An Assemblage of Grandiose and Bombastic Grandiloquents

Welcome linguistophiles! Today I have a tale to tell you about the word “Allodoxaphobia”. Allodoxaphobia is an extremely rare phobia; that is, the phobia of the opinions of other people.

The phobia is believed to be associated with previous encounters wherein the person affected has not been able to properly express themselves, or has been mocked for their opinion. It is most obvious in social situations when the Allodoxaphobic refuses to involve themselves in discussions or shows a fear of confrontation.

The origin of the word comes from the Greek ‘allo’ (or állos meaning ‘different’), ‘dox’ (dóxa meaning ‘opinion’ or ‘way’) and phobia (meaning ‘fear’, obviously).

Doxa is an interesting example of a Greek linguistic root. It gives us such modern words as ‘orthodox’ and ‘heterodoxy’ and comes from the Ancient Greek verb ‘dokein’ meaning ‘to appear’, ‘to seem", "to think" and "to accept". In a more general sense ‘doxa’ is a common belief or popular opinion and in classical rhetoric, ‘doxa’ is often contrasted with ‘episteme’, which means ‘knowledge’. Therefore these two words demonstrate for us the difference between belief and knowledge.

The really interesting thing is that between the 3rd and 1st centuries BC ‘doxa’ picked up a new meaning. when the Septuagint, that is a Greek version of the Bible, translated the Hebrew word for "glory" (kavod) as doxa. This translation went on to be proliferated by the early church.

The effects of this new meaning of doxa as "glory" are made evident by the ubiquitous use of the word throughout the New Testament and in the worship services of the Greek Orthodox Church. So you see what has happened here? Doxa went on a little linguistic journey in meaning from ‘belief’ to ‘glory’ all the way around and back to ‘belief’.

Isn’t language wonderful?

Written by Taylor Davidson, Read by Zane C Weber

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Greetings Word-Friends! I have a treat for you today, one of the most famous animals of all time, indeed, so famous that it’s name is synonymous with the concept of death and indeed, total extinction. My friends, I present to you the Dodo.

The dodo’s scientific name is Raphus cucullatus and was a flightless bird that was endemic to the island of Mauritius. Now that, my friends is an island east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. Taxonomically the dodo is related to the pigeon, and since the 1600’s unfortunately no longer exists on planet earth as anything other than a pleasantly goofy, avian, memory.

The origin of the word ‘dodo’ is a little bit controversial. The name may be related to the Dutch word ‘dodaars’, a water bird known in English as the Little Grebe or Dabchick. Little Grebes resemble the dodo in feathers and in the fact that they are also clumsy walkers. The Dutch are known to have initially called the bird the ‘walgvogel’, literally meaning ‘ghastly bird’, in reference to the way it tasted. But adding to the mystery of where the dodo's name came from is the fact that ‘dodo’ had been part of the English language since at least 1628, and the Dutch are not thought to have reached Mauritius to discover this marvelously awkward bird before 1638.

According to The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, ‘dodo’ comes from Portuguese doudo (or more commonly ‘doido’) meaning ‘fool, simpleton, silly, stupid’, or, as an adjective, meaning ‘crazy.’

Yet another possibility, as author David Quammen noted in his book The Song of the Dodo, is "that 'dodo' was an onomatopoeic approximation of the bird's own call, a two-note pigeony sound like 'doo-doo'."

So while the origin of the word ‘dodo’ is lost in the mists of time it has none-the-less given us a wonderful metaphor for a person or organisation which is very old or has very old-fashioned views or is not willing to change and adapt. And if you want to sound very precocious and wish to use an adjective instead of a noun, you might say that such a person is ‘didine’.

Isn’t language wonderful?

Written by Taylor Davidson, Read by Zane C Weber

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Greetings all of you verbiage affectionados! The word we are examining today is a very pleasant word. Both to hear, and to say, and, by definition to experience for oneself. Or perhaps, it would paradoxically be more correct to say - suffer for oneself. Today we are talking about ‘habromania’, the simple definition of which is “a form of delusional insanity in which the imaginings assume a cheerful or joyous character”.

Now, this is a very old word that is not often used today but, to my knowledge doesn’t have an adequate replacement. So, without further ado let us proceed with the easiest of ‘habromania’s’ two root words to track, ‘mania’.

‘Mania’ can be used to describe a passion in the zeitgeist, what we might now refer to as a fad. Such as in the sentence, “Du Bellay did not actually introduce the sonnet into French poetry, but he acclimatized it; and when the fashion of sonneteering became a mania he was one of the first to ridicule its excesses.”

However, the form we are interested in is the ‘mania’ that has been used since around the 1500s as the second element in compounds expressing particular types of madness; such as ‘nymphomania’, ‘kleptomania’, ‘megalomania’, and our good friend ‘habromania’.

In the modern form the word ‘mania’ means "mental derangement characterized by excitement and delusion,". This stems from the Late Latin ‘mania’ meaning "insanity, madness," itself from the Greek ‘mania’ "madness, frenzy; enthusiasm, inspired frenzy; mad passion, fury,".

And now the more difficult part, ‘habro’. The closest to a meaning of this root I can find is the modern meaning of the word in the field of Zoology; that of ‘graceful’. And that is it. Simply, ‘graceful’.

If we want to get creative we might want to then define ‘habromania’ as being a ‘graceful insanity’, which when compared to things such as ‘megalomania’ might not be as untrue as on first inspection.

Isn’t language wonderful?

Written by Taylor Davidson, Read by Zane C Weber

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Greetings word-fiends! Today we tackle one of the famous impossible to translate words! A word famous for having no English counterpart, who’s very essence is beyond the tongue of an Englishman. We are talking about the word ‘gigil’ that originates from the Filipino language in the Philippines.

The Constitution of the Philippines states that the nation has two official languages, both English and Filipino. However Tagalog deserves a mention and this tongue is the basis of the Filipino language.

Most simply ‘gigil’ is used to describe a feeling that is most familiar to perfumed and lipsticked aunts and great-aunts the world over, and indeed, to anyone who frequents those bright corners of the internet where collections of kitten videos are stowed. ‘Gigil’ is the urge to pinch or squeeze something that is irresistibly cute. But, upon closer examination we find that this simple definition has a darker side.

A more thorough definition of this word would be, “A gnashing or gritting of the teeth, along with a trembling or quivering of the body and tight gripping of the hands, in response to suppressing an overwhelming emotion, such as eagerness, pleasure, thrill, anger, or fondness.”

Let us examine this lovely little example of a sentence, “Hindi ko mapigil ang gigil ko sa kanya”. In English this can mean “I cannot resist being angry at him” OR mean the exact opposite, “I cannot resist being fond of him”. In this situation, as with many parts of the Filipino language, the translation depends on the context.

There are some 120 to 187 languages and dialects in the Philippines, depending on the method of classification. Almost all are Malayo-Polynesian languages. A number of Spanish-influenced creole varieties generally called Chavacano are also spoken in certain communities.

There are ways to be more clear though. When a Filipina sees a cute baby, she feels a barely controllable desire to pinch the baby’s cheeks and has a hard time controlling herself. What she’s experiencing is called ‘panggigigil’.

Isn’t language wonderful?

Written by Taylor Davidson, Read by Zane C Weber

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Greetings you wonderful logophiles! Today once more we are delving into that all-too trusty and all-too deep well of insults! I am sure we are all aware of at least one character, either real or fictional, that just does not seem to have the will or the constitution to stand up for what they want. That will let others dance all over them, as they serve their master. Some toxic-masculine types might call these types ‘betas’, others might refer to them as ‘whipped’, but today we shall all refer to them simply by our featured word ‘meacock’.

‘Meacock’ is an old word, one that has mostly fallen from common usage. But, that does not mean that we cannot bring it back! Definition-wise ‘meacock’ means simply a coward or an effeminate person. Digging a little deeper we can expand that definition to an uxorious, effeminate, or spiritless man or a meek man who dotes on his wife, or is henpecked.

When it comes to the origins of this funny-little-man insult, we are left to speculate. THe best guess is that it is a portmanteau of ‘meek’ and‎ ‘peacock’, or from a mixture of ‘meek’ and the diminutive suffix ‘-cock’. There are many fun insults that use this same suffix, but our personal favourite is ‘niddicock’ which simply means literally, “a foolish person” or figuratively, “a noodle’.

Before we leave you let us grace you with this rather wonderful example of ‘meacock’ in context as well as a number of other fun insults. This passage is from the Five books of the lives, heroic deeds and sayings of Gargantua and his son Pantagruel, “He will not, trust me, have to deal in my person with a sottish, dunsical Amphitryon, nor with a silly witless Argus, for all his hundred spectacles, nor yet with the cowardly meacock Acrisius, the simple goose-cap Lycus of Thebes, the doting blockhead Agenor, the phlegmatic pea-goose.”

Isn’t language wonderful?

Written by Taylor Davidson, Read by Zane C Weber

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Greetings fellow bookworms! Today we explore a topic close to all of our hearts, language. And not just any language, today we are talking about obscene language. More specifically we are talking about the people who enjoy such language in intimate settings. We are talking about ‘narratophilia’

Narratophilia is a sexual fetish, in which the telling of dirty and obscene words or stories to a partner is sexually arousing. The term is also used for arousal by means of listening to obscene words and stories.

Now, when we refer to obscene language we are sure that is conjures a very vivid image in most of your minds. However the word ‘obscene’ is interesting in and of itself, so before we continue on let us clarify what it means precisely in this context.

An obscenity is any utterance or act that strongly offends the prevalent morality of the time. It is derived from the Latin ‘obscaena’ (offstage) a cognate of the Ancient Greek root ‘skene’, because some potentially offensive content, such as murder or sex, was depicted offstage in classical drama. In modernity, the word can now be used to indicate a strong moral repugnance, in expressions such as "obscene profits" or "the obscenity of war". As a legal term, it usually refers to graphic depictions of people engaged in sexual and excretory activity. Which brings us back to our focus ‘narratophilia’.

The origins of the word again has two basic roots, ‘narrate’ and ‘philia’. So let us first focus on the more interesting of the two ‘narrato’ or ‘narrator’. In modern English a narrator is one who narrates or tells stories. In literature the narrator is the person or the "voice" whose viewpoint is used in telling a story. And finally, in media a narrator is the person providing the voice-over in a text or documentary. Much like I am doing for you all now.

Isn’t language wonderful?

Written by Taylor Davidson, Read by Zane C Weber

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Hello again linguisticians! Let us all pause for a moment to consider the wondrous shape of the word we shall be exploring today, Wobbegong. Isn’t it just delightful?

The Wobbegong refers to any of a number of species of Australian shark, a carpet shark specifically. The name can refer to any of eight species of bottom-dwelling carpet sharks in the Orectolobidae family, distinguished by their small vegetation-like flaps of skin around their mouth.

Wobbegongs are generally not considered dangerous to humans, but have been known to have attacked swimmers, snorkellers and divers who inadvertently came too close to them. The Australian Shark Attack File contains more than 50 records of unprovoked attacks by wobbegongs, and the International Shark Attack File 28 records none of them fatal.

Wobbegongs are very flexible and can easily bite a hand holding onto their tail. They have many small but sharp teeth and their bite can be severe, even through a wetsuit; having once bitten, they have been known to hang on and can be very difficult to remove.

More upsettingly, while there are a few records of Wobbegongs attacking unprovoked, there are many more instances of unprovoked attacks on wobbegongs: in Australia, the flesh of wobbegongs and other shark species is called flake and it is often the "fish" component of fish and chips. An, in fact, Wobbegong skin is also used to make leather.

Now the word Wobbegong is believed to come from an Australian Aboriginal language, meaning "shaggy beard", referring to the growths around the mouth of the shark of the western Pacific. First recorded in 1850–55. And while credit is given to an Australian Aboriginal language, nobody seems quite sure which one.

Isn’t language wonderful?

Written by Taylor Davidson, Read by Zane C Weber

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Greetings Gammarians! Today we are examining the hilarious, sometimes pleasurable and every-so-often deadly, bodily function: sneezing. Now, the word ‘sneeze’ can wait until another day. Today we are talking about the cause of sneezing - ‘sternutators’. This noun can refer to any substance that causes sneezing, coughing, and tears.

This word descends from the Latin sternūtātōrius, from sternuō (“sneeze”). The root ‘sternutation’, also Latin, is a descendant of the verb sternuere, meaning "to sneeze."

One of the earliest known English uses occurred in a 16th-century edition of a book on midwifery, in a passage about infants suffering from frequent "sternutation and sneesynge." The term has long been used in serious medical contexts, but also on occasion for humorous effect. In 1850, for example, author Grace Greenwood observed that U.S. senators from opposing political parties would often come together to share snuff: "And all three forget their sectional differences in a delightful concert of sternutation. No business is too grave, no speaker too eloquent, to be 'sneezed at.'"

In modernity, sternutators have taken on a more sinister aspect in regards to their use as a weapon. Particularly referring to chemical substances that cause sneezing and coughing and crying, for example; "police used a sternutatory to subdue the mob". A Sternutator now most commonly refers to an agent that causes sneezing, especially one used in chemical warfare that causes irritation to the nose and eyes, pain in the chest, and nausea.

But to end on a slightly brighter note, let us consider the effect of sneezing on the local wildlife with a quote from "Dick Cheveley" by W. H. G. Kingston, “At the first sternutation the rats jumped up and looked about them, evidently considerably alarmed.”

Isn’t language wonderful?

Written by Taylor Davidson, Read by Zane C Weber

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Hello linguisticarians! Today we focus on the most Finnish form of measurement we could find, ‘poronkusema’. In as far as a definition it means a distance of about 5 to 7 kilometres, the distance equal to how far a reindeer can travel without a ‘comfort break’. ‘Poronkusema’ literally means ‘reindeer’s urine’.

Finland is the land of a thousand lakes and the midnight sun. Its dense forests, fertile mires and pristine lakes, and traditional lifestyles, have shaped the linguistic landscape of the Finnish language throughout the years, from surname conventions to everyday expressions. One instance of this ever-present connection with nature is this obsolete unit of measurement used by the Sami people to describe the distance a reindeer can travel without having to stop to urinate. It is a compound of two Finnish roots ‘poron’ meaning ‘reindeer's’ and‎ ‘kusema’ meaning ‘peed by’. At best it is an informal traditional measure of distance, and thusly is not well defined.

Another interesting example of this sort of Finnish colloquialism is ‘peninkulma’, which refers to the distance a barking dog can be heard in still air.

Traced back to the Proto-Finnic languages, ‘poron’ for ‘reindeer’, shares a root with the Latin root ‘pecus’ for ‘cow’, Now, in early times, cattle were viewed as a trading commodity, and property was often valued in terms of cattle. Therefore it is not difficult to trace this same root down another path to ‘Pecunia’ meaning ‘money’ has also given us impecunious, a word meaning "having little or no money," and ‘peculate’, a synonym for "embezzle." In ‘pecus’ you might also recognize the word peculiar, which originally meant "exclusively one's own" or "distinctive" before acquiring its current meaning of "strange."

Isn’t language wonderful?

Written by Taylor Davidson, Read by Zane C Weber

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Hello again word-wonderers! In this episode we explore the darker and more ominous side of language, as we examine the word ‘minacious’. ‘Minacious’ is used to describe something that is menacing or threatening.

An example in context is “The shuttle traders asked the government to legalize and regulate their vanishing trade and thus to save them from avaricious and minacious customs officials.”

First recorded in the 1650s, ‘minacious’ stems from the Latin ‘minaci-’, itself a stem of ‘minax’ "threatening, or menacing", from minari "to threaten;" While it is not a very commonly used word it can still be used as an adverb in ‘minaciously’ or as a noun ‘minacity’.

The same is the root for the more common synonym ‘menace’ which is a declaration of hostile intent’ also ‘a threat or act of threatening’. The Latin ‘minaciæ’ or "threatening things," from minax (genitive minacis) "threatening," from minari "threaten; jut, project," as something overhanging, jutting out, over your head, threatening to fall.

Isn’t language wonderful?

Written by Taylor Davidson, Read by Zane C Weber

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