Some "T" words for Tonight

After spending six days in San Diego, working and basking in the enticing warmth of the CA sun, I need to get back to my "word work"--until, that is, we know all the words together. Today I will focus on some "t" words--tincal, timbrology, tisane, titulus, toison d'or, tilleul, timenoguy, tibicinate, tigerism, timwhiskey and tocodynamometer. Let's begin with a few easy ones which we can use.

1. Behind titulus (TEE ju les) we see the word title, but titulus is an inscription on or over something; esp. the inscription on the Cross. From 1927: "There was a deep irony in the mockery by the soldiers, and in the titulus on the Cross." So, the inscription "King of the Jews" on Jesus' cross would have been the titulus. (Do you know what the suppedaneum of the Cross is? It is something "sub"--under the feet--"pedes." Thus, it is the footrest, which was not in the original Cross but appeared as a feature added by pious Christians in early Medieval versions of the crucifixion). But the word also has a broader usage--as the "title" lines of a book of poems. For example, Isidore of Seville, the great 6th-7th century etymologist, began one of his works with a four line poetic titulus:

"Sunt hic plura sacra, sunt mundialia plura;
Ex his si qua placent carmina, tolle, lege.
Prata vides plena spinis et copia floris;
Si non vis spinas sumere, sume rosas."

The poem, not an example which you will rush to memorize, may be translated:

"Here there many sacred and mundane poems
From which, if the songs please, take and read;
Meadows are full of thorns and many flowers
If you have not power to take thorns, take roses"

Well, all he seems to be doing is setting side by side, without value judgment, sacred and secular works. He even quotes a famous line from St. Augustine's Confessions ("Take, read").

2. Well, the conflict between "sacred and profane" is also helpful to understand the meaning of toison d'or or "Golden Fleece." The toison d'or is not only the Fleece which was the goal of Jason and his Argonauts, but is, in heraldry, the figure of the fleece, which gave its name to an order of knighthood. You have to crack up just a little bit when you read stories about these chivalric orders, with their aim being to promote brotherhood around the world. I doubt these folk will be instrumental in getting Iran and the US to sit at the table... The symbol of this order is also amusing; here is a picture of the golden sheep, hanging from a pendant as if it is caught on a meat hook. What gives further humor to the order is the fact that a decision was made during the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century not to allow any "heretics" (i.e., Protestants) to join the order--an order whose symbol was derived from a pagan myth. Ah, the ironies of our lives.

3. Timbrology is philately or stamp-collecting. Well, you say, why do we need two words to express a thought when people use neither of the words? But you never can be armed with too many words, just like you can't know the names of too many trees or too many flowers. Ironically, the two terms, philately and timbrology originated around the same year--1864. From 1867: "Timbromania was its first designation. Timbrophily and timbrology next had a short reign as a technical term, till Philately..has proved to be the right word." So, timbrology (derived from the French word for "stamp"--timbre) faded into obsolence. But while on timbrology, I ought to clarify philately. Though the word came mediately from the French, the ultimate origin is Greek. Phil is clear--a "lover of" something. But what is ately? As the OED kindly tells us in a note, ateleia was a word meaning "exemption from payment" or "free from tax or charge." Thus, the word ateles was meant to suggest the idea that postage was already paid as a result of the purchase of the stamp. Thus, a philatelist is one who loves to collect the stamps that came from envelopes where the postage was already paid. So, at first, it only concerned collecting what we would call "canceled" stamps. So the "craze" for collecting stamps began in the 1860s. By 1913 a magazine could write: "The enhanced popularity enjoyed by the science and hobby of philately." My father was born in 1925 and though he was from a fairly poor family from upstate NY, he had a stamp album and eagerly collected stamps beginning in the 1930s--a collection which got me started in collecting my own stamps in the late 1950s. Words mean most to you when they can be woven into the fabric of your life...

4. Perhaps you already know tisane (TEE zahn), a "wholesome or medicinal drink," which originally was an infusion made with barley or barley water. The Greek word ptisane meant "peeled or pearl barley." Now it is used in the sense of "herbal tea," which itself is a misnomer. A herbal tea is a herbal infusion made from anything other than the leaves of the tea bush...

5. While on French-derived words we might as well look at tilleul. It isn't used often in English, but it is the lime or linden tree or simply the leaf of that tree. The Linnaean (genus) name of the linden tree is Tilia. It can also be the color of that leaf--a sort of limey yellow/green. Here is a tilleul leaf.

6. I have to pause on tigerism because it is a word that definitely needs to be recovered in our day. It means "vulgar ostentation or affectation; pretentiousness; swagger." Now that you think of it for a second, this makes perfect sense, for these words are meant to capture the qualities of a tiger. The first appearance of the word in 1836 excites the risibilities: "We have the neologismal appellatives, 'tiger', and 'tigerism',--words of great intensity and signification, without which it would be impossible to get on for 'one calendar day' in genteel society." What are the ways that young guys today try to demonstrate tigerism? Thackeray uses the word in a pointed fashion: "In France, where tigerism used to be the fashion among the painters, I make no doubt Carmine would have let his beard and wig grow, and looked the fiercest of the fierce..."

Well, we are more than half through the list. Savor each word, however, and soon you will have a banquet, and then a lifetime of nourishing food.

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