te igitur and lacertilian and teichoscopy and teiid

This wonderful collection of words includes the following: teff, teiid, telangiectasia, tenace, tenuis, tephra, teratology, terneplate, terrazzo, terret, theriaca and thetic. Each points to a rich world which assumes its own specialized knowledge and skill. Indeed, one could go on rather endlessly in learning, chosing one of these words to plumb deeper into issues related to the term, and then spread to other things. For example, even a word as banal as teff could take you on intellectual and imaginative journeys. Teff, by the way, is an important cereal grass, Poa Abyssinica, which is the most important food-plant of Ethiopia.

You could simply look up the usages of the term in the OED; there you would learn that there are three varieties of teff (at least according to an early version of the Britannica; a late 19th century quotation lists four kind, three of which don't agree with the Britannica classification). Then, you could search further into foods and grains of Ethiopia, the history of the land, the people of the country, etc. etc. Soon you might feel called to be a missionary to that land. Well, possibly not. Maybe, however, you would be inspired to take up long-distance running. Before I go too much further, however, a digression is in order.

Some OED Words

I was actually going to go right to the second word, teiid, which is not in the OED but which the Collegiate defines as "the lizard Tupinambis teguixim, any of a family (Teiidae) of mostly tropical American lizards...with an elongate forked tonque," when I got sidetracked in the OED. I looked to my right and my left and couldn't find teiid, but managed to find teichoscopy, Te igitur and Teilhardism, all of which were familiar to me but were absent from the Collegiate (why does that happen?). And then, even before getting to the OED I found myself caught up in a digression within a digression, for the Century has an entry for Teeidae, which it defines as a "family of eriglossate lacertilians."

As you might suspect, I really took delight in that phrase, and so I had to search out the word "eriglossate." The word doesn't appear in the OED, but that doesn't stop our intrepid Century. Eriglossate is there defined as "pertaining to or having the characters of the Eriglossa or true lizards." I really wanted to know what a true lizard was, so my eyes immediately went up to Eriglossa, which are defined as "a suborder of Lacertilia, including the lizards proper; all existing lacertilians excepting the chameleons or Rhiptoglossa." They have a flat tongue, among other characteristics which I don't want to mention here. Great. This page gives you lots of information, with pictures, of the various kinds of lacertilians. It is very informative.

There is one last digressionary thought within the main digression I am pursuing. I happened to notice some of Eriglossa's neighbors in the Century, and wanted to introduce you to Erignathus, which is a genus of earless hair-seals (the Century even provides a cut of one of these creatures, the Erignathus barbatus--which hasn't shaved its beard--though it doesn't do so for the Eriglossa. No doubt this is an early 20th century example of lacertilian-discrimination. I wonder if someone ever developed the theory of "hostile workplace lacertilian discrimination," because those little buggers can tend to crawl all over places...Now I am really getting far afield). Well, one more neighbor is the word erigible, which I really like. It means "capable of being erected." "On each side the base of the tail there is a very strong spine,....erigible at the pleasure of the animal." I suppose that isn't the only thing that is erigible at the pleasure of various animals.

Returning to the OED

Well, what got me off on this smaller digression was a large digression on three terms in the OED that don't appear in the Collegiate: teichoscopy, Te Igitur and Teilhardism. These take us to different realms, from the poetry of Homer to the Catholic Mass to a leading 20th century philosopher-theologian. I love the word teichoscopy, literally translated "view from the wall," because it is the descriptive title of Book III of the Iliad. From 1875: "He [Ulyssses] is by far the most prominent person in this portrait gallery of the Teichoscopy." In other words, Book I of the Iliad explains the reason for the Trojan War, Book II gives us a "lineup" of the troops, and Book III shifts us to the perspective of those people watching the impending conflict. From this book comes a section which the feminist scholars in the 1980s discovered, where various female characters who watch their men in battle are "weaving the War," so to speak, in blankets and clothes. In other words, perhaps it is the weavers, rather than the warriors, or even the divinities, who truly hold the fate of Troy in their hands. I could see how we could use the word teichoscopy in our conversation--when we want to describe the role of onlookers.

The Te igitur, in contrast, is "the first prayer in the canon of the Mass in the Roman and some other Latin liturgies; hence extended to the liturgical book itself." The music and theological flow of the Mass would be a wonderful topic for extensive reflection. Here, however, I only provide the following. The Priest begins the fourth part of the Holy Mass by bowing low and kissing the altar, then silently asks God through Jesus Christ to accept our offerings. He makes over the Host and Chalice three Signs of the Cross, showing that Jesus' Sacrifice on the Cross obtained for us the blessing of three Divine Persons. Then, the Priest continues with prayers for the Church and the Ecclesiastical Authorities. In Latin, he says:

"Te igitur, clementissme Pater, per Iesum Christum Filium tuum Dominum nostrum, supplices rogamus ac petimus (The Priest kisses the Altar) uti accepta habeas, et benedicas, haec † dona, haec † munera, haec † sancta sacrificia illibata. in primis, quae tibi offerimus pro Ecclesia tua sancta catholica: quam pacificare, custodire, adunare, et regere digneris toto orbe terrarum: una cum famulo tuo Papa nostro N. et Antistite nostro N., et omnibus orthodoxis, atque catholicae, et apostolicae fidei cultoribus."

This may be translated:

"We therefore, humbly pray and beseech Thee, most merciful Father, through Jesus Christ; Thy Son, our Lord, (The Priest kisses the Altar) that Thou wouldst vouchsafe to accept and bless these † gifts, these † presents, these † holy unspotted Sacrifices, which in the first place we offer Thee for Thy holy Catholic Church to which vouchsafe to grant peace, as also to preserve, unite, and govern it throughout the world, together with Thy servant N., our Pope, and N., our Bishop, and all orthodox believers and professors of the Catholic and Apostolic Faith."

That's all the Te igitur is. Isn't it wonderful to take some of the confusion and mystery out of things just by clarifying a few basic items? I guess I am out of space here, so I will have to finish my digression in the next essay before returning to the Collegiate.

1921