Some Useful Big Words You Ought To Know II

Well, before we get serious, just remember this--every word is easy to someone. The job of intelligent word mastery and usage is to to try to come at words as if they basically are simple tools to help us negotiate the curves and straight parts of life. Look for the "simple story" of a word; it then will become your friend and, if you know enough of them, you can get into any doctoral program at any university in the United States. Promise...

Three near neighbors made me pause and take them apart slowly. But, when you do so, you need never be confused by them. [Three other near neighbors--epitasis, epitaxis, epistasis--are explored here.] They are acatalectic, acataleptic, acatallactic. I am sure that not one in a million people can rightfully divide these, so let's do it. The best way to begin is to discover the realm of activity which each describes. The first, acatalectic, comes from the realm of poetry; the second, acatalepsy/acatleptic, comes from ancient philosophy; the third, acatallactic, derives from political economy in the 19th century. Let's begin with the last.

Always begin with a "duh"-type statement. Acatallactics is the negative of catallactics. Catallactics derives from the Greek word for exchange: katallasso. When it came into English in the 1830's, the word was a proposed name in Political Economy as the 'science of exchanges.' The helpful Wikipedia article defines it as "the praxeological theory of the way the market economy reaches exchange ratios and prices." Well, as you see, way leads to way, and we run into praxeological--a word not well-known but simple to understand. It means "concerning praxis or actual practice." It relates to the way that humans in fact act; the Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises (1881-1973) developed the concept most fully. Thus, catallactics is meant to be a very practical concern. So, acatallactics is simply the negation of catallactics. Come to think of it, however, the word isn't that useful, and the sole OED attestation is in a rhetorical sentence..."Christian or Unchristian, Catallactics or Acatallactics.." But now you know catallactics, and so you have no excuse for sloth of any kind.

When we move to acataleptic, we are in the realm of ancient philosophy. It is derived from the Greek word meaning "incapable of being comprehended or ascertained." Or, in a word, it means uncertainty. The word was frequently used by the later Academics and Skeptics, such as Carneades and Arcesilaus (3rd cent. BCE) who held that human knowledge never amounts to certainty but only to probability. Therefore, one does best to suspend judgment on all questions of knowledge, even of the doctrine of acatalepsy itself. I think the adjective acataleptic is most useful to us today--"For one moment he looked into the acataleptic void of his life, but then decided to go back to sleep."

Finally, acatalectic takes us into the realm of ancient poetry. The "a" which begins the word, as in the other two just examined, is an "alpha" privative, which negates what follows. The Greek word katalektos means "leaving off" or "stopping." Therefore, something that is acatalectic doesn't "leave off" or is "full" or "complete." In poetic terms in means having the complete number of syllables in a poetic foot. It is a verse which "has the complete number of syllables, without defect or superfluity." A "defect" would be called a catalectic verse, while if you run over, you have an example of enjambment.

By taking 10 minutes on these three words, you are either ready to enter a doctoral program in economics, poetry, literature, or philosophy. Not bad use of your time...

One More Greek Word

While on the subject of Greek words, let's do one more--which will get you into a doctoral program in Greek, Latin or in rhetoric. The word is erotesis. Sorry, this has nothing to do with Sappho's erotic verses. The word derives from the Greek word for asking a question--erotao. If one has an erotetic method of arriving at truth, one has a "questioning" or "interrogatory" method. An 1848 quotation is lively: "The erotetic method by which the Greek sage used to extort the truth from his reluctant opponent." Another word to describe this method is eristic, which shouldn't be confused with heuristic, which is precisely what my friend Gil did at a recent spelling bee. Back to erotesis. It is, in a word, a rhetorical question. A rhetorical question is a figure of speech in which the speaker asserts, by way of question, the opposite of what is asked. A general may ask his troops or a coach his players, "Are we men?" The answer is, "Of course we are." The example given in an 1845 quotation is from the Latin:

"Creditis avectos hostes?"

I decided to do a little, very little, research on that question, and discovered that it is used in a Latin "Excet" test-- a certification test in ancient history/Latin for teachers of the subject in public schools in Texas. It is a fun test to take, just to see if you are "up" on some of your classical knowledge. Well, questions 35-38 are derived from Virgil's Aeneid. The Latin text is first given, with the phrase "creditis avectos hostis" (it should be hostes, I believe), attributed to Laocoon, in the fourth line. Question 37 asks, "What is the best translation of creditis avectos hostes?" Here are the choices.

a. do you believe the enemies will sail away?
b. do you believe the enemies have sailed away?
c. do the enemies believe they have sailed away?
d. do you believe the enemies are sailing away?

If you realize that avectos is formed off the past participle, your answer is easy--b. So, by studying the Greek word erotesis, and seeing it "at work" in a Latin example, you are plunged into a Latin world which uses the very words for testing purposes. Robert Frost may have said that "way leads to way," but my statement to you is that words lead to competence and confidence in every field. That should be good news to any of you who are students or who would like to better yourselves. Take time with the words, and they will reward you in ways far beyond your apparent effort with them.

The reason for this is that words allow you the most immediate access into the mind or manner of thinking of a person. By understanding exactly how s/he has used words, you enter into his/her mind on a question. Since, in my judgment, the human mind can't make too many decisions or isn't the most complex organ in the universe (in terms of choices, motivations, etc.), by carefully studying the words as they were meant to be understood, you have a much sharper laser into the mind of someone than you do through almost any other method. Or, to correct that a bit, if you combine words with biography, you certainly not only get the person, but you get an entire universe of meaning which previously had either escaped you or which you didn't know even existed.

Finishing with Some Fun

With all that emphasis on Greek/Latin words, you might think that the world is a pretty dull place. But let's return to some more "modern-sounding" words: nithering, blithering and nattering. Though to nither has an ancient meaning, its more modern use means "to shiver or tremble with cold." "The cattle as I came by this morning was all stood nithering from cold." Well, now you have nithering--shivering or trembling. The OED tells us that it is a regional word--Scotland and Northern England, but I think it gives a pretty picture and should be released from that confinement. But if nithering is rare, blithering is picking up steam. Its first usage in Punch magazine in 1889 charted its course: "I'll state pretty clearly that his son is a blithering idiot." When NY Times columnist Maureen Dowd criticized the Bush Administration's handling of the response to Hurricane Katrina, she called for the President to replace Michael Brown, director of FEMA, whom she described as a "blithering idiot." Blithering, therefore, means "babbling" or "consummate." I suppose a more traditional term to describe a "blithering" someone is to call him an "arrant" X. Finally, nattering didn't enter English through Vice-President Spiro Agnew, but it was used by him to characterize his opponents--the "nattering nabobs of negativism." If a nabob was, traditionally, a Muslim official, nattering means "chattering, grumbling, complaining."

So, nithering, blithering, nattering abide, these three. Which is the favorite word for thee?

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