escharotic and epicene and epergne and equivoque and epicerastic

This will be the last essay of my first Speller's Diary "page." I will only be able to get through about page 500 of the Collegiate in my writing (I hope) before the Bee, thus leaving lots more work to do on other occasions. I think that the next group of 66 or so essays will take us through about page 500 but then I may want to focus on groups of words, such as those beginning with "Im" or "In" or "Re" or "Dis" and go through the dictionaries in great detail on them. But for today, I will consider several very pleasant words in the ep's to es's that I was going to treat rapidly and even dismissively but which, if I want to do "justice," I really cannot. Let's start with a word I can handle very quickly, epergne, and then get into a few more vivid words.

1. Epergne, pronounced i PERN, is possibly derived from the French epargne, meaning saving or economy, but as the OED says, "there is no evidence to show how the word acquired its present meaning," which is as a center dish or table ornament, often in a branched form, that holds desserts or pickles or flowers. Dickens and other 19th century writers quote it, but I don't want to pursue it here. I am much more interested in the next two words.

2. Epicene is defined by the Collegiate as "intersexual" or "having characteristics of both sexes" or, interestingly enough, "Lacking characteristics of either sex." Huh? It looks as if adolescent boys are not the only ones who have sexual confusion. We can remove the problem if we pay attention to its original meaning in Latin and Greek grammar. It takes a little work, but you can find Allen and Greenough's New Latin Grammar (1903!) online, and then scroll down to section 34, where you find this description, "Many nouns may either be masculine or feminine, according to the sex of the object. These are said to be of Common Gender." They give examples of exsul (exile), bos (ox or cow) and parens (parent). The endings are the same, but the gender is determined by the object. Then, they say, "Several names of animals have a grammatical gender, independent of sex. These are called epicene." Examples given are lepus--hare (always masculine) and vulpes--fox (always feminine). Thus a epicene noun is not one of "common gender;" it is one whose grammatical gender is fixed regardless of the actual gender of the object. We can see, however, how this could develop into "having characteristics of both sexes." If you have a masculine fox, for example, it will be described by a feminine ending, and thus you have both masculine and feminine in the same object.

This concept, then, lies behind the more figurative use in English as "partaking of the characteristics of both sexes." A few examples will illustrate it. From the 1650s, "Her head is epicene." Or, from Coleridge, "The mysterious epicene relation in which poor Miss Johnston stood to him." This could mean that she was both a sort of "father" and "mother" figure or, perhaps, a "masculine counselor" and a person who had romantic interests in him. Then, from Hardy, "What had at first appeared as an epicene shape, the decreasing space resolved into a cloaked female." Wasn't there a SNL skit about a character "Pat," who, interestingly enough (if you do an internet search) was called both a neutered and an androgynous character? Maybe it would have gone over even better if he was introduced as "epicene Pat."

3. If epicene took us to the realm of the sexes, an epicerastic makes us vomit. Let's look more closely at the word. Derived from the two Greek words meaning "to mix together," an epicerastic is something "tempering the acrimony of the humors; emollient." So, we think of it at first as something like a Tums pill, which calms an upset stomach. But then the quotations take us to a different place: "An epicerastick Vomit may be made of "Chicken-broth," or "The Vomits must be very gentle and epicerastick, as Warm-water." That is, an epicerastic is something that induces vomiting, rather than prevents it. But, it can be called an emollient. An emollient is defined as something that has the ability to relax the "living animal textures." I suppose it "softens" it by allowing vomiting. Then, emollient can also have a figurative sense: "This pacifick purpose, as a lenitive and emollient." I quoted this sentence because I wanted to bring lenitive into the discussion-- a great word expressing something soothing or mild. Pope could use the word in an alluring sense: "the emollients and opiats of poesy."

But back to epicerastic and vomit. I love the Victorian grace of the OED's definition of "vomit" (noun): "the act of ejecting the contents of the stomach through the mouth." At least the Collegiate uses the word "disgorging." But, "vomit" is not only the act of disgorging. The OED also defines it as "a powder, draught, or other medicine which causes vomiting; an emetic." Now we understand the quotations from above. But, what is an emetic? The OED tells us, "Having power to produce vomiting." Well, we should have known this by now. But then there is a figurative use of the word: "sickening, mawkish." I think this use came from a 1770 comment on Richardson's novel Pamela, often recognized as the first "modern" novel in English. "Richardson...in his emetic history of Pamela." Isn't that an attractive usage? Rather than saying "sickening" or "puke-inducing," as many people today might say, we should reintroduce the term "emetic." Someone might have an emetic defense of their action, which would be an explanation designed to stimulate our sympathies.

Finishing Up

After having taken this pleasant tour, let's return to The List. Equivoque is something that has more than one meaning. I like two quotations given by the OED. From Jonathan Swift, "Beyond the power of conception, or to avoid an equivoque, beyond the extent of my ideas." And, then, a searching quotation that comes form 1878: "Right is perhaps the idea which has led to the greatest amount of sophism and equivoque." Sometimes equivoque can be a useful device, but other times it is just meant to deceive. An eremurus is a perennial Asian herb. I sure hope they don't ask about all the Asian herbs and extinct African animals, etc., that are in the Collegiate, but, as you know, they are all fair game. Then erethism, derived from the verb "to irritate," is excitement or abnormal irritability. Originating in a medical context in 1800 ("Producing..a very useful perspriationn, without augmenting the irritation or erethism in those parts), the word has tended to find its home in medicine, even though one quotation, from 1859, gave it a humanistic twist: "A fancy usually so cold and impassive, but not in agonising erethism." We might try to make the word an adjective and talk about an eresthistic reaction to something. I think there is some life here. Finally, an erne is an eagle, and something escharotic produces and eschar or scab. A person who is espiegle is frolicsome or roguish. I think I will end with a quotation from Culpepper in 1655, describing the word escharotic. "Escharoticks..by burning the mouths of the Veins, produce a Scab." The last word, then, belongs to picture-language. Veins have "mouths," and an escharotic burns them. No physician would have written this in 1855. I am glad they did in 1655. It gives me hope that more people might recover the humanistic use of language by 2055.

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