Last Words--Right--First Essay

When I quoted the good Dr. Wood's use of stibogram (a footprint), I didn't really know that I would be led down so many interesting paths--first on ichnogram and neighbors, then on pelmatogram and the pelman memory system and then to yet other words. Then, when I read Simon Winchester's pleasant essay on mallemaroking, I was taken in various directions because he mentioned that mallemaroking appeared between mallee and mallemuck, and I didn't know a lot about either. So, let's see where this leads us, beginning with mallee.

Mallee is one of the few words in these lists which also appears in the Collegiate. Most words I study aren't in that dictionary, which is the official one for the National Spelling Bee. Well, a mallee is "any of various low-growing eucalypts which have a number of spreading stemps arising from an underground rootstock." As this article tells and shows us, the mallee are particularly prevalent in South Australia. So, while the rest of the world has to scramble to learn what it is, those in Murray Bridge SA, for example, see them all the time.

Frithstool

A word I ran across when I wrote about fritiniency several essays ago stayed with me, and I want to share it with you: frithstool. The word "frith," is an old English word meaning "peace; freedom from molestation; safety," and has bequeathed itself to us in many other rare or obsolete words, such as frithsoken (the requirement in Anglo-Saxon law that the people keep the peace); frithsplot (a plot of land encircling some stone, tree, or well and considered sacred--thus affording sanctuary to criminals) and frithborg (a tithing or group of ten men responsible for the deeds of each other). But the "frith-word" most arresting to me was frithstool, which was a stool or chair in a church, near the altar, to which persons fled who sought the privilege of sanctuary. It is like the biblical "horns of the altar," which supposedly protected a person from punishment. The prominent Anglican historian of the 19th century, Daniel Rock, had this to say about the frithstool:

"This 'stool of peace,' for such is the meaning of the word, was a low-backed arm-chair, made of stone. Its standing-place was either near the high altar, or by the side of the patron saint's shrine. From this spot, as from a center, the frithstool spread its privilege of sanctuary over land and water all about the minster which held it, to the distance of at least a mile."

So, it did become, if Rock is correct, a sort of symbol for a "city of refuge." I don't know, however, if I would want to have committed a crime just to see if I was "protected."

Mumpsimus

I am not sure actually what suggested this one, but I have had this word in mind for a long time, but without taking the opportunity of explaining it. In addition, many suitable online explanations exist. But, like the word ultracrepidarian, it has a fascinating story behind it. We are told by Erasmus that the word originated in the story of an ignorant priest who in saying the mass had long used the words in ore mumpsimus (nonsense meaning) for in ore sumpsimus (we have taken in the mouth). When confronted with his error, he replied, "I am not going to change my mumpsimus for your sumpsimus." Thus, the word mumpsimus is a prejudice or an error to which one clings obstinately, even though there is proof that what one is doing is wrong. I well recall an episode of "WKRP Cincinnati," a mindless TV show from the late 1970s, where ace newscaster Les Nessman pronounced Chi Chi Rodriguez's name "Chai, chai ROD ri gweeze." When corrected by Johnny Fever, he merely ignored the correction and continued pronouncing it as he had always said it. What errors do poeple rigidly adhere to today?

Finishing with Ich Dien

For some reason, my education was so deficient that I don't recall running into this phrase, which now is the motto of the Princes of Wales. Here is a picture of the three ostrich-feathered cap, with the German words ich dien (I serve) underneath. The popular history of how it got to be the emblem of the Princes of Wales is as follows. It was originally the motto of John of Luxemburg, King of Bohemia, and a German-speaker. John was killed at the battle of Crecy in France during the 100 Years War in 1346. Edward the Black Prince, of England, then adopted it, together with the crest of ostrich feathers, and passed it on to his descendants. Many have doubted this story, and I can't pass on that one, but I did find an 1881 New York Times article describing another such (earlier) motto, which I enjoyed.

According to the historian Guillim, this wasn't the first time that feathers were used as a royal badge. He states that "the Ostrich's Feathers in Plume were sometimes also the Device of King Stephen." His sometime motto was:

"Vi Nulla Invertitur Ordo"

which can be translated as "no force alters (their) fashion." This is said to allude to the "Fold and Fall of the Feather," which, however the wind shake it, it cannot disorder it. This, then, is "likewise the Condition of Kings and Kingdoms well established."

Conclusion

Over the years, I have run into loads of men, usually men who are concerned about control of things, who seemingly have immovable hair. I don't know what they put on it, but the strongest blast of wind in the narrowest wind tunnel, a blast that would knock down mere mortals, would not seem to have an effect on their hair. In that regard, their hair is more like a helmet than it is a "hair"--a soft and malleable sign of self-expression and freedom. Sen. John Tower in the 1980s, seemingly had immovable hair--until he got it tousled in the Iran-Contra affair. Similarly the President of Sterling College during my years, Roger Parrott, had hair that would scarcely ripple in the KS wind. How did they do it? I don't know, but had I known what I know today, I would have given them a Latin card with these words on it: Vi nulla invertitur ordo, and wonder if they ever would have figured it out...

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