canicular and cachinnate and cacoethes and caneology and cachectic

Certain letter/sound combinations in the English language are very rich in words. "Ca" is one of these because of the large number of words derived from Latin and Greek, especially Latin, and a smattering of words derived from other languages--such as caoutchouc, carmagnole and carrageen. Let's begin with a few words "up close," and then, in the next essay, provide an overview of several.

Dog-Days and Other Pictures

The Collegiate defines canicular as "of or relating to the dog days." This doesn't help us at all, really, so I had to go to the OED for clarification. It has the same definition as the Collegiate (where do you think the Collegiate gets most of their definitions?) but it first lists "canicular days." It explains these as "the days immediately preceding and following the heliacal (or cosmical) rising of the dog-star (either Sirius or Procyon), which is about the 11th of August." Ah, all of a sudden things are clear. The "dog days" of summer, the hottest part of that season, are so named because they precede and follow the rising of Sirius. The Supplement to Chambers' famous 1753 Cyclopedia had this to say: "Canicular days are computed by Harris to extend from the 24th of July to the 28th of August."

As I was studying canicular, I couldn't help looking over to the opposite page of the OED and seeing a nonsense word which I must introduce to you: caneology. It was used a few times in the 19th century to describe "the doctrine of the use of the cane in corporal punishment." Couldn't you just imagine, in your mind's eye, a strict tutor threatening to give his students a dose of caneology right after the Latin lesson?

A Few Other Latin/Greek Words

I love the words that are defined by another word that no one knows. Such is cachectic (ka KEK tik), which is defined as "affected by cachexia." At least cachexia (ka KEK see ah) is on the same page, and is defined as a "general physical wasting and malnutrition usu. associated with chronic disease." But it is fun to take the word apart. It is all Greek, derived from kakos, meaning "evil" and hexis, meaning a "habit or state." Hexis is derived from exein, which means to have or to be in a particular condition. It is first applied to a condition of the body in which nutrition is everywhere defective, such as in the quotation, "Affected with fevers and catexy" [Note that the OED spells cachexia as cachexy, even though both the OED and Collegiate use the same spelling of the adjective cachectic]. More interesting for me is the psychological meaning of cachexia, which is "a depraved habit of mind or feeling." An 1868 review of poetry talks about how the poets describe the maladie du siecle, the "nondescript cachexy, in which aspiration mingles with disenchantment, satire and scepticism with a childlike desire for the tranquillity of reverence and belief." Used in this way, cachexia suggests a general ennui, a loss of energy, a debility of mind in which the mind is not as much oppressed as it is deeply weary. "A cachexia in a person so young was doubly troubling to the counselor." How does it differ from acedia? from accidie? from languor? Don't know, but we now have established a nice linguistic field for it to roam.

Then there is cacoethes, which the Collegiate gives with an umlaut over the first "e," though the OED knows no umlaut. What the heck are we supposed to do with an umlaut? Is this German or English? I suppose it is supposed to suggest dieresis (or diaeresis, because the Collegiate seems to be confused about this word), and therefore the pronounciation is ka-ko-E-thez. Even though the two Greek words behind cacoethes are the same as the preceding word and suggest "bad disposition" as a defintion, the Collegiate defines it as "an insatiable desire" or "mania." The OED nicely defines it as having an "itch" for something.

The Roman poet Juvenal took the Greek word, used it in Latin as cacoethes, and bequeathed to us the quotation from which we derive the definition "mania." He talked about someone in the following way: tenet insanabile multos scribendi cacoethes. "He has an incurable passion for writing many (books)" [the OED doesn't give the quotation precisely correctly, but the OLD does].

One More Latin/Greek Derivative

I guess this entire page will be given over to tracing word origins/meanings of just a handful of terms. I was arrested by the word cachinnate, which I would certainly use if I was picking words for the Bee. It means "to laugh loudly or immoderately," but the OED also has cachinnation, cachinnatory and cachinnator. Nathaniel Hawthorne has a clause which says, "Which threatened instant death on the slightest cachinnatory indulgence." Or, thinking about the Sound of Music, we might say that "the slightest cachinnatory indulgence by the von Trapp children would have been met with death at the hands of the Nazis." The word is immediately derived from the Latin cachinno, meaning "to laugh, esp. loudly or boisterously," but it can also be a word used to describe the sound of the sea. Behind the Latin is the Greek verb ka(g)kano (it is found under both entries in Liddell-Scott). I think I would rather have had the Collegiate use the adjective, as did Hawthorne, rather than the verb, for whoever would say about his/her uproarious laughter, "I was cachinnating when you called"? Or, if we encouraged use of the verb in these instances, it might have a tendency to break up relationships.

Let this suffice for a pleasant Sunday evening; tomorrow we will return to the lists with a vengeance.

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