AWADmail Issue 223
August 20, 2006
A Compendium of Feedback on the Words in A.Word.A.Day
and Other Interesting Tidbits about Words and Languages
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From: Brian Seiler (btseiler AT sehs.net)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--clinquant
Refer: http://wordsmith.org/words/clinquant.html
As an aside, would the "hip-hop" version of clinquant be "bling-quant?"
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From: Julian Kerrell-Vaughan (kerrell_vaughan AT yahoo.com)
Subject: clinquant
Clinquant in French today means something brash and vulgar - I suppose that
'bling' would be the UK equivalent. If a woman is described as 'clinquant'
she is probably covered in designer labels, and of course a pair of
sunglasses, and heaps of very large gold jewellery.
Hollywood, for example, is 110% clinquant.
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From: Dan Brook (brook AT california.com)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--clinquant
More AWADmancy? Just yesterday, my son and I were panning for gold in the
American River, in Coloma, the place where gold was first found by James
Marshall in January 1848, setting off the gold rush and one of the greatest
migrations in history. We did find some flakes of gold, but the real gold for
us was seeing the beauty of the gold flakes glittering in the fast-flowing,
cold, clear river. It was a luminous, numinous, and mesmerizing sight.
We didn't have the appropriate word for it yesterday, but now we do!
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From: Johnnie Godwin (johnniegodwin AT aol.com)
Subject: Re: Empathy with "feeding the beast" . . .
I wrote a weekly newspaper column for nine years. I titled it "Words and
Things". I too love words and have ever since I can remember, but I too came
to weeks when I had to feed the beast. As some wit wrote about being a
columnist, "It's like making love to a nymphomaniac: as soon as you get
through, it's time to start all over again." Well, maybe not a good analogy,
but the point wasn't lost on me.
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From: Tom Houston (thouston AT us.ibm.com)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--agnomen
Refer: http://wordsmith.org/words/agnomen.html
This word reminded me of something I learned 45 years ago from my Latin
professor, Zeph Stewart.
Besides the four parts of a Roman's name that today's article identified,
every Roman also had a secret name -- I do not know the Latin term for it --
that would have been known only to that Roman and to his or her parents, but
which was never revealed to anyone else.
Its purpose was to prevent enemies from doing harm through magic, because
in popular Roman opinion, the delivery of magical harm required the complete
name of the victim. So without including its target's secret name, a curse
or malicious spell could have no effect.
This "secret name" custom seems striking in its implication that divine
beings, forces of Nature, the Evil Eye, or whatever the Romans believed
had the power or responsibility to enforce curses and spells -- perhaps
the "genius" of the human instigator? -- are guided by the literal content,
not by the unspoken intent. Perceiving value in having a secret name
acknowledges the power of words in a domain outside the fields of law,
politics, and propaganda to which modern civilization owes to the Roman
Empire so great a debt (or perhaps "owes so much resentment", for those
who question the value of our world's vast Roman legacy).
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From: Mark Nowacki (2ndmass AT gmail.com)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--agnomen
In the recent remake of the "Battlestar Galactica" science-fiction TV series,
the intelligent Cylons robots are known only by their model numbers. There
are dozens of copies of each model, but each "6" looks the same as every
other "6", each "8" the same as every other "8", etc. Individualism is not
part of their mind-set.
When, however, when a specific model-6 Cylon achieved something that was
admired and revered by the entire Cylon race (the destruction of the planet
Caprica), she came to be known as "Caprica 6", and became a celebrity. This
was a significant shift in Cylon society: Previously, not any had ever had
their own name, or received an agnomen.
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From: Rudy Rosenberg Sr. (rrosenbergsr AT accuratechemical.com)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--agnomen
During the Hitler regime, Jews in Germany were compelled to take on an extra
"first" name. All Jewish men had to add "Israel" and all women "Sarah". That
made it easier for the police (and everyone else) to know who was a Jew.
My grandmother became Emma "Sarah" Friedemann and my uncle Richard "Israel"
Friedemann.
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From: Jesse Selengut (jesse AT jesseselengut.com)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--clinquant
On weeks like this you should let us know that there is no theme per se but
still challenge us to connect the dots anyway. I am sure the creative,
intelligent subscribers you have cultivated would delight you with theories
we could construct. Maybe there is some Jungian message waiting to be
disclosed to you?
Thusly, I'll hazard a guess at this week's "synchronicity theme".
Words that relate to street festivals like Mardi Gras, in New Orleans, or
Carnival in Brazil.
The best part is, I know that I can't be wrong!!
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From: Roch Rollin (rochrollin AT ca.inter.net)
Subject: English and French verbs
Refer: http://wordsmith.org/awad/awadmail221.html
Sorry for the delay, this is from last week's mail issue #221
In answer to Rudy Rosenberg Sr.'s assertion:
French is very like English in that a verb without a noun (or pronoun) is
useless and vice-versa. In English you can use a single word to mean many
sometimes unrelated things, e.g.: ring, ring: rung, rung. In French it is
true nouns don't usually serve as verbs as they are. But it isn't incorrect
to make a verb up. Who is to stop you from taking any noun for which you
don't have a verb and creating one (néologiser!). You have the same kind of
formation in English: French becomes Frenchify; English, Anglicise. This
process is very well illustrated by your Brel example ( très vulgaire, but
what the inferno! ) and is the manifestation of one of the qualities that
distinguish creative writers.
To carry forward your example: "You can knife someone", in French you might
say: "Tu peux couper quelqu'un." You could also use another perfectly
serviceable verb: daguer, poignarder, embrocher, sabrer, émincer, fileter,
dépecer, éventrer, égorger, etc., depending on what kind of tool you use, how
you manipulate it and what kind of injury is likely to result. And if you
really can't live without a verb from couteau, you could easily make one up:
coutelliser sounds good. The time when the Académie française was a
reference is long gone.
I won't elaborate on derriériser which could equally be expanded into
analiser (too close to analyser), rectumiser (funny) or enfiler (très
vulgaire); and yes, embrocher could also be used for that! For more of this
kind of vocabulary, you might read the "divin marquis" who manipulated
French vulgarities like a rapier.
Frankly French (both from Latin Francus)
Roch Rollin
P.S. By the way enculer takes only one 'L'.
............................................................................
Language is fossil poetry. -Ralph Waldo Emerson, writer and philosopher
(1803-1882)
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