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Just when I thought I would have clear sailing, after having left all the delicious "De's," I ran smack into a bunch of "Di's" and "Dis's." I could either skip gaily over them or plod along. You guessed it. Plodding. I think I will just list a number of words, since they are not related to each other. Each, however, has an interesting story.

1. Dilatant/dilatancy. Make sure you keep this distinct from dilettancy/dilettante. The Collegiate and OED seem to emphazise different things about the meaning of dilatant. In the former dilatant is defined "increasing in viscosity as a result of deformation by expansion, pressure or agitation," while dilatancy is only defined as "the property of being dilatant." Not too helpful. The OED says that dilatancy is the "property of dilating or expanding," and then gives the reference to the originator of the term (O. Reynolds), who used it in 1895 to refer to the expansion of grain. Though I lived in KS for six years, I have no idea what he means. In any case, the Collegiate, by using the word "viscosity" (i.e., sticky) stresses the glutinous or sticky nature of dilatant, though the OED stresses only the "dilating" or "expansive" nature of the thing. [We know that pupils of the eye and uteruses dilate. That is the only way we use the term today. Oh, some use the verb "dilate" to mean "speak about," but that takes us far afield] A wonderful quote from Fraser's Magazine in 1841 gives a figurative use: "My mind had greatly the advantage of my body; this being small, mean, and unseemly, that capacious, lively and dilatant." Nothing sticky here.

2. Diphtheria. The OED has a wonderful and brief historical note under diphtheritis regarding this word's origin. Originally used as diphtherite by a French doctor, Bretonneau, in 1821, the word did not really make it into English until 1857-58, when an outbreak of the "Boulogne sore-throat" (as it was alternatively known) ravished England. Then the English language adopted the term diphtheria probably because terms ending in "itis" refer to the organ or part of the body affected (bronchitis, laryngitis). The word originates in Greek and means "skin, hide, piece of leather," and the disease was so named because of the tough false membrane formed by the disease. This was a feared killer for generations, and the Century Dictionary, written when diphtheria outbreaks were common, finished its definition with this puzzling line: "The disease is very frequently fatal, and its ravages are extended by filth."

Now, for a brief escape. The word right before diphtheria in the Century and OED is one that I never have heard and that no one else has heard either, I am confident. But I want to tell it to you. It is diphrelatic. Derived from "diphros," a Greek word meaning "bearing two people," it means "Of or pertaining to chariot-driving." The OED only gives one attestation of the word (1849) where the author (De Quincey) speaks of studying the diphrelatic art with someone. But I think it has a future in humanistic speech, even though its appeal will be quite limited. "By plowing into the guardrail, the uncautious teen showed his diphrelatic incompetence." Well, it was one of those words made up by an upper-class 19th century Brit, all of whom were memorizing Homer and Aeschylus in the original Greek. Mabye if I use it enough, it will encourage people to regain that practice today. Dream on, Bill.

3. I had to stop on diploe (pronounced DIP lo ee) because the Century has such a nice picture and description of it. Actually, it permitted me to get lost further in words, and here is the journey. Derived from a word meaning "double," the diploe is, in anatomy, "the light spongy substance or open cancellated or reticulated structure of bone between the hard dense inner and outer tables of the cranial bones." We have run into cancellous previous and saw that it means something latticed or porous. Something "reticulated" refers to something shaped like a "net." Thus this spongy intermediate substance is porous or lattice-like or net-like. Cool. Then the Century says, "also called meditullium." So, I looked up meditullium in the OED and discovered that the word confused the makers of the dictionary, principally because it was thought to come from medius and tellus, but no one could really explain how the "e" of tellus had morphed into the "u" of meditullium. Next to world peace, I think that is probably one of the more important issues of our day, but I won't explore it here. But here is where I ran into definitional difficulties. The OED defines it as "the core or middle part of something." But the picture is confusing. Certainly the core of the earth is the middle part, surrounded by various levels or layers of rock. But don't you assume that you have something round in order for this definition to work? The meditullium of the brain is a middle part between two harder parts, and not the "center" as we usually understand "core" to mean. I guess I will stop here, because I am completely afield, and return gracefully to some dis verbs.

4. Let's finish with discarnate, which the Collegiate simply defines as "incorporeal." The OED also attests the meaning of discarnate as "divested of the flesh or the body, disembodied," but has an obsolete definition that oughtn't to be lost: "stripped of flesh." This definition allows a figurative use of the term, as in a 1661 quotation: "A memory, like a sepulchre, [is] furnished with a load of broken and discarnate bones." I think this use has possibilities. "He returned to the haunts of his youth, once vibrant with voices and wild actions, only to find them discarnate." Or, better, "memory is deceptive. It both incarnates and disencarnates the past, making it lively but showing us that that past is a filmy thing, as evanescent as the wind sweeping across the prairie." Connecting discarnate with memory has real possibilities, I think.

Well, that is enough for now. I need at least one more essay to "finish" these pages.

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