April 2007 Archives
Coined Words: halitosis, blurb, ecdysiast, cromulent,
dorgi, agnostic, scofflaw
Laws, Principles, and Rules: Murphy’s Law, Morton’s Fork, Parkinson's Law,
Short Words: lek, ort, pyx (antiphon), erg, oda, nob, vig
Words from Games: taw, roquet, chukka (conk), pelota, cesta, oche, muleta, squidger, squop
Coined Words
For
our next theme we’ll look at some coined words, most them familiar. In one
sense, every word was “coined” by the first person to us it, but some coinages
have very interesting histories.
Recall that last week’s word Listerine was originally a surgical
antiseptic, later a mouthwash. The change came from a hugely-successful
advertising campaign, one which illustrates the power of the well-chosen word,
today’s coinage.
halitosis – bad breath [from Latin halitus
breath + Greek-based suffix -osis]
Listerine began to advertise itself as a cure for “halitosis” in 1921, and
kicked the campaign into high gear two years later – perhaps because a
competitor was also calling itself a “halitosis” cure. By 1924 the word was on
everyone's lips, halitosis-jokes abounded, and one wag noted, "The feller
that thought up halitosis as a catchword for bad breath is now riding around in
a pink limousine." Says one commentator, “Listerine did
not make mouthwash as much as it made halitosis." (James Twitchell,
Twenty Ads that Shook the World)
Many sources say that the ad-men coined “halitosis”, but in fact it was obscure
medical lingo (coined 1874,) which they stumbled upon and eagerly seized. They
had already rejected marketing Listerine as a bad breath remedy (they didn’t
even know it could be so used), because "bad breath" was an indecent
phrase. But when they learned the word "halitosis" they saw that it
would be a fine euphemism.
See our board here
for the full story their deliberation, and immediately after for some of their
early advertising copy.
blurb – a short
promotional description of a book, film, or other product
I never saw a purple cow
I never hope to see one
But I can tell you anyhow
I'd rather see than be one.
Gelett
Burgess (1866-1951), author of these immortal lines, also liked to invent new
words. In 1907 he created Miss Belinda Blurb to mock the customary rave
reviews printed on books' dust jackets, explaining that he "had her
pictured blurbing a blurb to end all blurbs, I fondly hoped." (When asked,
he defined blurb as "self praise and making a noise like a
publisher".)
His publisher reported, some decades later, how that word was sprung upon the
world at large:
It is the custom of publishers to present
copies of a conspicuous current book to booksellers attending the annual dinner
of their trade association, and as this little book was in its heyday when the
meeting took place I gave it to 500 guests. These copies were differentiated
from the regular edition by the addition of a comic bookplate drawn by the
author and by a special jacket which he devised. It was the common practice to
print the picture of a damsel--languishing, heroic, or coquettish--on the
jacket of every novel, so Burgess lifted from a Lydia Pinkham or tooth-powder
advertisement the portrait of a sickly sweet young woman, painted in some
gleaming teeth, and otherwise enhanced her pulchritude, and placed her in the
center of the jacket. His accompanying text was some nonsense about 'Miss
Belinda Blurb,' and thus the term supplied a real need and became a fixture in
our language.
Regrettably,
I am unable to provide you a picture of the buxom Miss Belinda.
H.L.
Mencken explains how he came to coin today’s word.
Then [in 1940] I was inspired by a lady …
designating her occupation as strip teasing, who requested “a new and more
palatable word to describe this art.” As a help to her (or here public
relations counsel)) I replied as follows: “It might be a good idea to relate
strip teasing in some way or other to the associated zoological function of
molting. Thus the word moltician comes to mind, but it must be rejected
due to its likeness to mortician. A resort to the scientific name for
molting, which is ecydsis, produces … ecydiast.”
ecdysiast – a stripper-tease artist; a stripper
[ecdysis –zoology: the process of shedding the old skin (in
snakes, etc.)]
"Gypsy and Me" strips bare the life of what it meant to be the
legendary ecdysiast's son …
– Jewish Exponent, Mar. 22, 2007
… new Alabama football coach Mike Price getting the ax for his misadventures
with the Pensacola ecdysiast community.
– Salon,
cromulent – excellent;
perfectly acceptable
He had a boundless passion for music and
entertained many with his beautiful voice and perfectly cromulent
sense of humor.
– Charlotte Observer,
Coined
on TV in The Simpsons:
Jebediah: [on film] A
noble spirit embiggens the smallest man.
Edna Krabappel: Embiggens? I never heard that word before I moved to
Ms. Hoover: I don't know why. It's a perfectly cromulent word.
[and later:] Skinner: Yes, he's embiggened that role
with his cromulent performance.
Two years ago this word had 40,000 google hits. Erin McKean
of OED commented (late 2005), "So of course, cromulent
hasn't really made dictionaries yet. It's kind of bubbling along at a low
boil." Today it generates 192,000 google hits. I'd say it's become a cromulent
part of our vocabulary.
Necessity
can be the mother of linguistic invention. Two examples:
1. When two sisters raised dogs, and the animals presented them with the
results of a romantic interlude between the two breeds, what would they call
the pups? The sisters created an in-the-family term by blending the breed
names. A rather ordinary family incident, but since the sisters are prominent
ladies, the blended name has become known outside the family. Thus, Queen
Elizabeth’s corgis and Princess Margaret’s dachshunds have given us as dorgies.
2. T. H. Huxley explained how he came to coin the term agnostic –
one believes that nothing can be known concerning the existence of God.
When I … began to ask myself whether I was an
atheist, a theist, or a pantheist …, I found that the more I learned and
reflected, the less ready was the answer … The one thing in which most of these
good people were agreed was the one thing in which I differed from them. They
were quite sure that they had attained a certain "gnosis" -- had more
or less successfully solved the problem of existence; while I was quite sure I
had not, and had a pretty strong conviction that the problem was insoluble. …
So I took thought, and invented what I conceived to be the appropriate title of
"agnostic". It came into my head as suggestively antithetic to the
"gnostic" of Church history, who professed to know so much about the
very things of which I was ignorant; and I took the earliest opportunity of
parading it at our Society, to show that I, too, had a tail, like the other
foxes.
Today’s
word was coined in a 1923 contest sponsored by an ardent Prohibitionist, Mr.
Delcevare King of
The authorities thought the word was a flash-in-the-pan. Within months the
new-words editor Funk & Wagnalls (Dr. Frank H. Vizetelly) commented that
the term, "widely publicized several months ago as the term applied to
those who violate the prohibition laws, is fast fading." Moral: don’t
trust the authorities! But the winning entry has changed its meaning.
scofflaw – a contemptuous violator of laws, esp.
of laws deemed silly or trivial
Tidbit: two entrants submitted the winning word, and the OED and many other
sources identify them as Miss Kate L. Butler and “Henry Irving Dale.” But many
contemporary accounts give the gentleman’s name as “Henry Irving Shaw,”
and that view was taken by as high an authority as Time Magazine (Jan. 16,
1956).
Laws, Principles, and Rules
Our
theme this week will be various laws, rules and principles that govern the
practical world about us. But I’m not talking about anything so
mundane as the Law of Gravity.
We’ll begin with a familiar one which, as two eminent physicists note in our
quotes, may be the fundamental governing law of the Universe.
Murphy’s Law – if anything can go wrong, it will
[No one is sure who “Murphy” was.]
… in any closed
system disorder, or entropy, always increases with times. In other words, it is
a form of Murphy's law: things
always tend to go wrong!
– Stephen Hawking, A Brief History of Time
Even at the world's soon-to-be largest particle accelerator … scientists need
to be mindful of one of the most fundamental laws in the universe: Murphy's
Law. … a scant few months before the … collider
… is slated to go online, a small but crucial part of the machine broke with a
bang. "We were busy solving hard problems, and somehow an easy one slipped
past us," said
– National Geographic, DC -
Morton’s Fork – the principle that "you’re damned if you do, and
damned if you don’t"
Named for King Henry VII’s tax collector, John Morton (c.1420-1500), who took
the position that 1) if you’re living in luxury you obviously have enough money
to pay taxes, and 2) if you’re living frugally, you must be saving your money,
and so can afford to pay taxes.
Fred raced in to bowl the first ball which …
I pushed through mid-wicket for three. [then]
"That were a bloody awful delivery, weren't it?" he said quietly.
This … was Fred's version of Cardinal Morton's Fork. If I
said, "Yes, it was rubbish," I would appear cocky and disrespectful.
If, on the other hand, I said, "No, I thought it was jolly good," I
would brand myself a simpleton … .
– The Telegraph,
So Labour faces a Morton's Fork.
It could obey the incoming hardline leaders of unions that are still its major
financial supporters, in which case it will cease to be New Labour. Or it could
brush off the new union bosses, lose their financial support and face conflict,
including strikes.
– The Telegraph,
I
would think the second-quoted situation is more a Faustian bargain than
a Morton’s Fork.
Parkinson's Law – the principle, “Work expands so as to
fill the time available for its completion.”
Coined by C. Northcote Parkinson (1909-93).
The Supreme Court embarks this week on one
of its time-honored traditions: the bone-crunching finale. … But what is the
explanation for the Court's delay on the abortion and right-to-die cases? … It
is not simply that the Court observes its own version of Parkinson's Law:
opinion-writing expands to fill the time remaining in the term. The Justices
can and do act expeditiously once they have arrived at a decision … Yet the …
abortion cases are the oldest on the docket. The next-oldest is the
– New York Times,
Most dictionaries give only this economic meaning: the
principle that in financial markets, "bad money drives out good".
That is, if two currencies are in circulation, one of them being debased, then
this debased "bad money" will soon be the only one left circulating
(because people will hoard the superior currency when they receive it, thus
removing it from circulation).
Why is the principle given this name? When
Queen Elizabeth I took the throne in 1558 her financial advisor, Sir Thomas Gresham,
advised her of this principle, writing "that good and bad coin cannot
circulate together". (Can anyone find the text of the letter?) Three
centuries later British economist H. D. Macleod called it "
International co-operation is necessary to
prevent a corporate Gresham's Law where bad companies from
unregulated countries drive out good.
– Financial Times,
[Samuel] Johnson posits a kind of Gresham’s Law for literature,
in which the bad and cheap writing of the marketplace drives the good out of
existence.
– Robert D. Spector, Samuel Johnson and the Essay
Today's
principle may give you a new way of looking at the world.
80/20 rule or Pareto Principle – often, 80% of the result comes
from 20% of the work or other input
Pareto found that 80 percent of the peas he
harvested came from 20 percent of the pods. He also learned that 80 percent of
·
Eighty percent of a worker's productivity comes from 20 percent
of the tasks.
·
Eighty percent of sales come from 20 percent of salespeople.
·
Twenty percent of employees account for 80 percent of
absenteeism.
·
Eighty percent of a manager's headaches come from 20 percent of
workers.
·
Eighty percent of decisions come from 20 percent of meeting
time.
– San Francisco Chronicle,
For years, Microsoft Corp. has blithely dismissed
criticisms of its Office suite as a victim of the Pareto principle
– that 80 per cent of its owners use only 20 per cent of its features. That's
just the way people use their tools, they'd say.
– Globe and Mail,
the secret is developing a research strategy that captures all the facts you
need – and covers as little extraneous territory as possible. … the Pareto Principle. You may have
heard of it as the "80/20" rule. … recognize that you’ll typically get most of your "good
stuff" from just a handful of books and magazine articles. … expect to get 80 percent of your notes from just 20 percent
of your reading.
– David A. Fryxell, Write Faster, Write Better
Here
are two terms, somewhat related in meaning and each an acronym (that is, made
from initials). Neither is particularly familiar, and each, when used, is
usually accompanied by an explanation of what it means.
TANSTAAFL – the principle, "There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free
Lunch"
GIGO – the principle, "Garbage In, Garbage Out". In other
words, if the inputs are nonsense, the results will be nonsense.
Insofar as I can tell TANSTAAFL, coined by Robert Heinlein, is not yet
recognized by any general paper-and-cover dictionary. GIGO is recognized
by OED.
The company [H&R Block] offers several
ways to obtain a [tax] refund early, but if you use these services, read the fine
print carefully and remember: TANSTAAFL.
– Motley Fool,
When a computer is mistreated or given imperfect data,
it suffers from GIGO as it can create garbage alone from garbage.
The sense of GIGO extends beyond the computer when there are
failures in human decision-making due to faulty, incomplete, or imprecise data
– The Tribune (India), July 6, 2002
Inspector Doherty shares with me," Delchamps said, "the philosophy
that if you're going to use a computer, use the best one." "We are
referring, Colonel, ... to the computers between our
ears." ... "Computers, Colonel, are only as good as the data they
contain," Doherty said. "You know what GIGO
means?" Castillo nodded. "Garbage in, garbage
out." "Right. So anything we put into
our computers .. has to be a
fact, not a supposition, not a possibility...."
– W.E.B. Griffin, The Hunters
Peter Principle – [coined by Laurence J. Peter] the
principle that those in a hierarchy are promoted until they reach the level at which
they are no longer competent (at which point promotion ceases). Thus each
position is eventually filled by an incompetent.
He made a great cop. … But his front-line
successes made him an undeserving victim of the Peter Principle.
He was promoted to detective a few years ago but proved too impolitic and got
on the wrong side of a deputy superintendent. In 1980 Watson was demoted back
to patrolman …
– Time Magazine,
Short Words
A
word doesn't have to be long to be obscure and interesting! This week we'll
look at some short ones.
Ever been to a singles bar?
lek – an animals' "singles bar"; a
place where animals gather to compete for mates (also: the gathering
there; the competition there; and to lek: to so compete)
Peacocks are among the few birds that of a
kind of market in seduction techniques, called a "lek,"
after the Swedish word for play. Some grouse, several birds of paradise, and
manakins, plus a number of antelope, deer, bats, fish, moths, butterflies and other
insects also indulge in lekking. A lek is
place where males gather in the breeding season, mark out little territories
that are clustered together, and parade their wares for visiting females.
– Matt Ridley, The Red Queen: Sex and the
Evolution of Human Nature
Poorly-endowed peacock males form leks and together manage to win
mates, despite their bigger competitors, through their collective displays.
– Perry Marshall, Bryan Todd, Ultimate Guide to Google AdWords
ort – a scrap or morsel of food left at a
meal
What a great word! "Pardon me, but you have an ort stuck between
your teeth."
A flask of water and a plate of bread, hard
and tinged with blue mold, stood in the shadows near Beardsley's head; orts
and bits of gluey, half-chewed bread covered the floor nearby.
– Diana Gabaldon, The Fiery Cross
My high jinks with Mary Kathleen's
remains were not crimes in and of themselves, since corpses have no more rights
than do orts from last night's
– Kurt Vonnegut, Jailbird
pyx – the container in which the wafer of
the Eucharist is kept
Father Vaillant came back in his vestments,
with his pyx and basin of holy water, and began sprinkling the
bed and the watchers, repeating the antiphon, Asperges me,
Domine, hyssopo, et mundabor.
– Willa Cather, Death Comes for the Archbishop
Bonus word:
antiphon
– a verse or song to be chanted or sung in response
A reader points out an
additional meaning of pyx: "A chest in a mint in which specimen
coins are placed to await assay".
erg – a unit of work or energy
[coined 1873 by the British Association for the Advancement of Science, from
Gk. ergon "work". Related words are urge and orgy.]
"Orgy"??
While straining in this way, focusing every erg
of energy on his eyes, his bowels suddenly opened up ..."
– Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye (Oprah's Book Club)
he lunged at Vastor, whirling, hands clasped together to deliver every erg
of power at his command into one last thundering punch ...
– Matthew Woodring Stover, Shatterpoint
Since
yesterday’s word was related to “orgy" … Consider the practical difficulties of maintaining a
harem. Where do the ladies reside when not "on duty"?
oda –the dormitory of the sultan's seraglio
It was a spacious chamber (Oda
is
The Turkish title) and ranged round the wall
Were couches, toilets -- and much more than this
I might describe, for I have seen it all
But it suffices -- little was amiss;
'Twas on the whole a nobly furnished hall.
– Lord Byron, Don Juan, Canto VI
nob – Brit. informal: a person of wealth
or high social position
The judge, In Gilbert & Sullivan's Trial
by Jury, explains how he how politics brought him to his judicial position:
It was managed by a job (and a good job, too!)
It was managed by a job (and a good job, too!)
It is patent to the mob,
That my being made a nob
Was effected by a job (and a good job, too!)
vig – [short for "vigorish"] 1.
the interest paid to a loan shark 2. a charge taken by a bookie, on bets
Indeed,
– Brian Haig, Man in the Middle
Words from Games
"Words
from Games" is our theme this week. How about a short one, to honor last
week's theme?
taw – a large choice or fancy marble, often
streaked or variegated, being that with which the player shoots
Dickens and Clemens each use this word, speaking of an "alley"
[alabaster] taw.
. . "Oh, never you
mind what she said, Jim. That's the way she always talks. Gimme the bucket—I
won't be gone only a minute. SHE won't ever know."
"Oh, I dasn't, Mars Tom. Ole missis
she'd take an' tar de head off'n me. 'Deed she would."
"SHE! She never licks anybody—whacks
'em over the head with her thimble—and who cares for that, I'd like to know.
She talks awful, but talk don't hurt—anyways it don't
if she don't cry. Jim, I'll give you a marvel. I'll give you a white
alley!"
Jim began to waver.
"White alley,
Jim!
And it's a bully taw."
"My! Dat's a mighty gay marvel, I tell
you! But Mars Tom I's powerful 'fraid ole missis—"
"And besides, if you will I'll show you
my sore toe."
Jim was only human—this attraction was too
much for him.
– Samuel Clemens, Tom Sawyer
'But enough of this, gentlemen,' said Mr. Serjeant Buzfuz, 'it is difficult to
smile with an aching heart; it is ill jesting when our deepest sympathies are
awakened. My client's hopes and prospects are ruined, and it is no figure of
speech to say that her occupation is gone indeed. The bill is down--but there
is no tenant. Eligible single gentlemen pass and repass-but there is no
invitation for to inquire within or without. All is gloom and silence in the
house; even the voice of the child is hushed; his infant sports are disregarded
when his mother weeps; his "alley tors" and his
"commoneys" are alike neglected; he forgets the long familiar cry of
"knuckle down," and at tip-cheese, or odd and even, his hand is out.
'
– Charles Dickens, Pickwick Papers
Yesterday, the game of marbles. Today,
another game in which the object is to hit your opponent's sphere with your
own.
roquet – in croquet, the act of hitting another
player's ball with one's own
She could have even deliberately come up
behind me so she could roquet my ball into the briar patch, thus
making sure I'd find the body.
– Donna Andrews, No Nest for the Wicket
Yesterday,
croquet. Today, another game of mallets striking balls.
chukka – each of the periods into which a game
of polo is divided [Sanskrit, 'circle' or 'wheel']
[also, a kind of high shoe, resembling a polo boot]
The trouble with Jeeves is that he tends
occasionally to get above himself. ... he has a nasty
way of conveying the impression that he looks on Bertram Wooster as a sort of
idiot child who, but for him, would conk in the first chukka.
I resent this.
– P.G. Wodehouse, Life with Jeeves
Bonus word:
conk
– to break down, give out, fail, or show signs of failing; to die, collapse, or
lose
[first used of WWI airplanes. perhaps related to conk slang for
"nose" (1812) [seen as like a conch shell?], whence conk
"to punch in the nose", whence conk "to hit on the
head"]
From
the game of jai alai (Basque jai festival + alai
merry)
pelota – 1. the game itself 2. the ball
used
cesta – a scoop-shaped wicker basket, worn over the hand, used to catch
and throw the ball
fronton – a building where pelota is played
The fronton where pelota was
played was a large outdoor arena the size of a football field ... Members of
each team took turns slamming the ball into the concrete wall and catching it
on the rebound in their cestas, the long, narrow baskets
strapped to their arms. Pelota was a fast, dangerous game. ...
"Is it as dangerous as it looks?"
"Baroness, that ball travels through
the air at almost a hundred miles an hour.¹ If you get
hit in the head, you're dead."
– Sidney Sheldon, If Tomorrow Comes
¹ Actually, that's a gross understatement. According to one
web-source, "Slightly smaller than a baseball and livelier than a golf
ball, the pelota … has been clocked in play at more than 185
miles per hour and can shatter bulletproof glass." Another: "Jai-alai
is the world's fastest ball game. … compare: hockey slapshot
[120 mph]; tennis serve [130 mph]; squash [120 mph]."
oche – the line behind which
darts players stand when throwing
Darts may not be glamorous, but it's worth
defending the oche as it gets smothered by the spread of the
gastropub.
– Guardian Unlimited,
muleta – a short red cape, used
by a matador to maneuver a bull during the final passes before a kill
You ... played with rhinos, with the jeep,
letting them come up to horn range before you swerved, using the jeep as a
bullfighter uses a muleta to turn a bull's charge.
– Robert Ruark, Something of Value
I'm
sure you're all familiar with the great sport of tiddlywinks?
squidger – the larger wink used to propel or
flip a player's winks (verb: squidge – to so propel)
squop – to cover and immobilize (another's wink) with one's own
A squopped wink cannot be squidged
again until it is de-squopped.
– Time,