A.Word.A.Day -- AWADmail Issue 1194

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AWADmail Issue 1194

A Weekly Compendium of Feedback on the Words in A.Word.A.Day and Tidbits about Words and Language

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Words in News: Eighty-six

From our archives, Jun 3, 2003: eighty-six (also see this)

From: Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org)
Subject: Interesting stories from the Net

Could the English Language Die?
The Guardian
Permalink

Linguists Find Proof of Sweeping Language Pattern Once Deemed a Hoax
Scientific American
Permalink

From: Henry M. Willis (hmw ssdslaw.com)
Subject: The hottest places in Hell (renunciatory)

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in time of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality. -Dante Alighieri, poet (c. May 1265-1321)

Dante never said exactly this, though JFK used the quote and, like other politicians and editorialists going back to Teddy Roosevelt, attributed it to Dante. Quote Investigator also cites many examples of similar sentiments going back even further, often without citing Dante.

But Dante instead damned neutrals to spend eternity outside the gates of Hell, where they chase a flag that turns one way and then the other, while being stung by wasps. As the words he put in the mouth of Virgil show, Dante had nothing but contempt for these fence-sitters:

“This is the sorrowful state of souls unsure, whose lives earned neither honor nor infamy. And they are mingled with angels of that sort who, neither rebellious to God nor faithful to Him, chose neither side, but kept themselves apart -- Now Heaven expels them, not to mar its splendor, and Hell rejects them, lest the wicked of heart take some glory over them. ... They have no hope of death, but a blind life so abject, they envy any other fate. Mercy and justice disdain them. Let us not speak of them: look and pass on.”

Inferno III:34-42, 46-51. This dismissive treatment of neutrals fits the image of Dante the fierce partisan, who settled scores with many of his enemies in the Comedy.

But Dante the politician was not quite so partisan: he tried to reconcile the warring Black and White factions within the Guelphs when he was a Prior of the city-state of Florence, even though that meant exiling the most prominent partisans on both sides. His reward for that was exile and a death sentence imposed in absentia after his political opponents took power while he was on a diplomatic mission to Pope Boniface VIII.

And in his exile, after some time participating in the squabbles and rivalries of his fellow exiles, he decided to abandon politics, to become “a party of one.” Not a neutral, perhaps, but no longer an active partisan either. As his comment about “the little threshing floor [i.e., earth] that makes us so savage” in Canto XXII of Paradiso indicates, while Dante had firm ideas as to what a just political order should look like, he had distanced himself somewhat from the political struggles and infighting that “make ... us so savage.”

That does not change how Dante treated neutrals in Canto III, but it does call for a subtler understanding of it. Dante certainly despised those who changed sides out of expediency rather than principle and those who did not oppose evil when they needed to do so, but he did not see them as worse than the evil-doers themselves. Which is why the misattribution needs to be corrected.

Henry M. Willis, Los Angeles, California

From: Ray Paseur (ray.paseur gmail.com)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--winsome

The Lt Governor of our Commonwealth of Virginia is Winsome Earle-Sears, and she is indeed charming!

Ray Paseur, McLean, Virginia

From: Robert Burns (robertburns oblaw.com)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--winsome

Oh, aye! “My wife’s a winsome wee thing” by the other Robert Burns.

Robert Burns, Ocean Beach, California

From: Kenneth Kirste (kkkirste sbcglobal.net)
Subject: winsome

When writing the song “Lovely” for his hit Broadway musical A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1962), Stephen Sondheim snuck in a middle rhyme in addition to the end-line rhymes for the piece, pairing “in some” with the word “winsome”:

You’re lovely, absolutely lovely
Who’d believe the loveliness of you?

Winsome, sweet, and warm and winsome
Radiant as in some dream come true.
(video, 2 min.)

Ken Kirste, Sunnyvale, California

From: Daren Krause (dnaxke yahoo.com)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--winsome

Winsome from Wordsmith came on a day where I watched this episode (video, 30 min.) of John Oliver’s show.

Daren Krause, Cocoa Beach, Florida

From: Nancy Curriden (ncurriden bresnan.net)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--susurrant

I actually used this word in a haiku, which I can’t reconstruct now, to describe the sounds of the kimono-clad women conducting the tea ceremony as they softly waft over tatami mats in their socks (special socks that accommodate the traditional wooden sandals called geta)! It was a perfect word.

Nancy Curriden, Billings, Montana

From: Charlotte Russell (ccr6273 verizon.net)
Subject: Today’s thought

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
You can’t be suspicious of a tree, or accuse a bird or a squirrel of subversion or challenge the ideology of a violet. -Hal Borland, author and journalist (14 May 1900-1978)

Of course, you can accuse a squirrel of subversion. Ask anyone who has bird feeders.

Charlotte Russell, Littleton, Massachusetts

From: Glenn Glazer (glenn.glazer gmail.com)
Subject: squirrel subversion

I’m guessing Mr. Borland is not familiar with Boris and Natasha from the Rocky and Bullwinkle show.

Glenn Glazer, Felton, California

From: Dave Taylor (p38lightning71 bigpond.com)
Subject: Ruderal

We just recently observed ANZAC Day, set on Apr 25 in remembrance of the opening of the Gallipoli Campaign in WWI and the sacrifices made by our service men and women in conflict and peacekeeping operations then and ever since. I saw the word of the day and the first thing that popped into my head was the poppies which grew in the disturbed soil upon which so much blood was spilled. Ruined earth fertilised by ruined bodies bedecked with those tattered red flowers, like nature’s gravestones. Lest we forget.

Dave Taylor, Melbourne, Australia

Email of the Week -- Brought to you buy One Up! -- Perfectly horrible family fun.

From: Jim Tang (mauijt aol.com)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--ruderal

Your example of Linnaeus’s application of this word, insulting his peer by naming such a plant after him, is also a good example of the importance of context. The ability to flourish “in waste places, disturbed land, or poor soil” can easily be used to compliment a person. Indeed, we regularly praise those who thrive in such a literal or metaphorical environment. Rarely, though, are they immortalized in a species or an eponym.

Jim Tang, Kula, Hawaii

From: Regan Kramer (rkramer club-internet.fr)
Subject: Octandria monogynia

I love your column, but… surely “octandria” means “eight men” and not nine, as it says in this usage example for ruderal?

“Karl Linneaus revolutionized the way in which [taxonomy] was done. In fact, he courted controversy at the time, using quite explicit sεxual descriptions, such as ‘nine men in the same bride’s chamber, with one woman’! [“Octandria Monogynia”] The German botanist, Johann Siegesbeck, referred to Linnaeus’ work as ‘lothesome harlotry’, though Linnaeus, believing in revenge as a dish best served well and truly chilled, retorted with taxonomic vengeance, naming a small and insignificant little ruderal plant (Siegesbeckia) after his accuser.”
Keith Skene; Form, Function, Forests, and Fossils; Contemporary Review (Oxford, UK); Dec 2011.

Regan Kramer, Paris, France

Thanks for catching this. Yes, it should have been eight men, not nine. Even eight is too many imho, but who am I to judge?

While correcting it, I noticed a few other errors in that same paragraph:

1. Karl should have been Carl
2. Linneaus should have been Linnaeus
3. lothesome should have been loathsome

Fixed them all on the website now. How many errors can one stuff in one small paragraph? Now I feel like we have to start fact-checking even the usage examples.

Anu Garg

From: Henry M. Willis (hmw ssdslaw.com)
Subject: Bereft

Years ago, when my son was playing in a youth soccer league, I was pressed into service when our referee failed to show up. Which prompted me to tell another parent “We’re bereft.”

Henry Willis, Los Angeles, California

From: Alex McCrae (ajmccrae277 gmail.com)
Subject: ruderal and susurrant

Russian thistle, commonly known as tumbleweed, is a plant that perfectly fits the definition of ruderal, as it often sets down its roots on some of the most inhospitable terrain on the planet, with its extremely high tolerance for sandy, salty and nutrient-depleted soils. Tumbleweed, in its early growth stage, has verdant, soft, pliant branches, and can provide nutritious feed for grazing herbivores. But over time, it dries out, becoming a prickly, brittle, brown spheroid, uprooted by the wind and set on its rolling path. Carl Linnaeus, “The Father of Modern Taxonomy”, gave tumbleweed its Latin genus name... Salsola tragus.

You may have heard of horse and dog whisperers having an uncanny ability to connect with their respective animals. Here, a whispering Trump engages Fox News personality Jeanine Pirro, former NY State judge, prosecutor and failed gubernatorial candidate. A longtime unabashed Trump loyalist and conspiracy theorist, she’s still claiming the 2020 election was stolen, and that the voting machines were rigged. Trump has been tapping into the Fox News talent pool (cesspool?), hiring from there the likes of Pete Hegseth, Tulsi Gabbard, Sean Duffy... and his latest catch, Jeanine Pirro.

Alex McCrae, Van Nuys, California

From: Sophie Brudenell-Bruce (sophibruce aol.com)
Subject: susurrant and ruderal

Sophie Brudenell-Bruce, London, UK

Anagrams


	This week’s theme: Interesting usage examples Renunciatory Winsome Susurrant Ruderal Bereft	=	Surrender, submit Cue: exert those elegant winning ways Soft murmur i.e. like pea aster there Sans
			-Shyamal Mukherji, Mumbai, India (mukherjis hotmail.com)
=	Eremites they seek abandonment Fair Rustling or susurrus The tree grew in waste place Minus, ex	=	Use of austere denial We sense charm Rustling murmurs Tree type existing in waste Heartbroken
	-Julian Lofts, Auckland, New Zealand (jalofts xtra.co.nz)		-Dharam Khalsa, Burlington, North Carolina (dharamkk2 gmail.com)

Make your own anagrams and animations.

Limericks

Renunciatory

A vow that’s renunciatory
Is part of that postulant’s story.
She likes the aesthetic
Of life that’s ascetic,
And doing without’s hunky-dory.
-Marion Wolf, Bergenfield, New Jersey (marionewolf yahoo.com)

“An American pope! What a story,
And I’m not yet decrepit and hoary!”
Said Leo. “But why
Must the price be so high --
To, of sex, be renunciatory?”
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

Winsome

Donald Trump somehow always delights
In scaring us most days and nights.
And his smiles, are they winsome?
It is said there have been some
Like those of a shark when it bites.
-Rudy Landesman, New York, New York (ydur36 hotmail.com)

How winsome the woman he wooed --
Sweet-natured and kind, never rude!
“As a bonus,” he said
Of the gal he would wed,
“She also looks good in the nude.”
-Marion Wolf, Bergenfield, New Jersey (marionewolf yahoo.com)

When your kids have been playing outside,
And their grime you just cannot abide,
To make ‘em more winsome
You wash and then rinse ‘em,
While throwing their clothes in with Tide.
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

Susurrant

That susurrant soft whisper of trees,
When their leaves gently move in a breeze,
Is a sound you can keep.
It just puts me to sleep.
Just give me a gale, if you please.
-Rudy Landesman, New York, New York (ydur36 hotmail.com)

“Do you hear that susurrant noise there?”
“Can you be more specific? Like, where?”
“I can’t, actually.
But it does seem to me
We’re about to be seized by a bear!”
-Bindy Bitterman, Chicago, Illinois (bindy eurekaevanston.com)

I love to take walks in the fall,
And hear the susurrant leaves call.
With foliage bright,
It’s truly a sight.
Just bring me my jacket or shawl.
-Joan Perrin, Port Jefferson Station, New York (perrinjoan aol.com)

He spoke in tones hushed and susurrant
As he begged to be Donald’s new servant.
Said Marco, “Please, sir,
At your mocking I purr;
My kowtowing to you will be fervent.”
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

Ruderal

When I look at my garden, I know
It is really high time that I hoe.
I have to confess:
My yard is a mess --
Only ruderal plants seem to grow.
-Marion Wolf, Bergenfield, New Jersey (marionewolf yahoo.com)

The aloe’s a most hardy plant.
It grows where most greenery can’t.
When you have a brown thumb,
This great plant won’t succumb.
All ruderals rule is my chant.
-Joan Perrin, Port Jefferson Station, New York (perrinjoan aol.com)

In Roman times, math was quite ruderal,
For a letter’s no good as a numeral.
When the Arabic way
Came along, they said, “Hey!”
And their system was given a funeral.
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

Bereft

Bereft of integrity, he
Decided one day he would be
Commander-in-chief
As well as a thief
In the land of the brave and the free.
-Rudy Landesman, New York, New York (ydur36 hotmail.com)

In a move that’s bereft of compassion,
Many government programs Trump’s slashin’.
It’s too bad indeed
If food stamps you need --
For now casual cruelty’s in fashion.
-Marion Wolf, Bergenfield, New Jersey (marionewolf yahoo.com)

I’m bereft of the sun in the sky!
It’s been cloudy since 4th of July!
Is it some plan of God
To mess up our facade
C’mon, sun, won’t you please at least try?
-Bindy Bitterman, Chicago, Illinois (bindy eurekaevanston.com)

Now morally Trump is bereft.
He hasn’t one honest bone left.
His biggest grift yet,
That damn Qatar jet.
At quid pro quo, Donald is deft.
-Joan Perrin, Port Jefferson Station, New York (perrinjoan aol.com)

“If my chin wasn’t blessed with this cleft,
Of fame I’d be wholly bereft,”
Said Kirk Douglas. “My dimple
Is key; it’s that simple.
It’s changed my whole life’s warp and weft.”
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

Puns

“Maria, you can’t come back to the abbey and act all renunciatory just because you had a fight with your husband,” said the Reverend Mother.
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

“I respect the election result. You winsome you lose some,” said the Donald of an alternate universe.
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

“Ed-winsome news is breaking. You’d better comb your hair, put on a tie and head to the studio,” said Mrs. Newman.
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

“Je-susurrant-s about loving your enemy are not gonna save you,” said Pontius Pilate.
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

“Stop being ruderal order you to commit seppuku,” the shogun warned an impolite samurai.
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

“You are so ruderal Flynn!” Olivia de Havilland chided her Robin Hood costar.
-Joan Perrin, Port Jefferson Station, New York (perrinjoan aol.com)

“I’ll ‘ave another bereft-er I finish this one, mate,” said the Australian to the bartender.
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

When he missed his concert, his fan was Justin Bie-bereft.
-Joan Perrin, Port Jefferson Station, New York (perrinjoan aol.com)

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

Oh, threats of hell and hopes of paradise! / One thing at least is certain -- this life flies; / One thing is certain, and the rest is lies; / The flower that once has blown forever dies. -Omar Khayyam, poet, mathematician, philosopher, astronomer, and physician (18 May 1048-1131)

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