Dear milum: if "antre" means cave, would you call fellow cultists "antramants" or "antramateurs"?

AHD says antre from Greek "antron" - does "antronophile" sound better?

Dear Doc Bill,

In the Birmingham Grotto of the National Speleological Society most of the members are antramants and only a few are antramateurs, and only one is an antramoron. Him we keep hidden in a basement when company calls.

The antronophiles among us, as you so aptly "Greeked", are friends of caves who ain't particularly friends of man. These modern day equivalents of the rack-stretching, self-rightous, fanatics of the Spanish Inquisition, love caves so dearly that they busy themselves buying up caves and banning human visitation so that the microbes and bats within can live a batly and microbly meaningful life in peace and dark.

But I'm afraid Mr. Bill that you inadvertly used the C-word. A word never spoken aloud among cavers. You called us "fellow cultists". Most of the caves that we visit are on private property and acrimonious cave owner relationships go back to the Greeks and the etymology of the latin words reveal this strained history of misunderstanding...

Cavea -ae f. [a hollow place, a cavity] Esp.[An enclosure, den, cage; the seats in a theater].

Caverna - ae f. [a hollow place, cavern]; 'navis', [the hold]; 'caeli', [the vault of heaven]

Caveo cavere cavi cautum To be on ones guard.
...hense Partic. Cautus- a- um [cautious of persons, wary, careful] of property.

You see, Bill, when you called us "cultist" you added to the mostly southern misconception that cavers are a dark cult that go into deep and dark caves to perform hideous rites in worship of the low-life devil.

(But on the other hand, thanks Bill for the addition of all of those neat and clever words.) - mw

Dear mimum: "cult" is not necessarily a dirty word. After all, it is root of "culture".
" cult - noun - a) a system of religious worship or ritual b) a quasi-religious group, often living in a colony, with a charismatic leader who indoctrinates members with unorthodox or extremist views, practices, or beliefs

"cult" is not necessarily a dirty word. After all, it is root of "culture". ~ wwh

Thanks for the slicktalk tip, Cooldaddy, I'll lay it on the happy cats at the next big gig of free-lance devil-worshiping in L.A. (Lower Alabama). All the Daddyos and Daddyettes dig culture au haute, except "Bruno of the Thousand Tatooes". He loves a good healthy Cult, but thinks that most of culture pretty well sucks.

Later Cool one ,
M.

Dear milum: and remember, everybody has an antrum under each malar prominence.

Remember? Do I ever! I'm not known for lack of cheek.