…Or possibly a bigtime copout…

an·ti·no·mi·an Pronunciation[an-ti-noh-mee-uhn]
–noun

1. A person who maintains that Christians are freed from the moral law by virtue of grace as set forth in the gospel.

2. An adherent of antinomianism.

-adj.

1. Of or relating to the doctrine of antinomianism.
2. Opposed to or denying the fixed meaning or universal applicability of moral law.

[Origin: 1635–45; < ML Antinom(ī) name of sect (pl. of Antinomus opponent of (the moral) law < Gk antí anti- + nómos law) + -ian]

 

 Have you ever know anyone like that? Someone who felt free from moral law. Someone who used their god as a shield. Someone who feels knows that they are so blessed by the grace of god that they can do whatever the hell they please. After all, there is no firm meaning of moral law, only what they want it to be at any given moment. One of my peers many years ago got born again. He sat in my office and told me face to face that he no longer had to be concerned about making mistakes because he could not make mistakes. He had put everything into the hands of the lord who guided his every move, every decision. He assumed no responsibility for his own life. He tried, unsuccessfully, to recruit me and save my soul. I invited him to go talk it through over a pitcher of beer. Incensed, he stalked out of my office, muttering to himself that he had met the devil face to face, or something.

 

That is a very dangerous person. Especially if such afflicted person was also in a very important and powerful job, like head dude of a country or something. Of course, that would never happen…

I do not know if that is proper application and usage of the word antinomian, but it seems to fit.

Thanks to Delights for the Ingenious for leaving this word, new to me, lying out in plain view where I could find it.

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Those who have read these mutterings for more than a short time know that I have a somewhat lustful fascination with the language, especially the words that we shove together in random and chaotic ways to constitute our sometimes bizarre English language. If there had been a lucrative job market awaiting me, I might have chosen to forego life as an engineer to pursue an exciting career as an etymologist. That sounds somewhat similar but differs in spelling from entomologist, a dude who gets off studying bugs. As a kid, I did that too, having one of the largest insect collections known to exist on my block.

My fascination with words spills ink on these pages in several ways, not the least of which is the category of Weird Words, which can be found somewhere down there in the sidebar. When I encounter a word that is new or only vaguely familiar, out comes my original model palm device, the trusty 3×5 card and Pentel mechanical pencil. There the words reside, etched in graphite on bleached papyrus, until I find time to check them out. There is one blog that has a sidebar that gets me all excited and sweaty (not what you’re thinking…). Jeremy Freese has a list that he calls enunciation candy — some of his favorite words to hear or say. I would be envious of Jeremy, but he is a Harvard professor, fer gawd’s sake. As such, in keeping with the natural order of things, it is more appropriate that I, a mere mortal, cower in awe and admiration than to covet or emulate. I would wager yesterday’s PBJ from my leftover lunch bag that Jeremy even knows how and when to use every one of those words. But I digress… Go read Jeremy’s weblog - he is a hoot…

So yester morning I’m sitting here in BlogCentral, sipping the java, prying the eyelids from their nocturnal down and closed position, minding my own business and reading the morning updates to your several thousand blogs. Without warning, the Weird Word klaxon sounded, my eyelids popped open, the slouch let go of my back, I leaned into the monitor and stared at the word in front of me — one that had never passed this way before.

entelechy

Aha! A quick check found that Jeremy didn’t have this one on his list. Grab another cup o joe and get to work. Dictionary.com sez:

en·tel·e·chy /ɛnˈtɛləki/ - [en-tel-uh-kee] –noun, plural -chies.

1.	a realization or actuality as opposed to a potentiality.

2.	(in vitalist philosophy) a vital agent or force directing growth and life.

 

 

---

[Origin: 1595–1605; < LL entelechīa < Gk entelécheia, equiv. to en- en-² + tél(os) goal + éch(ein) to have + -eia -y³]

—Related forms

en·te·lech·i·al /ˌɛntəˈlɛkiəl/ [en-tuh-lek-ee-uhl] - adjective

 

Also shown there is the American Heritage Dictionary definition:

 

en·tel·e·chy (ěn-těl’ĭ-kē) n. pl. en·tel·e·chies

1. In the philosophy of Aristotle, the condition of a thing whose essence is fully realized; actuality.
2. In some philosophical systems, a vital force that directs an organism toward self-fulfillment.

Damn! This is good stuff! Aristotle, yet. Wonder if Jackie knew about this. Jeremy, go sit in Harvard Square and contemplate self-actualization and the Aristotelian order of things. May the force be with you in all that you do…

 

For anyone still awake and wondering what dark alley I explored to find this word, it was at a blog of Alaskan origin, named of course, entelechy. One of the tag lines under the blog title is :: an expression of unity ::, which is certainly something we could use more of these days. Go check it out. And don’t forget to pay a visit to Jeremy. Tell him Winston said Hey…

 

 

[Hat tip to amba for the link to Maria at entelechy.]

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What a strange new word to me. First sighting of pandiculate was on my Page-A-Day Trivia Calendar, December 22, 2006. The answer to What are you doing when you pandiculate? was stretching and yawning, as this kitty is demonstrating. Being ever-curious about the never-significant, I had to do a bit of confirming research prior to thrusting my new font of knowledge on you, my gentle readers.

Wikipedia describes a yawn as: a reflex of deep inhalation and exhalation associated with being tired, with a need to sleep, or from lack of stimulation. Pandiculation is the term for the act of stretching and yawning. Yawning is a powerful non-verbal message with several possible meanings, depending on the circumstances. It is also claimed to help increase the state of alertness of a person. The exact causes of yawning are still unknown. (Emphasis added.)

Numerous interesting facts, trivia, and superstitions are listed in the Wikipedia article. One of the more curious ones is that certain species of penguins employ yawning as part of their courtship ritual. Penguin couples face off and the males engage in what is described as an “ecstatic display,” their beaks open wide and their faces pointed skyward. (Readers are cautioned about trying this at home or in dating situations. — Winston)

But the most interesting thing I have learned in my quest is that in about 5% of patients, Clomipramine can cause inadvertent orgasms when yawning. Which begs the questions (1) where does one obtain this stuff, and (2) how does one know if they are in the 5% or the 95%? The next time you see someone enjoying a big yawn in public, smile to yourself and ponder, is it real or is it drugs?

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Did you ever have one of those days? Ever feel like this? Of course you have. So have we all. We even use a common expression to describe the peaking of our frustration level — “pulling my hair out.”

But that’s not what this post is about. I just ran across this strange word that I had never seen and thought it might hold interest for a reader who has or knows someone with the problem, or who is a world-class Scrabble player. The new word for the day is

trichotillomania

This is not the pulling of hair out of frustration, but an abnormal desire to pull out one’s hair. People suffering from trichotillomania will routinely pluck hair from their scalp, eyebrows, eyelashes, or other parts of their body. Sometimes the plucking is  done impulsively, other times with studied deliberation. The word derives from the Greek trich (”hair”) and tillein (”to pull or pluck”). That combo is then suffixed with -mania (”to be mad”).

While the word was thought to have first been used in the early 20th century by a French dermatologist named Francois Hallopeau, only recently has the medical community paid any serious attention to this potentially serious health problem.  One popular book on the subject is The Hair Pulling Problem by Fred Penzel. This book contains a lot of self-help information. Anyone with more serious conditions are advised to seek competent medical help, if such can be had in your little corner of the universe.

 

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You may not be familiar with the word, but you probably know people who show theirs daily.

u·ro·py·gi·um n. The protuberance from a bird’s rump from which its tail feathers grow.

Sooo… when you see a bird, or a person, strutting like a peacock with their tail feathers up for show for no apparent reason, you know their uropygium is working. Some folks just can’t help but show their ass constantly… Does anyone come to mind?

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In all my reading travels, through books and reams and entire libraries, I had never seen this word or anything like it. Not even a clue as to it’s roots.

metoposcopy

\Met’-o-pos‘-co-py\, n. (Gr. ? observing the forehead; ? the forehead + ? to view: cf. F. m(’e)toposcopie.) The art of discovering the character of persons by their features, or the lines of the face.

In a previous post I had written about wrinkles, which are now expression lines if you want to be a part of the politically correct crowd. Perhaps to a metoposcopissed metoposcopist it makes more sense to call them expression lines, since they apparently study them to discover character traits. In my vast research spanning months, I found that apparently this field of study is the same as or very similar to physiognomy. Well… that certainly clears it up…

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Anyone who has heard or read George Will (Is there one so chaste amongst us?), and regardless of feelings about him or his political extrapolations, we probably can all agree on one thing: Will is a grand-master word merchant, up there in a class with very few others … only William F. Buckley, Jr. and Frank Paynter come to mind at the moment.

Now George has even outdone hisownself. In The Last Word column of the July 3, 2006, issue of Newsweek, he discusses the insipid fury of the Aug. 8 Democratic primary in Connecticut, a serious threat to Joe Lieberman’s long tenure in that state’s political landscape. Will describes the lack of interest and low-level turnout for summertime elections thusly:

Those most likely to vote in vacation season are disproportionately the ideologically incandescent and seriously annoyed — not Lieberman supporters.

Ideologically incandescent … Oh, how I wish I had said that! What a unique and interesting way to describe the loud minority who trumpet their beliefs, blared so often out of key, with so much glowing fervor.

And then he brings us back from that intellectual sojourn with a dip into the whimsical seriously annoyed.

Thank you, George Will, for the morning’s entertainment here on Independence Day, 2006.

(Editorial emphasis and interpretive remarks by the author with apologies to George Will if his ideas or intentions were in any way hijacked or corrupted.)

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chres·tom·a·thy, n.
pl. chres·tom·a·thies
1. an anthology of literary passages used to help learn a language
2. a volume of selected passages or stories of an author

From Greek chrestos (or khrestos), an adjective meaning “useful”, and matheia, “body of learning” (from manthanein, math-, “to learn.”)

Several blogs come to mind that might qualify for or serve as chrestomathies of their sector or the entirety of Planet Blog…

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capitonym: A word that changes in both meaning and pronunciation when it is capitalized — such as polish/Polish, august/August, job/Job, and lima/Lima. It’s a form of heteronym — a word that is spelled the same as another but has a different pronunciation and meaning (such as minute, which, based on pronunciation, can mean either tiny or one-sixtieth of an hour).
Credit: Page-A-Day Calendar E-Mail Edition, 5/17/06

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( With serious aplogies to Dr. Stu Savory and German speaking people everywhere! I obviously have no comprehension of the German language and am plagued with gehim der furz. )

English adoption of the German word zeitgeist is widespread. We see and hear it almost on a daily basis. Some people can even tell you that it roughly translates to spirit of the time or mood of an era. So when I stumbled on this one, I knew it was German, knew it had something to do with time (zeit), but having never seen or heard it, a trip to dictionary.com found this:

zeit·ge·ber noun
Pronunciation: ‘tsIt-”gA-b&r, ‘zIt-

An environmental agent or event (as the occurrence of light or dark) that provides the stimulus setting or resetting a biological clock of an organism.

Look at that pronunciation - could pass for a dialect of Klingon!

Try working that into a conversation without sounding like a smart-ass…

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How many times must we be subjected to Bush’s nu-cu-ler? It is curious, disgusting, and frightening that a person could matriculate (no, Georgie, that is not a dirty word) and graduate from Yale, go on to be elected/selected Governor of a great state and then President of the United States, and still be so inept with American English. His language and communications skill levels must be about third grade, though I have known second graders who could construct better sentences, and ones that actually made sense!

The words to describe Bush’s general problems with the language are well know to us: inept, incompetent, stupid. At least we can credit him with consistency since his management and presiding styles incorporate these same characteristics, all tightly bonded together by a heavy application of unjustified arrogance. There is also a word to specifically describe his nu-cu-ler pronunciation.

epenthesis: n. the insertion or development of a sound or letter in the body of a word.
Examples: a-tha-lete instead of athlete, nu-cu-ler instead of nuclear, cum-ber-bund instead of cummerbund.

Prior to the next Presidential election, let us all spend a bit of time and energy focusing on questions such as:

Can the candidate make a speech or hold their half of a conversation without embarrassing us as a nation?

Can he or she make complete sentences without reading them from a teleprompter?

Can she or he read a teleprompter?

Does the candidate’s normal vocabulary include words of more than five letters?

Can the candidate correctly pronounce nuclear?

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abulia n. (also aboulia)
1. abnormal lack of ability to act or make decisions.
2. loss or impairment of the ability to make decisions or act independently.

Formed by combining the prefix a-, meaning “without”, with the Greek word boule, meaning “will”. Abulia, or without will, is “most often used in medical or psychological contexts to describe physical or mental conditions that make it difficult, if not impossible, for an individual to act or make decisions…”

This is quite obviously not Bush’s problem, as evidenced by his port decision to turn over management of our chicken coops to the fox. Now, what’s that word for stupid, dangerous, wreckless, dumb-ass decisions?

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OMPHALOSKEPSIS — Sounds like a horrible disease involving some beloved internal organ that has developed a bad case of the rot. But this is a common activity in which most of us frequently engage, at least in a metaphorical sense.

omphaloskepsis n. meditation while contemplating or gazing at one’s navel. (Greek: omphalos (navel) + skepsis (examination))

Omph… this could get interesting! The research and investigation for this post required close examination of many belly button sites and, of course, hundreds of belly button photos. Some of the more interesting discoveries are revealed here for your your pleasure and further pursuit.

The Great Belly Button Lint Survey is a hoot!

There is an album named Bellybutton by an artist named Jellyfish.

And there is a band named Navel that defies categorization.

Deirdre Day-MacLeod at her Identity Theory site has an interesting article on the purpose and meaning of navels. In part, she says “Halfway between head and genitalia, not strictly sexual, but, like (Britney) Spears herself, ‘not that innocent’ either, the belly button is a liminal marker. Not one thing or another, it has no purpose but to indicate humanity, and where humanity treads, sexuality is never far behind.” And “… the navel is the first mark that life leaves upon your body, a scar as unique as your fingerprint.“

Completely outside my vast realm of knowledge and experience, it seems there is special significance placed on the navel by certain Eastern religions, philosophies, and yogi practitioners. “The Navel Chakra or Shen Ch’ue (”Mind Palace”) of Taoism … is the major emotional centre of the being, as well as being the main storage battery for ch’i-energy.“

I never dreamed there was so much to know about belly buttons, and I have had so much fun putting this one together. But I realize an omission that will be rectified now. It the best I could find on short notice, but this one is for the girls…

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It was the second time today that I had heard the word on the radio. Curious for such an uncommon word that is not a part of my everyday real-world vernacular. So with my ship safely docked in the launch bay, I rushed into my quarters to verify my understanding of the word before I decompressed and forgot about it. Expecting the usual greeting hug, Roomie came into Comm Central and inquired about my deviation from routine as I plunged headlong into my favorite online dictionary.

Without breaking focus, and given the ease with which the word can be mispronounced, even if paying attention, I quickly asked if she knew the meaning of perspicacity. And mispronounce it I must have, for with no discernable hesitation and with a straight face, she damaged forever the image of English majors by answering “That’s the volume of stuff that my purse will hold.”

That broke my attention long enough for my head to bob around and look at her for a split second before we both broke into uncontrolled laughter. On regaining a bit of composure, I said “NOT ‘pers- cap-acity’, it’s ‘per-spic-acity’. She smugly said “I know.”

After another good laugh, I read her the definition from dictionary.com:

per·spi·cac·i·ty n. Acuteness of perception, discernment, or understanding.

Again, she smugly said “I know.”

Dont you just hate it when they do that!

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