emarginate and eloign and emeute and eisteddfod and electuary and embonpoint and embracery

Almost all of the remaining "e" words in these pages beckon me to pause, consider and listen to their reality. I will do that briefly for several words and then look at a few in greater detail.

The List

Edacity is voraciousness. An edacious appetite is one that consumes everything. Something edaphic is influenced by soil and not by climate. Edaphology, also known as pedology, is the study of soils. The three "regions" of the earth are described in a Britannica article: "The varying climatic or environmental conditions to which Angiosperms may be exposed in their wide distribution, including those of the soil, edaphic, those of the atmosphere, epedaphic, and those of water, aquatic." Something/someone edentulous has no teeth. I am sure we are grateful to know the contents of Munro's 1782 quotation: "The chin and nose of edentulous people are much nearer." The word effectually has an immediate and very strong resonance with me because of the Reformed theological doctrine of effectual calling, which I learned when I memorized the Westminster Shorter Catechism in Seminary.

"Q 31. What is effectual calling?
A. Effectual calling is the work of God’s Spirit, whereby, convincing us of our sin and misery, enlightening our minds in the knowledge of Christ, and renewing our wills, he doth persuade and enable us to embrace Jesus Christ, freely offered to us in the gospel."

Oh my, I can see the seminary, and recall the smell of the chapel and almost drink in the piety that drenched me in those days. All because the Collegiate brought back to mind one simple word.

And, then, running through The List quickly, we have eisteddfod (pronounced i STETH vod) a Welsh artistic festival emphasizing singing and eiswein, sweet German wine, and electuary, a confection used especially in veterinary medicine (though I haven't confirmed this with my vet friends), and emalangeni, the monetary unit of Swaziland, and embonpoint, meaning stout, and embourgeoisement, meaning a shift to the bourgeoisie. Embracery has nothing to do with hugging; it is an attempt to influence the jury corruptly. An emeute is an uprising while the empennage is the tail end of a plane. Empressement is demonstrated warmth or cordiality while empyema is a purulent (pus-laden) pleurisy. Finally, an encaenia, pronounced en SE nya, is an annual Oxford ceremony of recitations and awards while an enceinte is a line of fortification encircling a castle.

Some "Fun" Words

I think I will only have room for about two of these here. Let's look at eloign and emarginate.

1. Eloign is a word that the Collegiate says only has archaic definitions. No matter. It means to take (oneself) far away or to remove to a distant or unknown place: CONCEAL. We can see this meaning in the root: ex (meaning away from) and "loign" or "long"--a long way off. There is both a non-legal and legal use of the term. The former can be used both literally and figuratively. "O bone (i.e., "good") Jesu wipe clean away that eloineth me from thee." Similarly the exhortation: "Leastwise labour to esloign thy minde from the vanities of the Earth." The religious person feared that Christ might eloign or cast him/her far off. But the verb could be used reflexively: "The artist must eloign himself from nature." A bridge to the legal meaning of the term is captured in this 1858 quotation: "He eloigned himself, and evaded pursuit."

From the perspective of law, eloign meant either to remove oneself from the jurisdiction of the court or to remove, carry off or send away property. William Blackstone, in Book III of his classic treatment of the common law of England, describes the various writs whereby a person might be produced for a court proceeding. If, however, "the person be conveyed out of the sheriff's jurisdiction, the sheriff may return that he is eloigned; upon which a process issues (called capias in withernam) to imprison the defendant himself, without bail or mainprize, till he produces the party." My, don't you see how that passage is just pullulating with insights that would provoke questions about the way the English common law system worked? But, no time for that now. I think the word ought to be rediscovered and used today. Indeed, even the mere pronunciation of the sound eloign tugs at the heart, as if something is too far away, too removed, from the sources of life that should nourish the person.

2. We shall end our essay with emarginate, which is a term primarily from botany and zoology and means "having the margins notched." Well, we need lots more information in order to understand this. So, I turned to the Century for pictures and was not disappointed. It provides a nice drawing of three emarginate primaries (on the wing) of a hawk. Each of these three mini-wings has a slight indentation or cut, which leads to the definition: "having the margin broken by a shallow notch or other incurvation; incised; nicked." You just have to see it to know perfectly what is meant. But then, the unabridged gives us two synonyms for emarginate: obcordate and retuse. Obcordate is a word describing a botanical (usually leaves), rather than a zoological reality and means and "upside down heart" (with "ob" being "turned on its head," such as in oblanceolate or obovate). An obcordate leaf is one which is cordate but with the braoder end, with its strong notch, at the apex instead of the base. A cordate leaf, in contrast, has the "pointed" end at the stem. Thus, emarginate suggests that there are "notches/notch on the edges" or "apex." Something retuse is obtuse at the apex, with a very shallow sinus (bend or fold) rather than a sharply defined notch at the apex. Though the word is obviously at home in a botanical or zoological context, I wonder if there might be a humanistic usage for it beneath the surface? Would it be possible, figuratively, to have an emarginate heart and, if one did, what might that mean? Or, one might have had an emarginate past, where the terrors of the day and night ripped through it, leaving one's life torn at the edges. I think we still have a ways to go in trying to use the term, but it seems too good to leave just to the botanists/zoologists who are trying to describe life. Let's claim those words for the emotions and for the richness and complexity of human existence.

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