|
|
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 508
addict
|
OP
addict
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 508 |
I do see your point, WW, but I think if you look at the entire quote
"A doctor examining one of his more crapulent patients said to him,
'Your body is a temple and your congregation is too large.'"
the idea of size enters into it. If crapulent means suffering from excessive eating or drinking, I find the use of the comparative "more" somewhat strange. And if you substitue "sicker" for more crapulent, the second part (large congregation) doesn't really fit. In the totality of the statement, at least the way I'm reading it, corpulent still would have been the better choice.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2002
Posts: 555
addict
|
|
addict
Joined: Dec 2002
Posts: 555 |
nancyk, I thought the exact same thing when I got crapulent in the mail. Am with you and AnnaS on this..it certainly feels like corpulent in that sentence
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,773
Pooh-Bah
|
|
Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,773 |
"Crapulent" reminded me of yet another Simpson influence on our culture: "craptacular" has entered the language in certain circles.
And Nancy, I had the same reaction you did, in thinking that crapulent and corpulent had been confused.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
Well, I still think crapulent works. Think of food as congregating in the belly. It's not the sickness itself that is congregating--it's the cause of the symptoms that's congregating.
Yes, it is the size of the congregation that's the point, but not necessarily the size of the body. It's the amount of food and drink congregated in the body that have brought about the condition that brings the doctor and patient together. [And it's not the house that Jack built.]
Again: "A doctor examining one of his more crapulent patients [i.e., a patient given to excessive eating and drinking] said to him, 'Your body is a temple [i.e., subtext: treat your body as a place of reverence] and your congregation is too large [i.e., subtext: your eating and drinking matter that enters your body is too large of an amount or too large of a congregation for this temple, your body].
With 'crapulence' the emphasis is on the amount of food/drink that enters the temple; the congregation itself is too large of an amount.
With 'corpulence,' as you pointed out, it's the size of the body itself that is too large and not necessarily the contents of the body/temple.
I think both terms do work, but if the crapulent is the one in the original text, I would not see it as an error.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
Considering that we don't know what the person being described looked like, we're really arguing whether the temple/congregation statement is appropriate or not. Then, perhaps it was a typo and runamok spellchecker problem with the reporter having entered 'cropulent' or 'carpulent'
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
>carpulent
you been smokin' dope with the Hell's Tunas Faldo?!
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
tsuwm: Ha! In reply to:
Considering that we don't know what the person being described looked like, we're really arguing whether the temple/congregation statement is appropriate or not.
Oh, so true, Faldage! However, it's fun arguing in the out-of-context abstract, ain't it?
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511 |
(From AWADMail #110:)
From: Mark Stenglein (mark@stenglein.net)
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--crapulent
Refer: http://wordsmith.org/words/crapulent.html
Crapulent is one of my favorite words. Recently, after a giant holiday meal, my family and I were discussing our crapulence when the conversation turned to other words that end in -ulent. We came up with this sentence:
This succulent and opulent food and poculent wine is leading to crapulence, corpulence and flatulence.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
Gotta watch that flatulence around kids. They seem to find it to be the most amusing of all kinds of humor.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
..and then it mutates, somehow, into guy humor.
|
|
|
|
Forums16
Topics13,915
Posts229,843
Members9,197
| |
Most Online3,341
Dec 9th, 2011
|
|
|
1 members (A C Bowden),
372
guests, and
1
robot. |
|
Key:
Admin,
Global Mod,
Mod
|
|
|
|
