clister and kim clijsters and kluzein and cladistics and clepsydra and clepsammia

The "c's" give so many rich words that mean something in their original context and may have a significance for my writing and our thinking that go far beyond that context that I must pause on them. Let's begin with cicisbeo, defined by the Collegiate as "lover" or "gallant." Of course it originated in Italy! The OED says it was the name formerly given in Italy to the recognized gallant or cavalier servente of a married woman. Called an "appendix" to matrimony, the institution, if that is what you call it, never made it to England and the "common law" countries. One dictionary calls it cicisbeism the process of "dangling" about women; surely a non-felicitous word selection.

More Words

Something cinereous is something cineraceous or gray tinged with black. Something cinerescent inclines toward an ash-color, while cinerulent suggests the texture of ashes. Because cinerescent has the notion of turning to ashes or the process of "ashification," I think it has a lot of potential in the psychological realm. "He saw his hopes, once bright as the morning sun, turn cinerescent before his eyes." (Or, why not "cineresce before his eyes"? You can almost hear the dying crackle of the fire in the word cineresce).

Circumscissile

I love the sound of circumscissile no less than cinerescent. Derived from two Latin words meaning to "cut around," the word circumscissile mostly has it application in the world of nature. In botany it is defined as "opening or divided by a transverse circular line." So it is a rounded fruit or plant which is cut around the middle, thereby allowing the "top" of the plant/fruit to be lifted. The Collegiate defines it as "dehiscing by fissure around the capsule of the fruit." The fruit in such cases is called a pyxidium, and the Collegiate has the following definition of a pyxis: a capsular fruit that dehisces [splits along a natural line] so that the upper part falls off like a cap." The Century helpfully provides a picture of a circumscissile pod of pimpernel, a phrase you should say three times before dinner. I think the word might find some utility when we are thinking of things that split along the middle or whose top lifts off--such as the part of the dish that keeps food warm.

Cladistics

One of the hot new terms in hypothesizing relationships among organisms is cladistics. It is defined in the Collegiate as "a system of biological taxomony that defines taxa uniquely by shared charcteristics not found in ancestral groups and uses inferred evolutionary relationships to arrange taxa in a branching (a cladus in Greek is a branch) hierarchy such that all members of a given taxon are given the same ancestors." As a prominent web site has it: "The basic idea behind cladistics is that members of a group share a common evolutionary history, and are "closely related", more so to members of the same group than to other organisms. These groups are recognized by sharing unique features which were not present in distant ancestors. These shared derived characteristics are called synapomorphies." Thus the cladist tries to discover these shared characteristics, though it seems to me that the work is bathed in subjectivity (i.e., what is a "significant" shared characteristic? How is that determined? How much of "historical biology," as I will call it, is as much a matter of speculation as is the history of 8th century BCE Israel? That is, we know next to nothing about that century, even though we have some prophetic works dated from that period. Thus, is cladistics just another way of imagining the past, but this time with federal grants?)

Clepsydra

Derived from two Greek words meaning "steal or hide" and "water," a clepsydra is a a water clock. It measures time by the amount of water discharged through a small aperture. The older clepsydras measured hours by the sinking of the surface of the water into he vessel contianing it. Sometimes water also ran from one vessel to another. Later clepsydras indicate the hours by a dial, with "water" being "hidden" from view in the insides of the clepsydra. The classical term for a sand hour-glass is a clepsammia, according to a 1646 quotation, and clepsammias antedated celpsydras. Here is an interesting quotation from an 18th century letter, "You are not one of those orators whom I could wish confined to a clepsydra." I can honestly confess that until this very moment, I never imagined anyone being confined to a clepsydra. Is the confinement the punishment? The slow dripping of the water? If you are going to punish someone, the intended anguish should be crystal clear, so to speak. [Note from 1/21/08--it seems obvious to me now, if it wasn't when I originally wrote this essay, that the "confinement" here was a "limitation." Thus, the line seems to be a compliment--the speaker does not want to limit the speaker to the time allowed by a clepsydra.]

Clyster

Let's close by flushing out this word. Actually it is derived from the Greek kluzein, meaning to wash, and is defined as an enema or "a medicine injected into the rectum to empty or cleanse the bowels, to afford nutrition, etc." It could also refer to the pipe or syringe used in injections, and was knows as the clyster-pipe. Shakespeare got into the act on this one in Othello when he says, "Yet againe, your fingers to your lippes? Would they were Clister-pipes for your sake" (to cleanse the lips). For some reason when I, and apparently many other people, think of the word clyster, we don't immediate think of the process of cleansing but, instead, the stuff that comes out. Because of this, I am certain that this word won't be in the Senior Bee, even though many of us, as we age, might find such medical remedies helpful.

And, one final thought. Ever since she burst into the international tennis scene, I have kind of felt sorry for Kim Clijsters, pronounced as our word. She is such a good tennis player, but I have to confess, that whenever I see her or hear her name, Othello comes to mind. Well, I suppose it isn't too bad. I am sure that 99% of America does not know the term clyster. In any event, the "j" saves her. Right?

I think I am ready for a break.

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