Surprising words

[Primula Baggins]

As some people know, I copyedit medical and scientific books for a living. Lately I've found myself collecting interesting new words. And I don't mean words like esophagogastroduodenoscopy, or ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid—those aren't really interesting; they're put together in a logical way from familiar parts, and I can usually tell what they mean without looking them up.

But now and then, in medical writing especially, I find a word that is short, utterly unfamiliar, and whose meaning I can't even guess—the etymology is not obvious.

For example: abulia. Abulia is the loss of the ability to make decisions.

Would you have guessed that?

Would you have guessed that there was a six-letter English word with that definition?

Me neither.

Anyone else got one?

[narya]

No relation to abulation (ritual washing) or abuela (grandma).

[vison]

[BrianIsSmilingAtYou]

No relation to abulation (ritual washing)

I think you mean "ablution".

--------------

I love finding new words and phrases. It gets my thought processes going.

An alternate definition I found for abulia, is "a loss of will power" (which would be related to an inability to make decisions).

If accurate, that actually makes the etymology easier, though not necessarily obvious.

BrianIs AtYOu

PS

Abulia could be the name of the female protagonist in a bad 19th century novel:


Tortured by the loss of her parents, who made the tragic decision to journey over the moors at the height of winter when the wolves were hungry and the dogs were tired, Abulia wastes away in the great family manor house, with only her mother's maiden sister (lovingly known as Aunt Epathy) to keep her company.

Abulia spends her time going up and down the spiral staircase, or just standing still on the landing, not even daring to look out the window to the sea.

For she cannot even bring herself to hope that her former lover, Dennis, will someday return from the craggy estate on his eponymous island hideaway.

She fears, in fact, that he may be stuck in Den Isle forever.

Will Abulia ever be able to...whatever...? Will Dennis ever admit his love? Will Aunt Epathy ever stop sneaking schnapps to the butler?

And what of the mysterious stranger?

[vison]

Brian, my dear fellow.

Little do you know your danger. Little do you know you stand on the edge of a dreadful, yawning precipice the bottom of which is strewn with shards of razor-edged obsidian. . . . . for you are poaching on MY turf, you wretched poacher you. Begone and Poach No More!!!

Abulia's cher ami Dennis is secretly in love with Aunt Epathy. Sad to report, but I say sooth.

As for the mysterious stranger, he is the lead singer in the indie rock band The Yammering Fantods. He is lost, lost, lost, precioussss. He seeks not merely shelter but love, and validation.

I fear that Abulia is going to have to decide . . . no wait . . .I guess that's not happening . . .

[narya]

No relation to abulation (ritual washing)

I think you mean "ablution".

Spooneristically impaired, I guess. When I'm not sure of a word, I type it into Google. In this case, 1460 other people mistakenly used abulation in their web pages, so that wasn't much help.

*** backs away slowly from the passionate purple prose producer of prowess***

[MaidenOfTheShieldarm]

I was very amused to find out the other day that 'avuncular' means 'Of, belonging to, or resembling an uncle." I knew the word but never would have guessed it's actual meaning.

(narya, our sigs should be friends.)

[Frelga]

Went hunting and bagged this one:

pleonasm \PLEE-uh-naz-uhm\, noun:
1. The use of more words than are necessary to express an idea; as, "I saw it with my own eyes."

I decided to keep it. Now I and my tame pleonasm will stalk the boards.

[Jnyusa]

My favorite, from Umberto Eco, is tetrapyloctemy, the art of splitting a hair four ways.

I think he coined it, but we actually do it so often in economics I was overjoyed to find a word for it.

Jn

[BrianIsSmilingAtYou]

Went hunting and bagged this one:

pleonasm \PLEE-uh-naz-uhm\, noun:
1. The use of more words than are necessary to express an idea; as, "I saw it with my own eyes."

I decided to keep it. Now I and my tame pleonasm will stalk the boards.

pleonasm is on the following site, as well as many other obscure (and not-so-obscure) terms for various figures of speech:

http://www.nipissingu.ca/faculty/williams/figofspe.htm

BrianIs AtYou with his own teeth

[Primula Baggins]

Jn, surely it would be "tetrapilectomy," pilus being the Latin for "hair"?

As in pili canaliculi, which of course we all know as the familiar "uncombable hair syndrome." I am not kidding—Dorland's Illustrated Medical Dictionary, 29th ed. Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders, 2000, pp. 1390, def. p. 1770:

an abnormality of the hair inherited as an autosomal dominant trait, in which the individual hairs are triangular in cross section, with a longitudinal groove; the hair has a spun-glass appearance and is arranged in bundles that stand out in different directions.

I think my elder son has that.

One would think, anyway.

. . . As for the rest of you, you are not taking this sufficiently seriously.

[baby tuckoo]

[quote="Primula Baggins"]
. . . As for the rest of you, you are not taking this sufficiently seriously. [/quote]

Sufficiently seriously is exactly how baby tuckoo has taken this, which is why he has belatedly responded due to his fragging professional responsibilities now.


I've smirkingly (I'm just a baby) used "pleonasm" to refer to an outburst of wordiness: "The reason why is because . . . " is a frequent example I see in student writing. I thank Ms. Frelga for her re-velation of the word, and I'd like to submit the chronic version of the same: logorrhea, which is not a sea turtle and from which I don't suffer, not even if you insist.


David Foster Wallace be danged, my Random House Unabluted (don't look for it in your Petite!) defines "logorrhea" as "pathologically repetitious speech," similar to that brought on by Tequila, and inversely similar to that vengeful version brought on by microbes in unfamiliar water.


I thank the Maiden for her dredging up of the "avuncular," which perfectly describes the honourable Walter Cronkite, but not me, or Holby, so don't expect our wills to remember you, not in this life cycle.




Brian, my precious poacher, I love your abuliation on that "bad" 19th century novel, which I think I've read, as have I suffered abulia, but not here.


It stinks.





Someone change me.

[narya]

Went hunting and bagged this one:

pleonasm \PLEE-uh-naz-uhm\, noun:
1. The use of more words than are necessary to express an idea; as, "I saw it with my own eyes."

I decided to keep it. Now I and my tame pleonasm will stalk the boards.

So your pet pleonasm has actually seen your imaginary friends?

I'd give you another interesting word, but anomia has me in its grip at the moment.

Someone change me.

But do you really want to change?

[truehobbit]

Working on my poetry translation yesterday, I needed another word with the meaning of "adorn". Too lazy to think, I looked in the dictionary for 'schmücken' and got a long list including things like 'trim', 'embellish' - and also 'bedight'. It was marked obsolete, but as it was a 17th century poem I thought that fitted. I liked the sound better than the other options - softer consonants - but I haven't a clue about the etymology and would never have guessed the meaning if I'd just seen it in a text.
Did anyone else know 'bedight'?


ROFL, Brian and vison.

But

As for the mysterious stranger, he is the lead singer in the indie rock band The Yammering Fantods

- not if this is a 19th century novel.

I fear that Abulia is going to have to decide . . .

Now, that's truly tragic. *slowly and elegantly sinks down into armchair, wrist to forehead in truly tragic gesture*

[Primula Baggins]

I wanna write a story about Abulia too.

And I have another modification to Jn's Eco word: "tetrapilotomy." The -otomy particle means to cut into something.

(Surgical particles are fun: -ectomy, to remove; -ostomy, to make a hole in; -plasty, to join together or repair; -pexy, to fix in place. . . .)

[truehobbit]

How about we have a little story writing contest.

Well, not a real contest where it's about choosing the 'best', just everybody who wants to play has to write a short story about Abulia, in whatever vein they prefer...

[Crucifer]

GRESS: (vb.) To stick to the point during a family argument.


OZARK: (n.) One who offers to help after all the work has been done.

[Primula Baggins]

No Meaning of Liff words! It isn't fair!

Though one could go on for posts and posts.

[Inanna]

I love you folks, I really-really do. We are, in fact, almost synecdoche.

[Lalaith]

These are great!


Lali