Moderate Frequency Words--"A's"
Bill Long 3/13/07
Well, it happened to me again today. I am in the process of compiling a list of 2500 to 3000 difficult words appearing in the Webster's Third New International Dict. (Unabridged) and derived from the Scripps-Howard 2004 Consolidated Word List (about 23,000 words). I was going to "breeze through" these so that I could complete this project in a few weeks. Indeed, the first 630 words, the "Frequently Appearing" words, are already "up" on my site, and I have defined them for myself and will probably write some essays on some them. Today, while beginning the "A's" in the "Moderate Frequency" words, I wrote definitions for the first 80 words, but then got "stuck." The thing that "stuck" me were the words and meaning fields of the words. Like Moses of old I had to turn aside and look at this great sight, to figure out who first used the words and what they still might mean. The first seven words from the "a's" are: acharya, aciniform, acoelous, acoluthic, abactor, abducent and abience. Nothing apparently too exciting in just reading through these seven, but I think now that I could spend dozens of hours on them (even though I won't permit myself to do it). I will, at least, bring you into some of the joy/pain I felt upon studying them today.
An acharya is a Hindu religious teacher recognized as a guru because of his grounding in the Hindu texts and ability to communicate that knowledge to others. This word opens up a beautiful, long-standing and complex tradition of thought that is foreign to most Westerners. wwwacharyaonline.com is a resource that wants to take you into the heart of the tradition. So, I went there for a while, refreshing some basic knowledge I had on the formation of the earliest fourfold tradition: Rig Veda, Yajur Veda, Sama Veda, Atharva Veda, a classification developed by the great sage Vyassa. I get the impression that there are tons of useful words from this Vedic literature that could easily become English words if time and luck tend to coincide. In the meantime, however, I will have to content myself just with this word.
Aciniform is one of those dozens of "form" words in English that give you a false sense of precision. I say that because they are supposed to be precise, suggesting that something not a "cluster of grapes" (an acinus in Latin is a grape) is "like" a cluster of grapes. But, pray tell, what is it about the cluster that gives it the "form?" Is it the number of grapes in it? The multiple rounded figures that protrude from the center? The small circles that are seemingly subsumed in a larger one? Well, you get my drift. Whenever you have a "form" word, you need to make a mental leap to figure how what it is in the original thing that is "form-giving"? But that is only part of the fun. When I found aciniform in the Unabridged, I decided I would wander for a moment in the Century, the acme of scientific dictionary-making in the US. Within the same page or two where aciniform appeared, I found these other "form"-words: aciform, acinaciform and acinetiform.
What might all these be? Well, an acus in Latin is a needle, so aciform means "needle-shaped." I think there are probably about a dozen words ending with "form" in English that mean that something is sharp; now we can add one more to our list of terms. But no one ever uses them; so they get stored in our attics like old family relics, not even to be brought out in holiday season. Well, then we have acinaciform. Well, an acinaces is a short, straight sword peculiar to the Medes and Persians. But this short straight sword is known by most of us as a scimitar. Thus, something acinaciform is shaped like a scimitar. Think of it. What in the world is shaped like a scimitar that isn't a scimitar? I guess there are some leaves out there, and so they have their own word, which no one knows.
We still haven't left this word, because I also found acinetiform, a word not even in the Unabridged but present in the Century. The Century defines acinetiform as "having the form of Acinetae." Of course, what else could it be? Like Maxwell Smart, I feel that is the second time I have fallen for that trick this month. But let's probe. The Acinetae (derived from the Greek akinetos, meaning "unmoving") is a an order of the class Infusoria, the adult members of which have no cilia (hair) or mouth, and are non-locomotive. With this description you might imagine that they are dead before they even get a chance to live. But, nature has provided these plants with the necessary skills to survive. How? They have "radiating retractile suctorial processes" or "tubular tentacles" which have a knob at their extremities which allows them to draw in nourishment. Phew. I thought they were just going to sit there and die. So, something acinetiform is like these Acinetae.
Look at this. I have tried to understand a few of the words rather than simply to blow through them and make long lists of words to spell. Words open up worlds, and we were brought into a few different ones by them. But I need one more essay, just to take us through the first seven words. Then maybe I can move along at a more reasonable pace. I kind of wonder if I ever will be a good speller or will become so hung up on the beauty of each successive word that all I can do is master a few.
A Bonus
After completing this essay I ran into another "form" word that I don't think you would want to miss. It is acneform. Yep, you know what it means: "resembling acne." Maybe that will grow in importance as a nickname in the future, but can you imagine using the word? How is something that is not acne acneform? Well, I think I will try to use it three times in the next week.
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