An Assemblage of Grandiose and Bombastic Grandiloquents

Why hello there, sumptuous syntax suitors, and welcome to another jolly episode of An Assemblage of Grandiose and Bombastic Grandiloquents. I must advise you, kind listener, to not use today’s word in polite society, and I hope that indeed you shan’t have any use for it, as today’s word is: foppotee.

Foppotee is a word from the 1600s meaning ‘simpleton’. A common example is ‘What a pitiful foppotee he was, always oblivious to our jeers!’ The word has fallen out of popularity, and its origins are unknown, however I personally deem it worthy enough to be brought back, wouldn’t you? (In well acquainted society, of course.) The word ‘simpleton’ can be defined as ‘a person lacking common sense’ and comes from ‘simple’ and ‘ton’, as in a surname. It is also attributed to an abbreviation ‘simple Tony’ or ‘Anthony’ according to the Grose 1811 Dictionary. The word ‘simple’ comes from Middle English ‘symple’, from Old French ‘simple’, which is in turn from the Latin ‘simplex’. ‘Simplex’, has the literal meaning ‘onefold’, as opposed to the Latin ‘duplex’ meaning ‘double’ or literally ‘twofold’. The word ‘simplex’ comes from ‘semel’ meaning ‘the same’ and ‘plicō’ meaning ‘I fold’. I hope I took that far enough back for you. You’re welcome.

The word ‘simple’, ironically enough, is not simple in terms of its definitions; in fact it has several different definitions including: ‘Uncomplicated; taken by itself, with nothing added’; ‘Without ornamentation; plain’; ‘Free from duplicity; guileless, innocent, straightforward’; ‘Undistinguished in social condition; of no special rank’; and of course, the relevant definition to today’s word, ‘Feeble-minded; foolish’. In mathematics, ‘simple’ refers to ‘having no normal subgroup’, and in chemistry, ‘consisting of one single substance, uncompounded’. Another definition refers to steam engines, where simple means ‘Using steam only once in its cylinders, in contrast to a compound engine, where steam is used more than once in high-pressure and low-pressure cylinders.’

Isn’t language wonderful?

Written by Taylor Davidson, Read by Zane C Weber

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A blessed day, word whisperers, and welcome to another installment of An Assemblage of Grandiose and Bombastic Grandiloquents. Today, praise be, we look at a word that you might say is ‘holier than thou’, for today’s word is: hagiomania.

Hagiomania is the obsession with saints and sainthood. ‘Hagio’ means ‘saint’, from the Ancient Greek ‘hágios’ meaning ‘holy or saintly’, paired of course with the familiar ‘mania’ meaning ‘compulsion or obsession’. The word ‘saint’ itself means ‘a person whom a church or another religious group has officially recognised as especially holy or godly; one eminent for piety and virtue’, or can simply mean ‘one of the blessed in heaven’. Some famous saints you might recognise (or obsess over, you hagiomaniac) include Saint Patrick, patron saint of Ireland whom many celebrate on March 17; Saint Francis of Assisi, founder of the Franciscan order, known for his love of animals; Saint Nicholas, patron of the Russian Orthodox Church, known widely in secular terms as Santa Claus; and, of course, Mary, the Blessed Virgin, considered the greatest saint as the mother of Jesus.

According to ‘The Athenaeum: A Magazine of Literary and Miscellaneous Information’ of 1807, ’One regular symptom of hagiomania (if the word may be allowed) is the desire of martyrdom. Luisa began to experience it about the age of seventeen. Frequent meditations upon the sufferings of Christ led to this; her favourite day-dream was to imagine that she was enduring torments for the sake of the Catholic faith…’ Sooooo...hopefully that clears that up for you.

Isn’t language wonderful?

Written by Taylor Davidson, Read by Zane C Weber

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A most pleasant day to you today, my word worms! Welcome to another joyous episode of An Assemblage of Grandiose and Bombastic Grandiloquents. Now to examine today’s word, we need to first get something out of the way. ‘Serendipity’ is the seminal classic 2001 film starring Kate Beckinsale and John Cusack, which follows the romance between a New Yorker and a British woman as they let fate determine if they are meant to be together. Years later, they hope that destiny reunites them. Today, however, we are not talking about that ‘Serendipity’, dear listener, but I can confirm for you, that today’s word is: serendipity.

‘Serendipity’ is a word meaning ‘the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way’. The first recorded use in the English language comes from Horace Walpole in 1754, who wrote to his friend, also named Horace, go figure, to explain an unexpected discovery he made about a lost painting by Giorgio Vasari that references a Persian fairy tale, ‘The Three Princes of Serendip’. According to Walpole, the prices were ‘always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things which they were not in quest of.’ ‘Serendip’ is an old name for Sri Lanka, also known as ‘Sarandib’ by Arab traders. It’s derived from the Sanskrit ‘Siṃhaladvīpaḥ’.

One might also refer to a serendipitous invention; that is, one that is caused by chance rather than intent. Examples of serendipitous inventions include the Post-It, silly putty, velcro, and the popsicle. Now I ask you, how could we ever survive a piping hot summer without the popsicle? Thank goodness for serendipity!

Serendipity’s antonym is ‘zemblanity’, which means’ making unhappy, unlucky and expected discoveries occurring by design’, or, put simply, ‘an unpleasant surprise’. William Boyd coined this term in the late twentieth century, deriving the term from Novaya Zemlya a cold, barren land with many features opposite to the lush Sri Lanka that serendipity takes its name from.

Isn’t language wonderful?

Written by Taylor Davidson, Read by Zane C Weber

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A hearty good day to you, fellow examiners of English, and welcome to another installment of An Assemblage of Grandiose and Bombastic Grandiloquents. Today’s episode is for the chefs out there, particularly those who like to prepare a traditional meal, but with a bit of a twist. Today’s word is: spatchcock.

If you happen to have seen season 5 episode 8 of the seminal classic animated television series Bob’s Burgers, you might be familiar with this word, as it is something our titular character tries in his Thanksgiving efforts. ‘Spatchcock’ is a chicken or game bird that is split open and grilled. If one is ‘spatchcocking’, they are placing the chicken or bird face down, cutting away the backbone and discarding it, and then flattening the bird by pressing down on it. You can also purchase a bird that has been pre-spatchocked by the butcher. Spatchcocking is popular because of the overall shorter cooking time, and the quality of taste.

The word ‘spatchcock’ is likely derived from the word ‘spitchcock’, which means to split an eel along the back and broil it. Similar, no? Sptichcock is probably a corruption of the words ‘split’ and ‘cook’, which makes sense in the context of both spitchcocking and spatchcocking. The word ‘cook’ comes from the Old English cōc meaning ‘a cook’, from the Latin ‘cocus’, and ultimately from the Proto-Indo-European ‘*pekʷ-’ meaning ‘to cook; become ripe’. We could also look here at the word ‘cock’, which means ‘male bird’ - and though in spatchcocking one would more likely be cooking a female bird rather than a male, this could point to the origins of the word. An alternative meaning for ‘spatchcock’ is ‘a rushed effort’ or ‘to prepare in haste’, probably derived from the act of spatchocking itself.

Isn’t language wonderful?

Written by Taylor Davidson, Read by Zane C Weber

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A happy, happy day to you, wholesome listener, and a warm welcome to this episode of An Assemblage of Grandiose and Bombastic Grandiloquents. Today’s word brings back fond memories for me, of a speech I once gave with a friend in primary school. My dear friend could not pronounce today’s word, and I, the mighty seven year old that I was, took it upon myself to correct her each time. It seems that my love of words began at a young age, dear listener. I digress. Today’s word, pronounceable or unpronounceable as it may be is: genre.

Genre is a word meaning ‘a kind; a stylistic category or sort, especially of literature or other artworks.’ Genre could relate to music, movies, art, literature and more, and examples of different genres include horror, romance, rock and roll, comedy, jazz, sculpture and go on and on and on. They could be as plain as ‘fiction’ or as specific as ‘1920s zombie parody haikus’. Sky’s the limit, really.

The word genre is borrowed from the French word ‘genre’ meaning ‘kind’, which comes from the Latin ‘genus’ or ‘generem’, from the Ancient Greek ’génos’. The Latin ‘genus’ has several meanings, including ‘birth or origin’, ‘kind, type or class’, ‘species of animal, plant or race’, and ‘set or group’. So, just as ‘genus’ describes the species or type of animal, ‘genre’ describes the area or type of book, art, music and so on.

Isn’t language wonderful?

Written by Taylor Davidson, Read by Zane C Weber

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A wonderful day to you, lovely listener, and a warm welcome to this installment of An Assemblage of Grandiose and Bombastic Grandiloqents. Buh boom, buh boom - can you hear that, dear friends? If you can, today’s word might just apply to you, because today’s word is: rubatosis.

Rubatosis is word meaning ‘the unsettling awareness of your own heartbeat, whose tenuous muscular throbbing feels less like a metronome than a nervous ditty your heart is tapping to itself, the kind that people compulsively hum or sing while walking in complete darkness, as if to casually remind the outside world, I’m here, I’m here, I’m here.’ The definition you just heard comes from The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows by John Koenig, and was posted in 2012. The word is supposedly from ‘rubato’ meaning ‘a tempo in which strict timing is relaxed, the music being played near, but not on, the beat’ and ‘sis’ which refers to ‘forming nouns of action or process’. The word ‘rubato’ comes from the Italian word for ‘robbed or stolen’, and gives to the aforementioned meaning ‘since the time is "borrowed"’. Indeed, the word rubato is mentioned in music where the musician should play ‘near, but not on, the beat’.

Another great Italian term used in music to refer to tempo is ‘a piacere’ which instructs the musician to play ‘at their own discretion with regard to tempo and rhythm; literally ‘at pleasure’. The word ‘piacere’ is Italian for ‘to be pleasing to’ or ‘to be fond of’, and as such was adapted to relate to the musical tempo of the performer’s choosing. There is also

‘ma non troppo’ which means ‘not too much’. It is used to indicate that the basic tempo should be reigned in to a degree; for example, adagio ma non troppo to means ‘slow, but not too slow’. In Italian, ‘troppo’ means ‘too much’. Interestingly, in Australian colloquial language, ‘going troppo’ refers to someone being crazy, or going too far.

Isn’t language wonderful?

Written by Taylor Davidson, Read by Zane C Weber

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G’day mates! Good on ya for joinin us for another bonza ep of An Assemblage of Granidose and Bombastic Grandiloquents. Dear listener, I promise that that is as colloquially a greeting as you will ever receive - and it is warranted, for today, we are headed down under to the wild and wonderous Australia for today’s word: wombat.

Cheery listener, if you have never seen a wombat, I implore you to stop what you are doing and get to googling (please park your vehicle as necessary before proceeding, thank you). The wombat is a short-legged, muscular quadrupedal marsupial that is native to Australia. Wombats dig extensive burrow systems with their rodent-like front teeth and powerful claws. One distinctive adaptation of wombats is their backward pouch, the advantage of which is that when digging, the wombat does not gather soil in its pouch over its young. Although mainly crepuscular and nocturnal, wombats may also venture out to feed on cool or overcast days. They are not commonly seen, but leave ample evidence of their passage treating fences as minor inconveniences to be gone through or under, and leaving distinctive cubic feces. Also, they are very cute. Again, please google.

The word wombat comes from the Dhurag language, which referred to them as wambad, wambaj, or wambag. This language is an Australian Aboriginal language of the Yuin–Kuric group that was traditionally spoken in the region of Sydney, New South Wales. The Darug population was greatly and tragically diminished with the onset of colonisation. During the 1990s and the new millennium some descendants of the Darug clans in Western Sydney have been making considerable efforts to revive Dharug as a spoken language, and some modern Dharug speakers have given speeches in the Dharug language, with younger members of the community visiting schools and giving demonstrations of spoken Dharug. It is so important to preserve and capture the history of language for all communities and dialects.

Isn’t language wonderful?

Written by Taylor Davidson, Read by Zane C Weber

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Dia duit, or hello to you, wonderful listeners, and welcome to another episode of An Assemblage of Grandiose and Bombastic Grandiloquents. For those of you are unsure, that there greeting came from the Gaelic language, which just so happens to be the origin of today’s word: whiskey.

Whiskey! I’m going to guess most of you are familiar with this word, but for those that aren’t, whiskey is a liquor distilled from the fermented mash of grain, such as rye, corn, or barley. It is a drink that is enjoyed globally, and can be drunk straight, on ice or mixed with other liquors or beverages.

The word itself is borrowed from the Irish ‘uisce beatha’, from the Scottish Gaelic ‘uisge-beatha’ which literally means ‘water of life’, which in turn is from the from Proto-Celtic ‘udenskyos biwotos’ which means ‘water life’. Still with me? It can further be traced back to the Latin ‘aqua vitae’ once again meaning ‘water life’. This phrase was often used to describe alcoholic beverages - that is, water that is alive. You get the idea.

Whiskey is produced all over the world, and is often distinguished by where it was brewed. Some famous brands of whiskey include Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whiskey, Fireball Cinnamon Whisky, Jim Beam Bourbon Whiskey, Jameson Irish Whiskey, and Maker’s Mark Bourbon Whisky. You can see just from the names that many of these companies choose to identify their brewing origin in the name. Bourbon whiskey in particular is a type of American bourbon, usually made out of corn. Irish whiskey, on the other hand, must be distilled on the island of Ireland from a mash of malted cereals. Scotch whisky is malt whisky or grain whisky made in Scotland, and all Scotch whisky must be aged in oak barrels for at least three years. The more you know!

Isn’t language wonderful?

Written by Taylor Davidson, Read by Zane C Weber

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Howdy hi hello to you, my heroic heartbreakers! Thank you for joining me for another installment of An Assemblage of Grandiose and Bombastic Grandilouquents! If you have a particularly witty friend, a habit of watching comedy specials, or you really enjoy this podcast, today’s word might serve as useful to you, for today’s word is: sottisier.

Sottisier is ‘a collection of jokes or stupid comments’. You might say, for example, ‘Enough with that sottisier, Timothy, you must go upstairs and finish your homework!’ It comes from the French word ‘sottise’ meaning ‘stupidity or foolishness’, which in turn comes from the Middle French ‘sot’ meaning ‘imbecile or fool’. If we progress back even further, ‘sot’ comes from the Old French ‘soz’, from Medieval Latin ‘sottus’ meaning ‘foolish’, which is of uncertain origin possibly a Semitic borrowing from Aramaic or Hebrew words meaning trangresor, rebel or drunkard. You can see where this is going.

Some other wonderful French phrases include ‘Ah, la veche!’ meaning ‘oh, my cow!’ which, as an expression of surprise or excitement would be equivalent to ‘oh my God!’, ‘devenir chêvre’ literally meaning ‘to become a goat’, or in other words, ‘to be driven mad’, and ‘tombre dans les pommes’ which literally means ‘to fall in the apples’, or to fall asleep straight away. A personal favourite of mine is ‘Être sur son 31’ which means ‘to be on their 31’ - an expression meaning to put on beautiful or elegant clothes. Movie stars attending the Cannes Film Festival are often said to be ‘on their 31’. You might equate it to one being ‘dressed to the nines’.

Isn’t language wonderful?

Written by Taylor Davidson, Read by Zane C Weber

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Good day to you all, bodacious bookworms! Welcome to this episode of An Assemblage of Grandiose and Bombastic Grandiloquents. Today we are examining what is referred to as a ‘made up word’, and I know what you might be thinking, ‘well, aren’t all words made up?’ and though in a way you are correct, cheery listener, some words have evolved from many centuries over time, and passed through several languages before becoming the established word we know today. Other words are simply made up, created in modern space out of almost nowhere. Today’s word is an example of such a word; today’s word is: vellichor.

Vellichor is ‘the strange wistfulness of used bookstores, which are somehow infused with the passage of time’. As previously mentioned, this word is invented, or created, rather than having evolved through time and language. Vellichor is notably found in ‘The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows’, by John Koenig,which is an ongoing online collection of invented words, each representing an attempt to find a word to fit a concept for which our vocabulary is currently lacking. You could say, ‘Goodness me, this store just fills me with vellichor, how about you?’ The word seems to begin appearing on Twitter somewhere in 2013.

Other words that feature on The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows include ‘lillo’, a friendship that can lie dormant for years only to pick right back up instantly, as if no time had passed since you last saw each other, ‘scabulous’, proud of a scar on your body, which is an autograph signed to you by a world grateful for your continued willingness to play with her, even when you don’t feel like it and ‘opia’, the ambiguous intensity of looking someone in the eye, which can feel simultaneously invasive and vulnerable.

Isn’t language wonderful?

Written by Taylor Davidson, Read by Zane C Weber

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