Free Rice Words 51-55; List 3

In this essay I would like to get to the two religious terms (ostiary and misericord) which I left hanging at the end of the previous essay, as well as to introduce a few classical or "naming" terms that I came across. Those words are acheronian, chersonese, mithridatic, greengage and billingsgate. Let's begin, however, by wandering down the delicious rows of new and obscure words which we learn in Levels 51-55 and pause on a few of them.

One of the most delicious is lamington, which this article defines as "sponge cake cubes, coated in a layer of traditionally chocolate icing then desiccated coconut." The name goes back, in all likelihood, to the 2nd Baron Lamington, who served as Governor of Queensland (Australia) from 1896-1901. There is no consistent story of why it is named after him. A 1981 story in a Brisbane newspaper states that when he was Governor, Baron Laminton had a large amount of stale cake in his kitchen. In attempting to make it palatable, the cake was dipped in chocolate and then tossed in desiccated coconut. The parlimentarians liked this "gateau," (i.e., cake) and the rest is history... Who knows if this is true, but we now know what a lamington is.

Then one has a poleyn, which is defined as "a piece of armor protecting and covering the knee, fastened to the thigh-piece." Of course this accoutrement was spelled in many different ways over the years, but let's not get into that. One word leads to other words, just as Robert Frost tells us that way leads to way, and this article tells us that the poleyn was introduced in the 13th century to cover the chausses, which were the "long stockings or pantaloons with feet to them," which were tight against the body. But then, later on, the schynbalds (a great word, though it appears in the OED as shinbawde and is absent from the Unabridged), or leg-greaves, appeared. They were obsolete by the 16th century. Thus, we learn new words, even if the last can't be used in a spelling bee that is Unabridged-related.

Back to Religious Terms--Ostiary

What is an ostiary? Well, the Latin word behind it is ostium, which means a "door" and os, the mouth. Our word "usher" is derived from ostiary. The "mouth" harbor for Rome in antiquity was called Ostia, and you can still visit it today and seen the ancient ruins. An ostiary is a doorkeeper. The OED defines an ostiary as "a doorkeeper, esp. of a church; spec. a member of the lowest of the four lesser orders in the pre-Reformation Western Church." It then says, in very tiny print, that the Roman Catholic order of ostiary was "suppressed" by Pope Paul in 1972. Maybe there was going to be an uprising of doorkeepers. You never know. But, before we leave these guys, we ought to list the four "lesser orders." They were: (1) acolytes; (2) exorcists; (3) lectors; and (4) ostiaries. They have made movies of (2)...I wonder what a movie based on the life and ministry of an ostiary would look like? Can't you imagine the tension rising in the flick as someone actually opens the door? It is almost too much for me to bear...And, why was it the least of the lesser orders? Maybe because of the verse in the Psalms: "I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness" (Ps. 84:10).

Misericord

Let's quickly move on to misericord. It is a much more complicated word than it ought to be, and I think I will need the rest of the essay to unpack it. The word, taken directly from the Latin ("tender-hearted") may man "merciful disposition; forgiving pity or kindness," even though we are told that this definition is obsolete. Definition two is seemingly the opposite--a "dagger used by a knight to put a wounded man out of his misery." In French this is called the coup de grace. But it was the third meaning that the makers of the lists 51-55 focused on. It is listed as the same as miserere, which itself has two definitions. The first, not our concern here, is Psalm 51 (Ps. 50 in the Vulgate) because the first word of it is Miserere ("have mercy"). But the second meaning is as follows:

"A hinged seat in a church stall, made to turn up, and bearing on its under side a bracket capable of affording some support to one who, in standing, leans against it."

We are also told that the underside of the seat in the medieval period usually was ornamentally carved, often with "grotesques" or "caricatures," and not simply religious scenes. There is a woodcut in the Century under the word. Thus, basically, a misericord is a hinged seat in a medieval church stall. I think the Free Rice definition said something about its being a "pew," which got me off track a bit... I guess it is called a misericord because the shelving projection from the seat, when turned up, allows the monk to 'rest' his body on it, thus providing some kind of "mercy" for him.

Conclusion

We are out of space, so I will only introduce one classical word in conclusion: acheronian. The Unabriged defines it as "dark and gloomy; dismal." The word is very useful to describe the depths of darkness, both literal and figurative, in which people sometimes walk. Behind the word stands the River Acheron, a fabulous river of the Lower World. Acheron, refers both to the river and to the infernal regions. Shakespeare was the first to use the word in English: "With drooping fog as black as Acheron," in Midsummer Night's Dream. Thus, something Acherontic is acheronian (the Unabridged doesn't capitalize the word, while the OED does; and the OED doesn't have acheronian). "At night the owls fill these Acherontic woods with demon hooting." I think there are loads of situations in life that invite the use of this word--anything dark, dismal, tottering on the brink of the grave, moribund, gloomy.

Let's keep dissecting these words, which are a gift to us as well as a means for rice to be given to the world.

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