, depart this life, pass away, leave this vale of tears

Sexual intercourse (intimate) relations, “playing house,” “shacking up”

Prostitute lady of the evening, fille de joie, painted woman, lady of easy virtue,

fille de nuit, streetwalker, hooker

House of prostitution house of ill-fame, bawdyhouse, house of ill-repute, bagnio, brothel, bordello, “house,” “massage parlor”

Buttocks, behind derrière, rear end, butt, tail

Breasts bosom, bust, curves

Toilet powder room, little girl’s (boy’s) room, facilities, washroom, lavatory, head

The left-hand column is the direct, non-pussyfooting word. The right-hand column is made up of: euphemisms.

small talk

“Whenever I’m in the dumps, I get a new suit.”

“Oh, so that’s where you get them!”

“Lend me a dime—I want to phone one of my friends.”

“Here’s a quarter—call them all.”

“The doctor says I have snoo in my blood.”
“Snoo? What’s snoo?”
“Not a darn! What’s new with you?”
“What are twins?”
“Okay, what are twins?”
“Womb mates!”
“I took a twip yesterday.”
“A twip?”
“Yes, I took a twip on a twain!”

These are examples of: badinage.

everything but give milk

You’ve seen a cow contentedly chewing its cud. Nothing seems capable of disturbing this animal—and the animal seems to want nothing more out of life than to lead a simple, vegetable existence.
Some people are like a cow—calm, patient, placid, phlegmatic, vegetable-like. They are: bovine.

good old days

   Do you sometimes experience a keen, almost physical, longing for associations or places of the past?
   When you pass the neighbourhood in which you were born and where you spent your early years, do you have a sharp, strange reactions, almost akin to mild nausea?
   When you are away from home and friends and family, do pleasant remembrances crowd in on your mind to the point where your present loneliness becomes almost unbearable and you actually feel a little sick?
This common feeling is called: nostalgia.

sounds that grate

Some sounds are so harsh, grating and discordant that they offend the ear. They lack all sweetness, harmony, pleasantness. Traffic noises of a big city, chalk squeaking on a blackboard…
Such blaring, ear-splitting or spine-tingling sounds are called: cacophonous.

eating habits

Lions, tigers, wolves and some other mammals subsist entirely on flesh.

These mammals are: carnivorous.

private and public

There are activities that are kept not only private, but well-shrouded in secrecy and concealed from public knowledge. These activities are unethical, illegal, or unsafe—like having an affair with someone whose spouse is your best friend, betraying military secrets to the enemy, trading in narcotics, bribing public officials, etc.
Arrangements, activities, or meetings that fall under this category are called: clandestine.

Can you work with the words?

penury a. impermanent

vicarious b. banter

ephemeral c. homesickness

euphemism d. meat-eating

badinage e. circumlocution

bovine f. harsh noise

nostalgia g. poverty

cacophony h. secret

carnivorous i. placid; stolid; cowlike

clandestine j. secondhand

SESSION 40

ORIGINS AND RELATED WORDS

money, and what it will buy

   Penury, from the Latin penuria, need, neediness, is dire, abject poverty, complete lack of financial resources. It is one of the two strongest English words there are to denote absence of money. The adjective form, penurious, strangely enough, may mean poverty-stricken, but more commonly signifies stingy, close-fisted, niggardly; so sparing in the use of money as to give the appearance of penury.
   Penurious is a synonym of parsimonious, but is much stronger in implication. A parsimonious person is stingy, a penurious person is twice as stingy. Penury, then is poverty; penuriousness is stinginess, excessive frugality. The noun form of parsimonious is parsimony.
   A somewhat milder word than penury for poverty is indigence. Indigent people are not absolutely penniless—they are simply living in reduced circumstances, forgoing many creature comforts, forced to undergo the type of hardships that may accompany a lack of funds.
   On the other hand, a close synonym of penury, and one of equal strength, is destitution. Destitute people do not even have the means for mere subsistence—as such, they are perhaps on the verge of starvation. Penury and destitution are downright desperate circumstances.
   The possession of money, especially in increasing amounts, is expressed by affluence. Affluent people, people of affluence, or those living in affluent circumstances, are more than comfortable; in addition, there is the implication that their wealth is increasing. People who live in affluence probably own large and costly homes, run big, new cars, belong to expensive golf or country clubs, etc.
   A much stronger term is opulence, which not only implies much greater wealth than affluence, but in addition suggests lavish expenditures and ostentatiously luxurious surroundings. People of opulence own estates; drive only outrageously expensive and specially equipped cars; have a corps of servants, including a major-domo, etc. Opulent may describe people, surroundings, styles of life, or the like.
   Affluent is a combination of the prefix ad-, to, toward (changing to af- before a root beginning with f), plus the Latin verb fluo, to flow—affluence is that delightful condition in which money keeps flowing to us, and no one ever turns off the spigot. Other words from the same root, fluo, to flow, are fluid, influence, confluence (a “flowing together”), fluent (the words flow smoothly), etc.
Opulent is from Latin opulentus, wealthy. No other English words derive from this root.

doing and feeling

   If you watch a curious athletic event and you get tired, though the athletes expend all the energy—that’s vicarious fatigue.
   If you watch a motion in a movie or play suffer horribly at the death of her child and you go through the same agony, that’s vicarious torment.
   You can experience an emotion, then, in two ways: firsthand, through actual participation; or vicariously, by becoming empathically involved in another person’s feelings.
   Some people, for example, lead essentially dull and colorless lives. Through their children, through reading or attending the theatre, however, they can experience all the emotions felt by other whose lives move along at a swift, exciting pace. These people live at secondhand; they live vicariously.

time is relative

   One short-lived creature is the dayfly, which in Greek was called ephemera. Hence anything so short-lived, so unenduring that it scarcely seems to outlast a day, may be called ephemeral.
   A synonym of ephemeral is evanescent, fleeting, staying for a remarkably short time, vanishing. Something intangible, like a feeling, may be called evanescent; it’s here, and before you can quite comprehend it, it’s gone--vanished.
   Evanescence is built on the prefix e- (ex-), out, the root vanesco, to vanish, and the suffix –ent.
   The suffix –esce often, but not always, means begin to. –Escent may mean becoming or beginning to. Thus:
         adolescent—beginning to grow up/become adult.
         evanesce—begin to vanish
         convalesce—begin to get well after illness
         putrescent—beginning to rot/become putrid
         obsolescent—becoming obsolete.

an exploration of various good things

   A euphemism is a word or expression that has been substituted for another that is likely to offend—it is built on the Greek prefix eu-, good, the root pheme, voice, and the noun suffix –ism. (Etymologically, “something said in a good voice”.) Adjective: euphemistic.
   Other English words constructed from the prefix eu-:
    1. euphony—good sound; pleasant lilt or rhythm (phone, sound).
         Adj: euphonic or euphonious
    2. eulogy—etymologically “good speech”; a formal speech of praise, usually delivered as a funeral oration. Logos in this term means word or speech, as it did in philology (Chapter 6). Logos more commonly means science or stuffy, but has the alternate meaning in eulogy, philology, monologue, dialogue, epilogue (“after words”) and prologue (“before words”, or introduction).
         Adj: eulogistic; verb: eulogize; person who delivers: eulogist.
    3. euphoria—good feeling, a sense of mental buoyancy and physical well-being.
         Adj: euphoric.
     4. euthanasia—etymologically, “good death”; method of painless death used on people suffering from incurable diseases—not legal at the present time, but advocated by many people. The word derives from eu- plus Greek thanatos, death.

exploration of modes of expression

   Badinage is a half-teasing, non-malicious, frivolous banter, intended to amuse rather than wound. Badinage has a close synonym, persiflage, which is a little more derisive, a trifle more indicative of contempt or mockery—but still totally unmalicious.
   In line with badinage and persiflage, there are four other forms of expression you should be familiar with: cliché, bromide, platitude, and anodyne.
   A cliché is a pattern of words which was once new and fresh, but is now so old, worn, and threadbare that only banal, unimaginative speakers and writes ever use it. Examples are: fast and furious; unsung heroes; by leaps and bounds; conspicuous by its absence; green with envy; it was a dark and stormy night; etc. The most devastating criticism you can make of a piece of writing is to say, “It’s full of clichés!”

   A bromide is any trite, dull, and probably fallacious remark that shows very little evidence of original thinking, and that therefore convinces a listener of the total absence of perspicacity on the part of the speaker.
   For instance, some cautious, dull-minded individual might warn you not to take a chance in these words: “Better safe than sorry!”
   Your sneering response might be: “Oh, that old bromide!”
   A platitude is similar to a cliché or bromide, in that it is a dull, trite, hackneyed, unimaginative pattern of words—but, to add insult to injury (cliché), the speaker uses it with an air of novelty—as if he just made it up, what a brilliant fellow!
An anodyne, in the medical sense, is a drug that allays pain without curing an illness, like aspirin or morphine. Figuratively, an anodyne is a statement made to allay someone’s fears or anxieties, not believed by the speaker, but intended to be believed by the listener. “Prosperity is just around the corner” was a popular anodyne of the 1930s.
   A bromide is also a drug, formerly used as a sedative. Sedatives dull the senses—the statement labeled a bromide comes from a speaker of dull wit and has a sedative effect on the listener. The adjective is bromidic.
   Platitude derives from the Greek platys, broad or flat, plus the noun suffix –tude. Words like plateau (flat land), plate, and platter (flat dishes), and platypus (flat foot) all derive from the same root as platitude, a flat statement, i.e., one that falls flat, despite the speaker’s high hopes for it. The adjective is platitudinous.
   Anodyne is a combination of the negative prefix an- with Greek odyne, pain. Anodynes, as drugs, lessen pain; as statements, they are intended to reduce or eliminate emotional pain or anxiety.

REVIEW OF ETYMOLOGY

Prefix, Root, Suffix Meaning English Word

penuria need, neediness _____________________________

ad- (af-) to, toward _____________________________

fluo to flow _____________________________

opulentus wealthy _____________________________

ephemera dayfly _____________________________

e-, ex- out _____________________________

vanesco to vanish _____________________________

–esce begin to _____________________________

–ent adj suffix _____________________________

–ence noun suffix _____________________________

eu- good _____________________________

pheme voice _____________________________

–ism noun suffix _____________________________

phone sound _____________________________

–ic adj suffix _____________________________

–ous adj suffix _____________________________

logos word, speech _____________________________

–ize verb suffix _____________________________

thanatos death _____________________________

platys broad or flat _____________________________

an- negative prefix _____________________________

odyne paint _____________________________

SESSION 41

ORIGINS AND RELATED WORDS

people are the craziest animals

   Bovine, placid like a cow, stolid, patient, unexcitable, is built on the Latin word for ox or cow, bovis, plus the suffix –ine, like, similar to, or characteristic of. To call someone bovine is of course far from complimentary, for this adjective is considerably stronger than phlegmatic, and implies a certain mild contempt on the part of the speaker. A bovine person is somewhat like a vegetable: eats, grows and lives, but apparently is lacking in any strong feelings.
   Humans are sometimes compared to animals, as in the following adjectives:
1. leonine—like a lion in appearance or temperament
2. canine—like a dog. As a noun, the word refers to the species to which dogs belong. Our canine teeth are similar to those of a dog.
3. feline—catlike. We may speak of feline grace; or (insultingly) of feline temperament when we mean that a person is “catty.”
4. porcine—pig-like
5. vulpine—fox-like in appearance or temperament. When applied to people, it usually indicates the shrewdness of a fox.
6. ursine—bear-like
7. lupine—wolf-like
8. equine—horse-like, “horsey.”
9. piscine—fish-like
   All these adjectives come from the corresponding Latin words for the animals; and, of course, each adjective also describes, or refers to, the specific animal as well as to the person likened to the animal.
1. leo—lion
2. canis—dog
3. felis--cat
4. porcus—pig
5. vulpus—fox
6. ursus—bear
7. lupus—wolf
8. equus—horse
9. piscis—fish
   The word for meat from a pig—pork—derives, obviously, from porcus. Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, the Great Bear and the Little Bear, the two conspicuous groups of stars in the northern sky (conspicuous, of course, only on a clear night), are so labeled because in formation they resemble the outlines of bears. The feminine name Ursula is, by etymology, “a little bear.” The skin disease lupus was so named because it eats into the flesh, like a wolf might.

you can’t go home again

   Nostalgia, build on two Greek roots, nostos, a return, and algos, pain (as in neuralgia, cardialgia, etc.), is a feeling you can’t ever understand until you’ve experienced it—and you have probably experienced it whenever some external stimulus has crowded your mind with scenes from an earlier day.
   You know how life often seems much pleasanter in retrospect? Your conscious memory tends to store up the pleasant experiences of the past (the trauma and unpleasant experiences may get buried in the unconscious), and when you are lonely or unhappy you may begin to relive these pleasant occurrences. It is then that you feel the emotional pain and longing that we call nostalgia.
   The adjective is nostalgic, as in “movies that are nostalgic of the fifties,” etc.

soundings

Cacophony is itself a harsh-sounding word—and is the only one that exactly describes the unmusical, grating, ear-offending noises you are likely to hear in man-made surroundings: the New York subway trains thundering through their tunnels (they are also, these days in the 1970s, eye-offending, for which we might coin the term cacopsis, noun, and cacoptic, adjective), the traffic bedlam of rush hours in a big city, a steel mill, etc. Adj: cacophonous.
These words are built on the Greek root kakos, bad, harsh, or ugly, and phone, sound.

Phone, sound, is found also in:
1. telephone—“a sound from afar”
2. euphony—a good or pleasant sound
3. phonograph—etymologically, “writer of sound”
4. saxophone—a musical instrument (hence sound) invented by Adolphe Sax
5. xylophone—a musical instrument, etymologically “ sounds through wood” (Greek xylon, wood)
6. phonetics—the science of sounds of language; the adjective is phonetic, the expert a phonetician.
7. phonics—the science of sound; also the method of teaching reading by drilling the sounds of letters and syllables.

the flesh and all

Carnivorous combines carnis, flesh, and voro, to devour. A carnivorous animal, or carnivore, is one whose main diet is meat.
Voro, to devour, is the origin of other words referring to eating habits:
1. herbivorous—subsisting on grains, grasses, and other vegetation, as cows, deer, horses, etc. The animal is a herbivore. Derivation: Latin herbus, herb, plus voro, to devour.
2. omnivorous—eating everything: meat, grains, grasses, fish, insects, and anything else digestible. Humans are omnivores. Omnivorous (combining Latin omnis, all, with voro, plus the adj suffix –ous) refers not only to food. An omnivorous reader reads everything in great quantities (that is, devours all kinds of reading matter).
3. voracious—devouring; hence, greedy or gluttonous; may refer to food or any other habits. One may be a voracious eater, a voracious reader, voracious in one’s pursuit of money, pleasure, etc. Think of the two noun forms of loquacious. Can you write two nouns derived from voracious?
(1)____________________________________ or (2) ___________________________________.

“allness”

   Latin omnis, all, is the origin of:
   1. omnipotent—all-powerful, an adjective usually applied to God; also, to any ruler whose governing powers are unlimited, which allows for some exaggeration. (Omnis plus Latin potens, potensis, powerful, as in potentate a powerful ruler; impotent, powerless; potent, powerful; and potential, possessing power or ability not yet exercised). Can you write the noun form of omnipotent?
   2. omniscient—all-knowing: hence, infinitely wise. (Omnis plus sciens, knowing.) We have discussed this adjective in a previous chapter, so you will have no problem writing the noun: __________________________.
   3. omnipresent—present in all places at once. Fear was omnipresent in Europe during 1939 just before WWII. A synonym of omnipresent is ubiquitous, from Latin ubique, everywhere. The ubiquitous ice cream vendor seems to be everywhere at the same time, tinkling those little bells, once summer arrives. The ubiquitous little red wagon rides around everywhere in airports to refuel departing planes. The noun forms are ubiquity or _________________________ (can you think of the alternate form?)
   4. omnibus—etymologically, “for all, including all.” In the shortened form bus we have a public vehicle for all who can pay; in a John Galsworthy omnibus we have a book containing all of his works; in an omnibus legislative bill we have a bill containing all the miscellaneous provisions and appropriations left out of other bills.

more flesh

   Note how carnis, flesh, is the building block of:
   1. carnelian—a reddish color, the color of red flesh.
   2. carnival—originally the season of merrymaking just before Lent, when people took a last before saying, “Carne vale!” “Oh flesh, farewell!” (Latin vale, farewell, goodbye). Today a carnival is a kind of outdoor entertainment with games, rides, side shows, and, of course, lots of food—also any exuberant or riotous merrymaking or festivities.
   3. carnal—most often found in phrases like “carnal pleasures” or “carnal appetites,” and signifying pleasures or appetites of the flesh rather than the spirit—hence, sensual, lecherous, lascivious, lubricous, etc. The noun is carnality.
   4. carnage—great destruction of life (that is, human flesh), as in war or mass murders.
   5. reincarnation—a rebirth or reappearance. Believers in reincarnation maintain that one’s soul persists after it has fled the flesh, and eventually reappears in the body of a newborn infant or animal, or in another form. Some of us, according to this interesting philosophy, were once Napoleon, Alexander the Great, Cleopatra, etc. The verb is to reincarnate, to bring (a soul) back into another bodily form.
   6. incarnate—in the flesh. If we use this adjective to call someone, “the devil incarnate,” we mean that here is the devil in the flesh. Or we mean to say that someone is evil incarnate, that is, the personification of evil, evil invested with human form. The verb to incarnate is to embody, to give bodily form to, or make real.

dark secrets

Clandestine comes from Latin clam, secretly, and implies secrecy or concealment in the working out of a plan that is dangerous or illegal. Clandestine is a close synonym of surreptitious, which means, stealthy, sneaky, furtive, generally because of fear of detection.
The two words cannot always, however, be used interchangeably. We may speak of either clandestine or surreptitious meetings or arrangements; but usually only of clandestine plans and only of surreptitious movements or actions. Can you write the noun form of surreptitious? _________________________.

REVIEW OF ETYMOLOGY

Prefix, Root, Suffix Meaning English Word

–ine like, similar to, characteristic of ________________________

leo lion ________________________

felis cat ________________________

porcus pig ________________________

canis dog ________________________

vulpus fox ________________________

ursus bear ________________________

lupus wolf ________________________

equus horse ________________________

piscis fish ________________________

nostos a return ________________________

algos pain ________________________

–ic adj suffix ________________________

kakos bad, harsh, ugly ________________________

phone sound ________________________

xylon wood ________________________

carnis flesh ________________________

voro to eat ________________________

herba herb ________________________

omnis all ________________________

–ous adj suffix ________________________

potens, potentis powerful ________________________

sciens knowing _______ _________________

ubique everywhere ________________________

–ity noun suffix ________________________

vale farewell ________________________

–al adj suffix ________________________

re- again, back ________________________

–ate verb suffix ________________________

in- in ________________________

clam secretly ________________________

–ent adj suffix ________________________

–ence noun suffix ________________________

Word List