I should be writing an essay. At this very moment of typing, I have 26 hours and 29 minutes before I need to have submitted a 2,000 word analysis of a French New Wave film. Concerning this word count, I currently have 93 of them. So of course, as always, I'm occupying myself with something entirely different.
Language. I used to think I really liked the English language. I used to think I liked the arrangements of words on a page, the way even the tiniest change in sentence structure could shift the specific inflections and alter the entire text's meaning. I used to think it was incredible to know (yet very often forget) the correct spellings of many words and have a rough idea of the correct uses of grammar in everyday instances. Yet, as my first year of studying English draws to a close, I realise I was very wrong.
Through wasting my valuable free afternoons intently glued to Countdown (yes of course the post-watershed 8 Out of 10 Cats version too), and references to shiny brand new terms in lectures from tweed-clad and coffee-scented men resembling Santa/Kenneth Brannagh/William Moseley/Gerald Butler - who I swore to myself I wouldn't develop uncomfortable and inappropriate crushes on but I've went ahead and done so anyway -, and of course most importantly the downloading of my immensely useful Dictionary app and its "Word of the Day" feature, I've now truly sent free my inner Logophile. I carry around a little notebook every day, so I can be sure to scribble down new discoveries of words and phrases. Even if it makes me feel like a curious child, if I hear a word I'm not familiar with I will stop and ask the big grown-up person for a brief meaning, and if there's time possibly a few uses in context. I am well and truly hooked on languages of all shapes and forms and origins. I BLOODY LOVE WORDS!!!! (That's what Logophile means. I just looked up a word that would describe my condition and I found that out. You're welcome.)
Words are swell. If you can write a tweet/status/post without at least once consulting Google for appropriate and nice sounding synonyms, you're not doing words right. Even the roots of many words we now take for granted fascinate me. I didn't make any rigid New Year's Resolutions this year, but now that we're a quarter of the way through 2014 I realise my own self-improvement will be forever ongoing. It's not just a short-term plan I would've forgotten about halfway through January. I want to expand my knowledge every day and continue learning until my own Grand Finale and I think everyone should do likewise. So if you'll humour me, I'm now going to attempt to channel the Queen of Vocabulary herself Ms Susie Dent, and bring you my own little segment of recently learned lovely words and their respective roots. I've also included a few that I certainly already knew, but previously had no idea of their origins. I'm sure by the end of this lesson you will all be well on your way to becoming very skilled deipnosophists* (see below).
Ailurophilia - n. 'a liking for cats, as by cat fanciers'. From the Greek 'ailouros' meaning cat, and -phile suffix.
Blatherskite - n. 'a person given to voluable, empty talk'. From Middle English 'skite', diarrhea, from Old Norse 'skītr', excrement, from 'skīta', to defecate.
*Deipnosophist - n. 'a personal who is an adept conversationalist at table'. From Greek 'deîpno' meaning meal, and 'sophistḗs', expert.
Lemniscate - n. formal name for the infinity symbol. (∞) From Latin 'lēmniscātus' meaning decorated with ribbons. (Can you imagine if Stephen Chbosky had written "And in that moment, I swear we were decorated with ribbons"?)
Limerence - n. technical term for having a lasting crush on someone. Does not seem to have a lot of secure roots as it was coined by psychologist Dr. Dorothy Dennov in the 70's in order to describe this previously unlabelled emotional state, but I don't believe we should even attempt to refuse more warm and fuzzy words relating to love.
Oeillade - n. 'an amorous glance; ogle'. French, from 'oeil' meaning eye, from Old French 'oil', from Latin 'oculus'.
Pandemonium - n. literally 'place full of demons'. From Latin (denoting the place of all demons, in Milton's Paradise Lost), from 'pan' meaning 'all', Greek 'daimōn', demon.
Panic - n. 'sensation of fear when encountering Pan'. From Greek, 'panikos' (fear of Pan, who in Greek mythology was a demi-God, and the symbol of fertility, in the form of a faun who would chase after potential human victims). (Mr Tumnus is ruined forever.)
Tsundoku - n. 'the act of continually buying books and not reading them, but letting them pile up amongst other stacks of unread books'. From Japanese, 'tsumu' meaning to pile up, 'doku', to read. Punning on 'tsundeoku', to leave piled up.
These are just a collection of my favourites, and I hope you've found this enlightening. If not, I don't really care. If you made it this far, I forced you to learn.
HA HA, YOU TOOK PART IN UNWILLING EDUCATION.
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