Free Rice Words XV...More Delightful Words

The previous essay only introduced a handful of words; this essay, I am afraid, must go a little more quickly. Eleven words I would like to introduce here are plummy, pukka, pernio, parvis, coquelicot, quandong, sassaby, sasin, mulloway, aroid and okta. Each of them, like a special needs child, presents difficulties at first, but when you spend some time with them, you become blessed beyond belief.

1. Coquelicot (kak lih KO or kak lih KOK) is a word derived from the French word for the cry of a cock. It is a poppy, however. What is the connection? A comparison of the flower to the comb of the cock bequeathed it its name. The OED defines it as "the color of the common Red Poppy, a brilliant red with an admixture of orange." Thus, it can be the poppy (the corn poppy) or the bright red color. Here are a few pictures. While I was on this word in the Unabridged, my eye couldn't help rising a few words to coquecigrue (kak see GREW), an imaginary creature regarded as an embodiment of absolute absurdity. This has to come from Rabelais, but I don't have time or interest now to follow it...

2. If something is plummy it is, like a plum, rich or desirable. However, its colloquial meaning relates to a person's voice: "mellow, deep, resonant, and carefully articulated (in a way associated with the educated Enlish upper classes)." Thus, something plummy is posh, upper-class or even affected. As recently as 2002: "Her mother's fake, plummy telephone voice when she was talking to somebody she wanted something from..."

3. Let's move to pukka. The word originates from S Asia, where something pakka in Hindi is cooked, ripe, mature or substantial. So, in a South Asian context today it means: "sure, certain, reliable; genuine, bona fide." Something pukka is real, authentic, proper or correct. It is a synonym to the German echt (genuine), which has also come into English. EM Forster, in Passage to India, could write, "Mrs. Turton..remarked that Mr. Fielding wasn't pukka, and had better marry Miss Quested, for she wasn't pukka." The Unabridged defines it as "authentic" or "complete," but spells it three ways. Darn. No spelling bee for this one.

4. The okta was merely defined by Free Rice as a "cloud cover measure." It only was coined in 1950, in this sentence: "Okta, unit, equal to area of one eighth of the sky, used in specifying cloud amount." More specifically, we have this: "From January 1, 1949, cloud amount has been observed and reported in oktas or eighths of sky covered, code figure 0 representing a clear sky, 1 representing 1 okta (eighth) of sky covered or less, but not zero...and so on..8 representing 8 oktas (sky completely covered)." A 9 by the way represents "sky obscured or cloud amount cannot be estimated." Thus, Oregon is an 8 in winter.

5. A pernio is derived from the classical Latin perna (leg, thigh), but the Greek pterna, heel, also stands behind it. It is defined as a chilblain, which is an inflammatory swelling of hands or feet produced by exposure to cold. The first usage in English of pernio, from 1676, has this: "Pernio is a peculiar Inflammation, and belongeth to Bloud; it raiseth a thick red Swelling with itching pain in the Hands and Feet. Those affecting the Hands are generally called Chilblanes..When they affect the Feet they are called Kibes."

6. I need to spend a little more time with parvis. The word looks as if it should come from the Latin and be something small. In fact, it has a complex origin that goes back to the Old French to describe a "place in front of a church or cathedral." One definition of paradise, as enclosed space, is synonymous. The OED defines it as a closed space in front of a building, esp. a cathedral or church and frequently surrounded by columns. For example, Point Zero, a medallion embedded in the pavement of the parvis of the Cathedral of Notre Dame, is the exact center of Paris. It is also Kilometre Zero of French national highways. Longfellow used the word, "Canopied with leaves/ Parvis and portal bloom like trellised bowers."

7. Let's move on to quandong, a shrub or small tree native to southern Australia, the Santalum acuminatum. The fruit of the tree is also called quandong. From 1953: Here are quandong trees with their thick, leathery leaves and red globes of fruit that make delicious jams and jellies." A fine picture of these fruits is here. We are told that quandong fruti are low in sugar but high in Vitamin C. It has become popular in selected urban restaurants for the "bush food" market. Ah, that is the Autstralian equivalent of going "country" in the big American city, I suppose. Here is a picture of a quandong tree, but I suppose the picture could be better.

8. A sassaby is an African antelope, Damaliscus lunatus. [The Wikipedia article calls it tsessebe]. When I saw the word for the first time in a Free Rice test, I thought it probably had something to do with Australia, given its ending. But, as is often the case, I was wrong. The lunatus is native to Southern Africa, while the D. korrigum jimela is from Central Africa. The word spelled three ways in the Unabridged, so if you only read this for spelling words, you will be sorely disappointed. This web site also calls them topis and has several pictures.

9. Let's complete this essay with mulloway, leaving sasin and aroid to the next. A mulloway is a large edible sciaenid fish, Argyrosomus japonicus, occurring in coastal waters of the Indian Ocean and West Pacific. I didn't know it also could be called a jewfish or kabeljou. Here is a page on the mulloway, with some pictures. It can be recognized by many things, but the most distinctive feature to me is a series of pearly white spots along the lateral line of the fish.

Conclusion

Unless you have spent your life either studying or appreciating plants, animals and fish, it is sometimes rough going to learn all the words associated with the arresting diversity of nature. But we can make some progress each day and then, pretty soon, you have found your life...

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