Did everybody else already know this--the source, I mean?
sardonic (sahr-DON-ik) adjective
Marked by scorn, mockery, and cynicism.
[After Sardinia, a large island in the Mediterranean. Eating a Sardinian plant was believed to produce facial convulsions as if in a maniacal laughter.]
Are there any other words from illnesses that aren't used solely in descriptions of them? And, does anybody know what plant it was?
Kia ora Jackie.
I think the plant is a type of buttercup.
From the Wikipedia
entry for
Ranunculus:
The term sardonic (sardanios), "bitter or scornful laughter", is often cited as deriving from the name of the Sardinian plant Ranunculus sardous, known as either σαρδάνη (sardanē) or σαρδόνιον (sardonion). When eaten, it would cause the eater's face to contort in a look resembling scorn (generally followed by death). It might also be related to σαίρω (sairō) "I grin".
,
apoplectic, and
hysterical have come to mind as “other words from illnesses that aren't used solely in descriptions of them”. There is some disagreement as to which physical conditions and phenomena deserve to be classified as diseases or disease manifestations.
Not exactly illnesses, but in earlier medical history, illnesses were often associated with one of the four humours, the names for which have come to mean character traits - phlegmatic, sanguine, melancholic and choleric.
Other illness related words that have come to have a wider application would include: manic, poxy, cancer (-ous, etc), demented, dizzy, fever (febrile, etc), infectious, jaundice(d), splenetic, lousy, scab (scabby, etc), vertiginous.
There are also other words that only coincidentally mean other things, being applied to both, rather than having originated with an illness, such as bipolar, stroke, shingles, thrush and shock. Not sure which category measly, rash and impotent fit into.
Does anybody else think that the word doesn't fit the theme because it's named for the plant? That the plant is named for the place is incidental. In fact, it seems the place might be named for the fish, so it's an ichthonym. (^_^)
Kewl, guys--thanks!
Myr--well, it's still a toponym, innit?
It's named for a plant. If you're going to follow the chain, you should follow the chain or not. Why stop in the middle?
It's a floratopoichthonym.
it seems the place might be named for the fish, so it's an ichthonym. (^_^)
Actually,
sardine is not a species of fish, but refers to a whole bunch from the family Clupeidae:
sardines, so the fish are named after the place, not the reverse. :0)
I have bigger problems with
hysteria, a sexist term originally applied to women, about women. The etymology is from the greek
hysteros or uterus. Note the "treatments" described in the article:
hysteria Also, the uterus is not a disease!
Also, the uterus is not a disease!
Actually in the folk medical belief you link to, it is not the uterus which is the disease but its wandering away from its location in the body. Sort of a womb errant syndrome. (Syndrome meant in the Greek original 'a running together'.) I note that the most hysterical people I've ever come across are male; perhaps it's uterus envy.
this one troubled me for a long while, until I finally discovered this:
the [truly] worthless [or not] word for the day is: tarassis
[fr. Gk tarasso(?), to trouble the mind, confound,
agitate, disturb, disquiet] /tuh RASS iss/
male hysteria (?)
""Hysteria" (hustera, womb) is a form of neurosis which,
strictly speaking, ought to apply to women only. But males
suffer from the malady, too, and the same term is used to
designate it. In 1886 Sanoaville de Lachèse proposed that
the word "tarassis" (tarasso, to agitate, disturb, trouble)
be used to designate hysteria in the male, but in
spite of its appropriateness the term has not received general
acceptance. It is not always the superior scientific term
that succeeds in winning approval." [EA]
- Oscar Nybakken,
Greek and Latin in Scientific Terminology (1959)
-tsuwm
uterus envy 
=============================================================
this one troubled me for a long while To the point of tarassis? ;-)
it seems the place might be named for the fish, so it's an ichthonym. (^_^)
so the fish are named after the place, not the reverse.
From etymonline:
c.1430, from L. sardina, from Gk. sardine, sardinos, often said to be from Sardo "Sardinia" (see Sardinia), the Mediterranean island, near which the fish were probably caught and from which they were exported. But cf. Klein: "It is hardly probable that the Greeks would have obtained fish from so far as Sardinia at a time relatively so early as that of Aristotle, from whom Athenaios quotes a passage in which the fish sardinos is mentioned." Colloquial phrase packed like sardines (in a tin) is recorded from 1911.
BTW, the plural of fish is fish. The fish plural who are collectively known
today as sardines - better?
It's also doubtful that the ancient Greeks practiced modern taxonomy.
BTW, the plural of fish is fish.
The fish plural who are collectively known today as sardines - better?
BTW, the plural of fish is fish.
...or fishes. ...or fishies. Especially with the adjective 'little' in front of it.
If you have two gouramis in your home aquarium you have two fish. If you have two gouramis, six cardinal tetras, and one plecostomus you have three fishes
>
fishes..fishies...fisheses.
Note on usage: fish vs. fishesFishes is the English plural form of fish that biologists use when speaking about two or more fish species, as in "There are over 25,000 fishes in the world" (meaning that there are over 25,000 fish species in the world). When speaking of many fish that all are part of the same species, then the word "fish" is used, as in "There are several million fish in the species Gadus morhua."
Prediction:
By the entrails of fishes,
Ichthyomancy;
by sacrificial fire, Pyromancy; by red-hot iron, Sideromancy; by smoke from the altar, Capnomancy; by mice, Myomancy; by birds, Ornithomancy; by a cock picking up grains, Alectryomancy (or Alectromancy); by herbs, Botanomancy; by water, Hydromancy; by fountains, Pegomancy; by a wand, Rhabdomancy; by dough of cakes, Crithomancy; by meal, Aleuromancy, Alphitomancy; by salt, Halomancy; by dice, Cleromancy 
Your post came in in my editing time,Faldage, so doubles.
So then I'm understanding that the correct way to refer to sardines is as "fishes" because the term "sardine" denotes more than one species. Is this correct? :0)
Correct or incorrect, I like them fried or grilled.
Hmm...
"Six species of sardine are generally recognized: five in the Pacific and Indian Oceans (Sardinops species) and Sardinia pilchardus in the Atlantic and Mediterranean. In 1998 US researchers announced, following analysis of mitochondrial DNA from the Sardinops species, that they were in fact probably widely dispersed regional populations of the same species, rather than different species." + _ =)
"Taxonomically different" species are often indistinguishable to the naked eye (or differ by some small feature like the number of teeth or number of rays in a fin) and are often mis-identified. I believe I just recently mentioned that I have fish in my home that have been moved into a different taxonomic genus within the last year which is not an unusual occurence for aquarium fishes.
You sure know a lot more about fish and taxonomics than I. I only know names and that only of fishes that either gigantic, dangerous, beautiful and/or edible.