BBC Words (Fourth Essay)

13. Let's begin with erythrismatic. Actually the word, in both the OED and Century is erythrism, while the Century also has erythrismal. Lying behind this word, and many a word beginning with erythro in English is the Greek word for "red," erythros. For example, the Erythrinus is a genus of South American fishes. You can see a picture here, redness and all. But erythrism is "abnormal or excessive redness, in the plumage of birds or hair of mammals." From 1930: "Erythrism, or excess of red coloration, may be produced...by feeding birds upon red pepper." So, we have albinism (whitening), xanthism (yellowing) and erythrism (reddening). Erythema is a superficial inflammation of the skin, showing itself chiefly in red-colored patches. And, erythremia is, as can easily be seen, an "excess of red cells in the blood." Enough on these for now.

Our remaining words are: dyspathy, goving, hansardize, philodoxical, happify, natiform, tripudiate and pejorist.

14. Dyspathy is the opposite of sympathy. It is, literally, "difficult feeling" or "insensibility" or "impassivity." Its first use in English was in a medical context, but by the early 17th century it was loosed from the medical world and meant "antipathy, aversion, dislike." From 1829: "Nothwithstanding many discrepancies and some dispathies between us.." Then, from 1884: "Woman-like, she was a partisan; she felt sympathy or dyspathy; she loved favorites, and she loathed antagonists." Thus we have one word to suggest "feeling with"--sympathy--and two to describe "feeling against"--dyspathy and antipathy. Maybe that is life: we need twice as many words to describe how bad we feel about people as how good we feel about people...

15. I had never run into hansardize, but now I am glad I did. To hansardize means "to confront (a member of Parliament) with his former utterances as recorded in 'Hansard.'; to prove (a person) to have formerly expressed a different view or opinion." Well, this takes us to a time and reality we don't know of anymore, the recording of debates in Parliament before the advent of the typewriter. As this article says, before 1771 the British Parliament had been a highly secretive body. Official records of actions were recorded, but records of debates didn't exist. However, when some bold individuals began publishing accounts of Parliamentary debates, they were subject to fines and other punishments. Yet, the tide began to turn in the early 19th century and, ultimately, in 1809 Thomas Hansard began to reprint and then publish parliamentary debates. Thus, "Hansard" was shorthand for a detailed summary, not officially a verbatim, of parliamentary debates [The same holds true for early US Supreme Court Reports, such as "Cranch," which stood for early reports printed by William Cranch (1769-1855). No verb or noun ever attached to Cranch's name, however.] So, returning to hansardize, we have this from 1869 by Julian Huxley: "I do not wish to Hansardize Sir William Thompson by laying much stress on the fact that, only fifteen years ago, he entertained a totally different view of the origin of the sun's heat." Right now, in American politics, Sara Palin is being "Hansardized," but I am sure she wouldn't know what that meant if someone told her.. I think she calls it "gotcha journalism." But, in fact, people are out to "hansardize" her.

16. Tripudiate means to leap or dance. It is derived from tripudium, a leaping or dancing or religious dance. The probably derivation is from "three" and "feet," but it isn't immediately obvious why "three feet" should be involved here. From 1641: "Such..could not but jubiliate, tripudiate, feele extraordinary motions and affections of joy." But it also carries with it the idea of "repudiating" or, trampling upon something in contempt. From 1895: "The people tore down the image, tripudiated on its shattered fragments." We also have the terms tripudiary and tripudium in our dictionaries. They point to a practice from Roman antiquity respecting divination by means of chickens. Birds were perceived to have a greater sensitivity to the divine than humans, possibly because they flew in the heavens, and the tripudiary or tripudiary divination was one means by which the divine will was ascertained. There is some difference in our dictionaries as to why it was called "tripudiary divination." Blount's 1656 dictionary says it was so called because of "bread rebounding" on the ground when it was cast before birds or chickens, thus a kind of "dancing" or "leaping," but more probably, the word designates the alacrity with which the birds attacked the bread. If they did so quickly (with leaps and bounds), it was a good omen; if they held back, it wasn't a good omen. Thus, while the verb tripudiate can refer generally to dancing or leaping (saltatory action), tripudiary divination relates to reading the signs of the times from observing patterns of chicken consumption of bread morsels.

17. After that, you deserve one more easy word to finish off the evening. When you first see natiform, you might think of swimming. After all, a natatorium is a swimming venue at the Olympics--right? Something natatory is "adapted for or used in swimming or floating." But natiform is ultimately derived from nates, an anatomical term chiefly describing the buttocks. The nares is the nose; the nates is the buttocks. Got it? Oh-oh, we have Vladimir Nabokov in Lolita, writing as follows: "There my beauty lay down on her stomach, showing me the swellings of her tense narrow nates clothed in black." Or, as I have noticed in the past, "The early spring warmth brought all kinds of sunworshipers out at the university, and the plump and delicious form of perfectly-rounded nates was the most common shape on the quad." Well, something natiform is "buttock-shaped." Which, of course, leads to the riddle, "What is shaped like a buttock but isn't one?" Maybe a skull? Here are the longing words of a freshman poet--"Oh, how delightful to me are natiform protuberances...."

Let's call it a night, don't you agree? I think I need one more essay to finish the list--and maybe introduce a few more words.

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