fastuous and fatuous and farraginous and fatidic

So, finally we make it to the "f's." Fewer Latin and Greek roots stand behind these terms, and more French-derived words and words of uncertain etymology are here. I think I will begin with The List, pointing out a few things along the way.

The List

A fabliau, pronounced FAB lee oh, is a tale, mostly cynical, told by the trouveres, or troubadours, as they wandered through France in the 12th and 13th centuries. Something facete is facetious, while facetiae, pronounced fa CE shee ee, are facetious or erotic writings. The erotic/pornographic meaning comes from the 19th century, and even appears in Fowler's Modern English Usage where he talks about facetiae in booksellers' catalogues being a "euphemism for obscenities." Facture is a word meaning the way something is made or the execution or completion of a thing. A quaint theological usage of the term comes from 1647. Commenting on Ephesians 2:10, Mayer says, "We are his facture (the KJV has "workmanship"), created in Christ Jesus unto good works." One could use the term to describe the creative process for a writer: "He had no trouble coming up with ideas; it was the facture of the book that was so difficult for him." A fado is a mournful and plaintive Portuguese folk song, while a faena, pronounced fa A na, is a final pass before the bull before the bullfighter kills it. The red cloth attached to a stick used by the matador during the faena is called a muleta.

Most people know Fagin as the character in Dickens' Oliver Twist who grooms young boys to become pickpockets or thieves. I didn't know that the word has come to mean a person who does those things, but it has. We then have several French-derived words. Faience is a term from ancient pottery to describe earthenware covered with opaque glazes. Faille, pronounced file, is a closely woven silk. I know I am not doing justice to these concepts, but what can you do? I like the word faineant, derived from two French words meaning "do nothing," and signifying someone who is indolent or inactive. The word actually is used to describe the latter Merovingian kings (those before the Carolingians). A "non-Merovingian" example would be "the faineant aristocrat and apathetic dullard." "Sometimes you wonder whether a faineant President would be superior to an ideologically-driven one who gets us into trouble."

A faitour is an imposter or cheat, but the OED notes that the word was probably already obsolete in 1568, when a person used the term and immediately defined it as a "loyterer, vagabond, or beggar." Then, we have falciform. There really are three "f"-words to express "sickle-shaped--falciform, falcate and falculate, and another word, drepaniform, formed off the Greek rather than the Latin, means the same thing. The Century has a fine picture of a Falculia, with its sickle-shaped beak, and which is defined as a "remarkable genus of Madagascar passerine birds.." Then there is an entry under Falcidian. Instead of its relating to sickles or scythes, it relates to a person, a Roman tribune in 40 B.C. named Falcidius. He gave his name to the term "Falcidian portion," which was the fourth part of a decedent's estate, which was by Roman law guaranteed to the heir even though other legacies would otherwise have absorbed more then 3/4 of the estate.

Finally, we have a word for which there is a picture in the Century, as well as the unabridged for that matter, but the pictures reflect different definitions of the phenomenon. A faldstool is, either a folding chair easily carried around which could be used by a general as a sign of his authority when guiding his troops, or it is a folding stool on which worshipppers knelt during certain acts of devotion. The picture given in the Century is of a small desk which was used in cathedrals, churches, etc. at which the litany was sung or said.

More "F's"

The list goes on and on. A fallal is a fancy ornament in a dress, while a famulus, according to the OED is a "private secretary or attendant on a scholar or magician." Scholar OR magician?? I wonder if the two words really were reflective of similar or nearly identical worlds at one time. A fantoccini is a puppet show with puppets pulled by strings, and a fantod is a fit or irritability or, as the OED says, "A crochety way of acting." Twain used the word in Huckleberry Finn, "these was all nice pictures..but I didn't somehow seem to take to them, because..they always gave me the fan-tods." I don't think I have ever heard anyone speak this way; instead we say that something gives another person "fits." Maybe we would be enriched by rediscovery of fantods.

A farfalle, unique to the Collegiate, is a butterfly-shaped pasta. I like the word farraginous. It is derived from farrago, which is a "confused group; a medley, mixture, hotchpotch." Therefore something that is farraginous is a confused mixture of things. We have OED quotations relating to a teacher's "farriginous notes" or the stomach's becoming tantalized by "farraginous mixtures of concretes." One religious use is arresting: "The great farraginous body of Popish rites and ceremonies." Certainly this isn't said from the perspective of one who loves Rome. Then, we have the word fastigiate, which is another "shape" word, and describes something that narrows toward the top, like a cone or pyramid. One source gives the Lombardy Poplar as an example of a tree with a fastigiate top. Then we have fastuous, which differs from fatuous (silly, stupid) and means someone that is haughty or ostentatious. Someone could be scored for "fastuous and vainglorious behavior." A 17th century preacher could say, "Diogenes trampled upon Plato's pride with a greater fastuousness and humorous ostentation."

Well, let's end this essay with a reference to fatidic. The word derives from the Latin, meaning "fate" and "speak," and thus means "of or concerned with predicting fates; prophetic." "The fatidic spirit descended on Moses, and he spoke." Someone who is fatidical is gifted with the power of prophecy, while if you fatidicate you declare or predict fates.

Well, I think we made a good start on a difficult letter, so let's leave it here and bid you good-night.

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