December 2006 Archives
Phrases from Latin: mutatis
mutandis,
mea culpa, ceteris paribus, caveat emptor, sine qua non, vox populi,
de gustibus
Graphic Words: tachygraphy, chirography, cacography, dittography,
haplography, pantograph (heodolite), agraphia,
steganography
Eponyms from Literature: Svengali, Faustian, Chicken Little, trilby, fedora, grandfather clock,
waldo
Words from Heinlein: obstipate, hypergolic, caltrop, hemocyanin,
lettre de cachet, heterodyne, atavism, contretemps,
legerdemain
Phrases from Latin
This
week we'll present phrases taken verbatim from Latin.
mutatis mutandis (when comparing two
or more cases) making necessary alterations while not affecting the main point;
with respective differences taken into consideration
[Latin, 'things being changed that have to be changed'. Akin to mutate]
The memo set off alarm bells in the State
Department and among the Joint Chiefs of Staff. And for good
reason. Legal counsel there realized a memo justifying the torture of
others could be used just as readily, mutatis mutandis, to
justify the torture of American prisoners.
mea culpa an acknowledgement that one is at fault
[Latin, 'by my fault']
[His] response to all this has been a model
of blame-shifting, obfuscation and patently insincere mea culpas,
apparently justified by his view that [he] has more important things to do than
administer his own organization.
Wall Street Journal,
ceteris paribus other things being equal; if all other
relevant factors remain unaltered
China-India
the world's two fastest
growing economies that, ceteris paribus, are expected to
become the world's second and third largest economies by 2020.
caveat emptor the principle that the buyer is responsible for
checking the quality and suitability of goods before purchase
[Latin, 'let the buyer beware']
Caveat emptor: with any cool new
technology, there's always a thing or two to keep in mind before you buy.
Flat-panel monitors are no exception.
AV Video Multimedia Producer,
sine qua non an indispensable condition
[Latin, meaning 'without which, not'. This is feminine; sometimes you'll see
masc. sine quo non; proper plural is sine quibus non.]
An effective Nato [sic] is the sine
qua non of democratic multilateralism.
Financial Times,
vox populi the opinions or beliefs of the majority
[Latin, the peoples voice]
And no matter what the vox populi
says, PF Chang's has no business being in a book called "
de gustibus a matter of personal taste
[Not in dictionaries, but occasionally used as a word. From Latin de
gustibus non est disputandum 'There's no disputing about taste,' or
'There's no accounting for taste.']
Some admirable people simply don't
"get" P.G. Wodehouse. I concede this as incontrovertible fact, just
one of those de gustibus things, yet somehow can't quite fathom
the lapse in good judgment.
Graphic Words
This
week's theme of "graphic language' is not what you may think. One meaning
of graphic is 'describing nudity or sexual activity in detail.' But we
will instead be looking at some obscure words from the Greek root graphe
writing.
tachygraphy shorthand; the art of rapid writing
[Sometimes refers to a particular system devised by Thomas Shelton in 1641.]
[Greek tachy- swift]
Definitely shorthand. Not the most recent
kind either, and older version. This is tachygraphy of the type
that Samuel Pepys used in his diaries. Before the 19th century it was popular
among lawyers and naval officers. Hopelessly arcane now, of course.
Christopher Fowler, Full Dark House
chirography handwriting; penmanship
[The word, once reasonably common, dropped out of use in the first few decades
of the 20th century.]
My grandfather's chirography
was horrid. It usually looked as if a spider that dropped into a bottle of ink
was permitted to crawl over the paper. He himself could not read it half the
time
P T. Barnum, The Life of P. T. Barnum, Written by Himself
If
chirography means 'handwriting', and the familiar word calligraphy
means 'beautiful handwriting', then is there a word meaning 'bad handwriting'?
Of course.
cacography 1. bad handwriting 2. bad spelling
For some of us, there is comfort in knowing
that other great persons have also suffered from cacography.
Napoleon, for example. His handwriting was so atrocious that notes he sent to
his commanding officers looked like maps of the battlefield.
Also indecipherable was the script of the great newspaper editor Horace
Greeley. He once fired a staff member who, whatever his shortcomings, had the
wit to put
Smithsonian Magazine, August, 1999
Today's
words name errors that can creep into a text that is copied and recopied by
hand. You'll rarely see them outside of biblical or similar scholarship.
Nonetheless, our final example will be a humorous tale, so bear with me.
dittography a copyist's unintentional repetition of letter(s) or
word(s)
haplography a copyist's unintentional writing of letter(s) or word(s)
once, when they should be repeated [This is the dictionary definition, but
see below.]
Dittography or the repetition of
a letter, syllable, word, clause or sentence. Once such an error was made, it
was faithfully reproduced. In the Hebrew text of Lev.
Gerald A. Larue, Old Testament Life and Literature (1968), ch. 32
Sometimes
a speaker may erroneously add a sound (athelete for athlete) or
omit a sound ('cause for because). There are technical terms for
this, but as I understand it those terms apply only to additions or omissions
in speech.
For writings, we look to today's words. Now dittography does not mean a
just any old written error of addition: it specifically means repeating what
went before. What about haplography: does it mean any sort of written
error-of-omission, or is it specifically a failure to repeat?
Well, folks, that's not clear. The dictionaries are split but generally take
the latter view; while actual usage seems to take the former view that haplology
is simply omission of letters in a text. An example is the title which a web-author
gave to this story:
"Freudian Haplography":
A young monk, new to the monastery, is assigned to helping the other monks in
copying the old canons and laws of the church by hand. He notices, however,
that all of the monks are copying from copies, not from the original
manuscript, so he goes to the abbot to question this, pointing out that if
someone made even a small error in the first copy, it would never be picked up.
In fact, that error would be continued in all of the subsequent copies.
The abbot says, "We have been copying from the copies for centuries, but
you make a good point, my son." So he goes down into the dark caves
underneath the monastery where the original manuscripts are archived in a
locked vault that hasn't been opened for hundreds of years.
Hours go by and nobody sees the old abbot. The young monk, worried, goes down
to look for him, and finds him banging his head against the wall (his forehead
bloody and bruised), crying uncontrollably and wailing, "We missed the 'R',
we missed the 'R'.
The young monk asks the old abbot, "What's wrong, father?"
With a choking voice, the old abbot replies, "The word was 'celebrate'."
pantograph a mechanical
device for copying plans, diagrams, etc., on any desired scale. A stylus,
tracing over the original, drives a pen that produces the copy.
It took him only a few months to master the
basic skills [of surveying]. By the following spring he had learned how to use
the pantograph and the theodolite, the
dividers and the great steel chain.
Simon Winchester, The Map That Changed the World: William Smith and the
Birth of Modern Geology
Bonus word: theodolite a surveying instrument with a rotating
telescope, for measuring horizontal and vertical angles
agraphia inability to write (as a manifestation of
brain-disease)
But here used in a non-medical context.
The earliest notes
show Scott
"much
alarmed" by a sudden attack of agraphia, impotence to
write the words as he should.
Andrew Lang, Sir Walter Scott
"Everyone
loves Veronica, I see. I'm sure any lover is very eager."
If you saw this message you might think nothing of it. But a very different message
is hidden within, for those who know the secret of reading just the first
letter of each word! This exemplifies the distinction between codes and cyphers, on the one hand, and steganography,
which has become particularly important because computers make it easy to do.
steganography secret writing by hiding the message in an apparently
innocuous document or other matter
The aim of encryption is to scramble a
message so that a third party cannot unscramble it
. The goal of steganography
is to hide the fact that a message is being sent in the first place.
For
example, to conceal a message in a digitized picture, you can change one bit
per pixel
. The resulting color changes
are barely perceptible.
Unsuspecting viewers
have no clue that a steganographic message
is present.
PC Magazine, October, 2002
the 9/11 hijackers may have communicated globally through steganography
software, which lets users e-mail, say, a baby picture that secretly contains a
300-page document
Thomas L. Friedman, Longitudes and Attitudes: Exploring the World After
September 11
officials suspect that [the 9/11] hijackers and planners of the attacks used steganography
Steganography is virtually undetectable unless you know what to
look for
Law enforcement officials have known for years that hackers and
terrorists worldwide
have been using the technology.
Numerous developers
and programmers have created software to detect steganography and
to hide information.
Steganography is not a new phenomenon. Herodotus
told of a
messenger who shaved his head and then had a secret message imprinted on his
scalp. Once his hair grew, he traveled to deliver the message.
Black
Note: The dictionaries define steganography as 'cryptography',
but that is inaccurate. 'Cryptography' is usually defined to mean the art of
codes and ciphers (and sometimes, defined so broadly as to include
steganography as well).
Eponyms from Literature
This
week we present literary characters whose names have entered our language.
Svengali a person who exercises a controlling influence on another, esp.
for sinister purpose
[from Svengali, in George du Mauriers novel Trilby (1894), who
controls Trilby hypnotically]
Wordcrafter notes: This is the dictionary definition, but to me one who
has excessive (not controlling) influence can be a 'Svengali', as in the second
quote. Also, a Svengali does not use force; he influences his victim's judgment.
For example, though a mugger with a handgun has a "controlling
influence" on his victim, he is not a Svengali.
The crucial factor in Hitler's Svengali
act was his use of radio, a relatively new technology that he manipulated with
sinister effect.
With radio, one speaker could address an entire nation at
once, casting a wide, seductive net, invoking in listeners a sense of tribal
unity and singleness of vision.
Leonard Shlain, The Alphabet Versus the Goddess: The Conflict Between Word
and Image
Some of the most fascinating sections of the book deal with the Clintons's
[sic] one-time political Svengali, Dick Morris
Washington Monthly, May, 2005
Faustian of a "deal with the Devil": sacrificing moral
values for power, knowledge, or wealth
Note: Most dictionaries just say "of or relating to Faust",
which is spectacularly unhelpful, and then tell a bit about the man. I take my
definition from the only dictionary that gives specifics. It gives further
meanings, but in my view you're highly unlikely to run into them.
It's no secret that Aoun would like to
emerge from
Etymology: The German Johann Faust, c1488-1541, a wandering
astrologer and necromancer, was said to have sold his soul to the Devil. In the
early 1800s Goethe made him the hero of his play Faust, which many
consider many to be the greatest work of German literature.
Does the word Faustian come from the person, or from the dramatic
character? The dictionaries say the person, but I disagree. The word came into
English in 1876, long after the living Faust, when Faust-the-person was
presumably far less well known than Faust-the-dramatic-character. Moreover, the
earliest known usage seems to refer to a drama ("The sombre Faustian
grandeur of this piece.") Hence, I conclude that today's word falls within
our theme of eponyms from literary characters.
Chicken Little one who constantly warns that a calamity
is imminent
[from the nursery tale character: when an acorn falls on a Chicken Little's
head, she runs to tell all her friends that the sky is falling. Folks, I didn't
say our eponyms would be from great literature!]
He wanted the Principals Committee to decide
whether al Qaeda was "a first order threat" or a more modest worry
being overblown by "chicken little" alarmists.
The 9/11 Commission Report
Today's
word seems to be much more common in the
trilby a felt hat with a
narrow brim creased crown
[From the same novel as our recent word Svengali. Such a hat was worn in
the stage version of that novel.]
Walter was the boss, there was no doubt
about it.
The battered trilby which he always wore in contrast
with the others' caps gave him an extra air of authority.
James Herriot, All Creatures Great and Small
Bond glanced up
A man in a rainproof and Trilby,
middle-aged, nondescript, was inspecting the orderly hell through a pair of
folding opera-glasses. Anyone examining him
was an object of suspicion to
James Bond
Ian Fleming, Octopussy and The Living Daylights
Today's
word is, like trilby, an eponymous hat from a late-1800s drama.
fedora a soft felt hat with
a curled brim and the crown creased lengthways
You may ask how a fedora differs from a trilby. The answer is, "I don't
know."
Does this word come from title of a play (as the dictionaries say) or from the
main play's character? You be the judge: etymology
online explains, "from 'Fιdora,' a popular play by Victorien Sardou (1831-1908)
that opened 1882, in which the heroine, a Rus. princess named Fιdora Romanoff,
was originally performed by Sarah Bernhardt. During the play, Bernhardt, a
notorious cross-dresser, wore a center-creased, soft brimmed hat.
Womens-rights activists adopted the fashion. Men began to wear them with city
clothes after 1924, led by
he appeared tragically ill at ease as he
stood awkwardly with the brim of his black felt fedora held in
his two brawny laborer's hands out in front of his wide lapels. Poverty and
hard work had inflicted iniquitous damage on both.
Joseph Heller, Catch-22
Today's
familiar word has a unique distinction. It is, insofar as I know, the only
eponym to come from a song.
grandfather clock a
weight-and-pendulum clock in a tall free-standing wooden case
[from the popular 1876 song My
Grandfather's Clock by Henry Clay Work (1832-1884), American songwriter]
My grand-father's clock was too large for
the shelf,
So it stood ninety years on the floor;
It was taller by half than the old man himself,
Though it weighed not a penny weight more.
It was bought on the morn of the day that he was born,
And was always his treasure and pride;
But it stopp'd short never to go again
When the old man died.
waldo a mechanical agent, such as a gripper arm, controlled by a
human limb
[From Waldo Fathingwaite-Jones, title character in Robert Heinlein's
science fiction novella Waldo]
each full-size dinosaur robot was
controlled by up to 20 puppeteers, every one of whom was assigned to a part of
a four-foot mechanism called a waldo
New York Times,
Words from Heinlein
Yesterday's
word was coined by science fiction writer Robert Heinlein.
Sometimes I wonder whether Heinlein kept lists of oddball words to deploy in
his writings. This week we'll enjoy some of his words.
obstipate to constipate severely
In The Number of the Beast, Heinlein has set the scene at a university
party.
My musing was interrupted by a male voice in
a high scream. "You overeducated, obstipated,
pedantic ignoramus! Your mathematical intuition froze solid the day you
matriculated!"
I didn't recognize the screamer but did know
the stuffed shirt he addressed: Professor Neil O'Heret Brain, head of the
department of mathematics
. "Brainy" had spent his life in a search
for The Truth intending to place it under house arrest.
Following
yesterday's quote, Heinlein uses a technical term figuratively, to describe two
'combustible' characters brought together at the party.
hypergolic igniting or exploding spontaneously (without external
spark) when the components come into contact [said esp. of rocket fuel]
Fights were no novelty at [her] parties. Her
food and liquor were lavish, the music always live; her guests were never dull
I had been surprised at the presence of N.O. Brain. Now I felt that I
understood it: a planned hypergolic mixture.
Heinlein
scatters interesting words throughout his books, but unusual ones, and
especially thoroughly oddball ones, tend to cluster in the early pages. (For
example, in the first seven pages of The Number of the Beast you'll find
both 'obstipated' and 'hypergolic' along with 'cantilevering', 'amphigory',
'genetohematologist', 'hyperbole', and 'pheromone' and the heroine comments,
"Gosh, what big words you know, Mister," and "I like your
hair-splitting games with words.") To me this evidences that Heinlein made
a conscious effort to incorporate curiosities of vocabulary.
Heinlein
defines today's word for us. From the same book:
"Show her the caltrop, Zeb."
Zeb accepted a widget from my husband,
placed it in front of me. It looked like jacks I used to play with as a little
girl but not enough things sticking out four instead of six. Three rested on
the table, a tripod; the fourth stuck straight up.
Zeb said, "This is a weapon, invented
centuries ago. The points should be sharp
." He flipped it, let it fall
to the table. "No matter how it falls, one prong is vertical. Scatter them
in front of cavalry; the horses go down discouraging. They came into use
again in Wars One and Two against anything with pneumatic tires bicycles,
motorcycles, lorries, and so forth. Big enough, they disable tanks and tracked
vehicles. A small sort can be whittled from thorn bushes for guerrilla warfare
usually poisoned and quite nasty."
A
current thread on our board is titled "Blue Blood". Today's word,
from the same book, refers to blue blood of a different sort.
hemocyanin a bluish, copper-containing protein with an oxygen-carrying
function similar to that of hemoglobin
As my [sword-]point entered, Jake's saber cut the side of
the neck almost to decapitation. Our target collapsed, bleeding at three
wounds.
I
noticed the color of the blood with distaste. "Jake, what kind of creature
has bluish green blood?"
"I don't know."
Sharpie came forward, squatted down, dabbed a finger in
the blood, sniffed it. "Hemocyanin, I think,"
she said calmly.
"Alien. The largest terrestrial fauna with that method
of oxygen transport is a lobster. But this thing is no lobster."
lettre de cachet a warrant issued for the imprisonment of
a person without trial, at the pleasure of the monarch
From
Stranger in a Strange Land:
"
you heard him say that there was another [officer] like
him at large with, so he says, warrants."
"Doctor, I assure you that I know
nothing of any such warrant."
"Warrants, sir. He said, 'warrants for
several arrests.' Though perhaps a better term would be 'lettres de
cachet.'"
"That's a serious imputation."
"This is a serious matter."
heterodyne to combine (radio
waves) to produce a new frequency equal to the sum or difference of the two
[Heinlein uses this figuratively]
atavism the return of a trait or behavior after a period of absence;
throwback [a previous word of the day, noted here]
We already have triplets.
Appalling sounds
come from one end of each in which they heterodyne each other
and even more appalling conditions prevail at the other end.
Mother's state
can only be described as atavistically maternal. Her professional
journals pile up unread, she has that soft Madonna look in her eyes
Podkayne of Mars
contretemps an unforeseen event that disrupts the normal course
of things
legerdemain 1. sleight of hand 2. trickery, deception,
hocus-pocus
At first I thought that my brother Clark had
managed [this] malevolant legerdemain. But I soon
perceived that it was ipossible for him to be in fact guilty.
This incredible
contretemps, this idiot's dream of interlocking mishaps,
is as much to his disadvantage as it is to mine.
Podkayne of Mars