eclosion and echolalia and ecesis and ecdysiast and ecchymosis and eath and extravasate

I have the feeling as I begin the "E's" that I'm just not going to be able to make much progress today. There are too many interesting words, words that make me want to stop and examine them, to see which images they provoke in my mind, to enjoy the play of the mind as I see the words open before me. The world opens as words open, and I want to be around to catch every drop of the resultant beauty.

Making a Start

We can breeze through a few words, but very few. Eath is the Scottish word for easy, and echeveria is a large genus of American tropical plants. Eclaircissement is an old French word that came into English several centuries ago meaning enlightenment and ecu was the European currency before the Euro. Something done effectually is done in an effectual manner and that Shakespearean-sounding term eftsoons means "soon after." But now let's go slower, and see what the world has for us.

1. Ecchymosis is the escape of blood into surrounding tissue, leading to bruising. The OED quotes a science dictionary: "A blotch caused by extravasation of blood below the skin." Ah, extravasation. Extravasation comes from two words: "outside" and "vessel" and can mean to let or force out a fluid from its proper vessel. Does one extravasate toothpaste from the tube? ketchup from the plastic container? We seemingly are going to more and more examples of the "squeeze-bottle culture" these days, and so one might say, we are extravsating more extensively. Could we use the term extravasate figuratively? "College provided the means for extravasating him from the protective womb of suburban living to the full experience of campus life."

2. Ecdysiast is really a word that probably shouldn't even be in the dictionary, since it was made up by HL Mencken in 1940 to give strip-teasers a big word for what they did. As he says, "It might be a good idea to relate strip-teasing in some way..to the associated zoological phenomenon of molting..A resort to the scientific name for molting, which is ecdysis, produces both ecdysist and ecdysiast." Sure enough, ekdysis, from two Greek words meaning to unclothe, is the "action of stripping or casting off, especially of slough or dead skin in serpents..." No wonder Mencken is one of my favorite writers on the English language.

3. Echinacea ought to be disposed of quickly, but it is an "in" word, and so I, being quite "out of it," thought I would play with it for a while to see if it could impart some of its "inness" to me. It is the dried part of purple coneflowers and is now a big seller as a vitamin pill. More precisely, "Echinacea is an herbal remedy that boosts the immune system, promotes wound healing, and prevents colds, flu, and other viral, bacterial, and fungal infections." Herbs are the prophylactics of today for intelligent middle-aged people; the word echinacea rolls off their lips like nursery rhymes from preschool teachers.

4. Ecesis deserves brief mention. I only mention it because its sole usage is in the scientific realm but I can see a way to bring it into humanistic usage. Derived from the Greek for "habitat," ecesis is defined as "the establishment of a plant or animal in a new habitat." Seemingly invented by a Nebraska botanist about 100 years ago, ecesis was defined as the whole process of fitting in to new surroundings: "acclimatisation, naturalisation, accommodation, etc." But why leave ecesis (pronounced i CE sis) to the plants and animals? With our fast-paced culture come frequent moves and relocations. Why not speak about our "easy ecesis" or "rocky ecesis" into a new culture? Let's drop all the psychological terms about "adjustment processes" and anthropological terms about "cultural adjustment" and simply use the term ecesis. 'How is the ecesis coming?' would be the question to ask the new colleague.

5. I want to mention, and mention again, echolalia. It is, literally, "echo speech," and refers to the repetition, often pathological, of what is said to a person. If narcissism is the psychological "DSM-IV" category to which Narcissus bequeathed his name, echolalia is the condition corresponding to Echo's "problem." Ours is a day of research, however, and those working on the problem of autism and echolalia are many. Current researchers divide echolalia into two categories: immediate and delayed echolalia. Often taken as an indication that the autistic person is "in a world of his own," scholars are beginning to see the repetitious utterances as the attempt of a (frequently autistic) person to establish meaningful communication with the outside world. We can also free this term from its technical association with autism research and speak about the echolalic tendencies of students who want to get "A's," of psychologists who are practicing Rogerians, of uncritical and mindless religious believers. Mindless repetition. Echolalia. The possible applications are immense.

6. Eclosion (pronounced i KLO zhan) is emergence from concealment, especially the emerging of an insect from the pupa case or a larva from an egg. But one of the first attestations of its usage, by the psychologist William James, has a figurative meaning for the term. "It is queer to be assisting at the eclosion of a great new mental epoch, life, religion, and philosophy in one." To have been alive and flourishing around 1900 must have been quite an exciting thing. The World Wars were still far in the future. Europe had been at peace for longer than at any time in anyone's memory. Technology and science was making great strides. Social legislation, protecting the safety of workers and providing for a shorter work-week, was on the drawing boards. Optimistic liberal theology was in the air. Perhaps not simply the betterment but the perfection of humanity, for which the Enlightenment scholars hoped and planned, was finally at hand. Or, to put it theologically, finally the Kingdom of God might be dawning. The word eclosion fit perfectly into this world. Just as an insect emerges mysteriously from the pupa stage, so the new world comes to birth from the old husks of the nineteenth century. Any time we want to express the idea that emerges suddenly from darkness or hiddenness, we will be in the mental world of eclosion. Join me there?

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