Free Rice V--Interesting Verbs/Nouns classically derived

In developing the five new levels of difficulty, the Free Rice folk have, in large part, depended on obscure foreign or international words to trip you up. My next essay will deal with some of those words. But, thankfully, they give us a number of verbs and nouns, some of which are even useful. The eight words that interest to me today are devitrify, detrude, desinence, premorse, defalk, afforce, averruncate and leresis.

Let's begin with the last one, which is in no dictionary I have found--except the unabridged ancient Greek dictionary. The verb lereo (the first "e" is an "eta" rather than an "epsilon") means to be foolish or silly, to talk or act foolishly. Thus, lerema is foolish talk or nonsense and leresis is also silly or trifling talk. The word appears in Plutarch and Cassius Dio, and the phrase leresis tou geraos can best be translated as "the dotage of the old." Thus, leresis in English is "silly talk," though I don't know who was responsible for bringing it to us from Greek, nor when they did it. Any help?

Devitrify

The verb and noun (devitrify and devitrification) first appeared in English only in 1832, but their origin goes back nearly 100 years before that to France. First, the definition. It means to "deprive of vitreous qualities" or "to cause (glass or a vitreous substance) to become opaque, hard, and crystalline in structure." Our earliest uses of the term betrays no indication of its history or origin. From 1832: "Experiments made to devitrify stained glass taken from church windows.." But if you do a little work, you are rewarded. From a Treatise on Chemistry by Henry Roscoe, we have this:

"Devitrification of glass. Reaumur's Porcelain. In 1739, Reaumur observed that if a piece of glass be surrounded by sand or gypsum and heated strongly for a considerable length of time it is converted into a porcelain-like mass, to which he gave the name porcelaine par devitrification. It was at first believed that this change was brought about by the absorption of the materials in which it was embedded, but Lewis, in the year 1763, concluded that the formation of Reaumur's porcelain depends upon the volatization of the alkali contained in the glass," p. 483.

Go to a store selling fine china and ask them for Reaumur's porcelain and ask them how it is made. Devitrify will come alive (that is, if they know about it..).

As you know, as you investigate words you seem to go one place but you often end up someplace else. So, I read up on Reaumur a bit (1683-1757) and discovered that he made significant contributions in mathematics, physics, law and entomology. In fact, his greatest love, as he aged, was natural history. His six volumes on ants, bees, fowls and other insects or animals remained a standard work for generations. He is a man who came along before the rush to specialize which characterizes our day. I will have to learn more about him..

The Other Words

Defalk is a word of great richness. Its most common derivative in English today is defalcation, a general term used in bankruptcy law to describe any kind of financial mismanagement or bad act that so taints a debt that it can't be discharged in bankruptcy. It is, thus, a fradulent or, at the very least, a negligent deficiency in money matters. But the original meaning of defalcation in English, going back to the 15th century, is "diminution or reduction by taking away a part; cutting down, abatement, curtailment." From 1526, "To be corrected...by the checking and defalcation of their wages." It is easy to see how this first definition developed, since the underlying Latin word is falx, falcis, which means, according to the Oxford Latin Dictionary, "An agricultural implement with a curved blad, hook, bill, scythe, sickle." Thus, behind defalcation rests the sickle. A sickle or scythe cuts. Now we understand the "cutting down" of the 1526 definition. The verb defalk means to "cut or lop off; subtract, abate." Though its primary use was in the economic area, I love a 1701 theological usage: "The..Noble Part of the Redemption of Christ were then Defaulked, If He did not save From the filth of sin." So, think of the sickle when you hear defalk (or default or defalcation). That is its original meaning, even if it has lost its sharpness today. Whenever you think of "lopping off," however, think of defalk.

That was too long, but it was too fun, and so we hasten on. Desinence is derived ultimately from the Latin verb meaning "to leave off, desist, finish, or stop," but the word came into English in 1599 to mean a suffix of a word or, more generally, a termination, ending, close. "The ear was thus flattered by a certain musical desinence..." Or, from 1873: "The Saxon added 'son,' as a desinence, as 'Williamson.'"

Afforce literally means "to bring force to," and has developed two English meanings: (1) to force, compel or violate; and, more frequently, (2) to strengthen or reinforce. A specialized use of the latter is in English Constitutional history, where the addition of new members to strengthen a deliberate body is an afforcement of the body. From Stubbs' 1870 Select Charters, "The jurors are at first witnesses of the fact; as business increases they are, under Edward I, afforced by the addition of persons better acquainted with the matter..."

Conclusion

Three words remain: detrude, premorse and averruncate. The last can be disposed of quickly. It comes from the Latin "ab" (from or off) and "verruncare" to "turn," and means to avert, remove or ward off. As the OED explains, an erroneous turn was made in the 17th century when it was explained as a derived from "ab" and "eruncare"--to "weed out." Thus, even Samuel Johnson, in 1755, could define averruncate as "to root up; to tear up by the roots." But we are assured by the OED that it means "to ward off" or "avert." Samuel Butler wrote:

"But sure some mischief will come of it,
Unless by providential wit,
Or force, we averruncate it."

Though, as I think of it, the averruncate just quoted may have either sense given above.

Premorse has the Latin infinitive "mordere" behind it, which means to "bite". A mordant sense of humor "bites." Something premorse is bitten in the front or at the end. It is a term from botany and entomology which means "Having the apex irregularly truncate, as if bitten or broken," as a premorse leaf or root. Thoreau could write, "As I looked over the water (on Cape Cod), I saw..the sea nibbling voraciously at the continent, the springing arch of a hill suddenly interrupted, as at Point Alderton--what botanists might call premorse." Don't you love the picture? As if the waters are taking a bite out of the hill when they wash ashore.

I think this essay is long enough. Let's get into the "foreign words" of the next essay with one more verb...

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