Words, Words, Words...
I love words. They are the magick that allows us to share ideas and convey concepts, paint pictures without any artistic ability, swing people over to our way of seeing the world or conversely, turn people off to it. Without words, we would still be scrabbling in the mud without any inventions or forward momentum.
This brings me back to my wonderful dictionary! How do I love this tome, let me count the ways! Or should I say, "let me count the words". I believe that there are some 440,000 words in the English language. It is a rich language that is replete with many beautiful, amazingly descriptive words, only a fraction of which are used by the average person. What a waste! Can you believe that? What use is a language of such variation that so few use? Well, anyone who knows me, knows I am determined to put many of the words to some use. Why say "cop" or "policeman" when you can say "constable", a wonderfully polysyllabic word! Why say "Wussy" or "spineless" when the favourite word of mine, "puscillanimous", is there? And I love telling anyone who'll listen what a humunculous is! In this case, though, look it up! Get to know your dictionary. It's your best friend!
Any who read my last posting will know that I am still on the page with "nude" and in the lower right-hand corner of the right page, is the word "nugatory". I don't know that one. It means "of no real value; trifling; worthless. I shall try to use that tomorrow.
Flip to any old page. Let me see... the first word I see is "scientism" - "the style, assumptions, techniques, prctices, etc., typifying or regarded as typifying scientists."
Another page... cranksided. This hales from the southern US. It means "lopsided; askew."
So now you know! What a wonderful thing your dictionary can be. Mine has all of the English words in it. Right down to "fuck". There are, I might point out, 12 different uses there. Almost all of them are listed as slang or vulgar, and it is. But how about the history? This is where your dictionary is incomplete. However, there are other books for word history, known as etymology. If you were erudite, as I am to some small degree (a very small one, I suspect), you would know this. Not to sound like a snob... I don't mean to. But really, what a crime it is to be a typical speaker of English, who uses 50,000 words only of the full bodied language we call English.
Back to history and the word fuck, it stems from "Fornication Under Consent of the King". Yes, one our earlier acronyms, and eventually soaked up into the normal language as such. The term came from the once accepted practice of the ruling party having to give his consent of the nuptials and usually having first rites to the virgin bride. Kings commonly had the right to deflower any woman just before her wedding. Nice, huh? For the king, anyway. I suppose if the king was an incredibly accomplished lover with some thought for his partner this wasn't such a bad thing. How often do you think that was the case? More often I suspect the king was a slovenly overweight beast that would make you hurl as soon as look at him! Still, there you go. The history of fuck!
Don't laugh at English as a language! Just because the typical user is poorly versed in the richness of this conglomeration of influences, doesn't mean the language in and of itself is lacking. It is your history that is. I have a delightful book called "Dictionary of Word Origins", the history of more than 8,000 English words. It is a masterpiece but it opens up with a bit of history. It is an Indo-European language, one of many in that family. It is generally agreed upon that the family originated out of the area north of the Black Sea and then regionally underwent many changes to become the many languages that are inclusive, such as the Indo-Iranian launguages, the Slavic languages, and the Celtic languages. With English, two primary groups contributed - the Romance languages, such as classical Latin, and following, the Germanic languages.
Old English began to end during the Norman invasion of 1066. You would not recognise Old English as being a long-lost cousin to current or modern English. This era began Middle English and trust me, that is not too much better. Having read Chaucer in the original text, I can tell you it was not easy. The Norman invasion of 1066 introduced the Anglo-Norman words as well as the Old French words commonly spoken from the 9th century to the 16th. This revolutionised English into almost an entirely different language. There was also an influx of Gaulish words (that is French before the modern French killed it), a Celtic language commonly used then.
It is Latin and Greek that gave us our next shot forward. You can thank the Renaissance for that! This amazing period of history brought all those words back into vouge. And as merchants travelled they too incorporated new words, happily stolen from other languages into English. Never sneer at thievery of this kind. Our use of words is all the better for it!
We have words from Italian, Hindu, Gaelic, Finnish, Tibetan, German, you name it. Diversity is a beautiful thing!
I love hurling insults through better English. Anyone can call another individual an "ass". It takes class to call someone an "enincephalic humunculous" and trust me, the recipient will not have a clue as to what that means unless he or she is in the medical field or a real history buff. Or you can use more interesting terms such as guttersnipe or blowmaunger (1879), or maybe pilgarlick (1811).
Or even modern British lingo: bugger off, mate, time to scapa!
This brings me back to my wonderful dictionary! How do I love this tome, let me count the ways! Or should I say, "let me count the words". I believe that there are some 440,000 words in the English language. It is a rich language that is replete with many beautiful, amazingly descriptive words, only a fraction of which are used by the average person. What a waste! Can you believe that? What use is a language of such variation that so few use? Well, anyone who knows me, knows I am determined to put many of the words to some use. Why say "cop" or "policeman" when you can say "constable", a wonderfully polysyllabic word! Why say "Wussy" or "spineless" when the favourite word of mine, "puscillanimous", is there? And I love telling anyone who'll listen what a humunculous is! In this case, though, look it up! Get to know your dictionary. It's your best friend!
Any who read my last posting will know that I am still on the page with "nude" and in the lower right-hand corner of the right page, is the word "nugatory". I don't know that one. It means "of no real value; trifling; worthless. I shall try to use that tomorrow.
Flip to any old page. Let me see... the first word I see is "scientism" - "the style, assumptions, techniques, prctices, etc., typifying or regarded as typifying scientists."
Another page... cranksided. This hales from the southern US. It means "lopsided; askew."
So now you know! What a wonderful thing your dictionary can be. Mine has all of the English words in it. Right down to "fuck". There are, I might point out, 12 different uses there. Almost all of them are listed as slang or vulgar, and it is. But how about the history? This is where your dictionary is incomplete. However, there are other books for word history, known as etymology. If you were erudite, as I am to some small degree (a very small one, I suspect), you would know this. Not to sound like a snob... I don't mean to. But really, what a crime it is to be a typical speaker of English, who uses 50,000 words only of the full bodied language we call English.
Back to history and the word fuck, it stems from "Fornication Under Consent of the King". Yes, one our earlier acronyms, and eventually soaked up into the normal language as such. The term came from the once accepted practice of the ruling party having to give his consent of the nuptials and usually having first rites to the virgin bride. Kings commonly had the right to deflower any woman just before her wedding. Nice, huh? For the king, anyway. I suppose if the king was an incredibly accomplished lover with some thought for his partner this wasn't such a bad thing. How often do you think that was the case? More often I suspect the king was a slovenly overweight beast that would make you hurl as soon as look at him! Still, there you go. The history of fuck!
Don't laugh at English as a language! Just because the typical user is poorly versed in the richness of this conglomeration of influences, doesn't mean the language in and of itself is lacking. It is your history that is. I have a delightful book called "Dictionary of Word Origins", the history of more than 8,000 English words. It is a masterpiece but it opens up with a bit of history. It is an Indo-European language, one of many in that family. It is generally agreed upon that the family originated out of the area north of the Black Sea and then regionally underwent many changes to become the many languages that are inclusive, such as the Indo-Iranian launguages, the Slavic languages, and the Celtic languages. With English, two primary groups contributed - the Romance languages, such as classical Latin, and following, the Germanic languages.
Old English began to end during the Norman invasion of 1066. You would not recognise Old English as being a long-lost cousin to current or modern English. This era began Middle English and trust me, that is not too much better. Having read Chaucer in the original text, I can tell you it was not easy. The Norman invasion of 1066 introduced the Anglo-Norman words as well as the Old French words commonly spoken from the 9th century to the 16th. This revolutionised English into almost an entirely different language. There was also an influx of Gaulish words (that is French before the modern French killed it), a Celtic language commonly used then.
It is Latin and Greek that gave us our next shot forward. You can thank the Renaissance for that! This amazing period of history brought all those words back into vouge. And as merchants travelled they too incorporated new words, happily stolen from other languages into English. Never sneer at thievery of this kind. Our use of words is all the better for it!
We have words from Italian, Hindu, Gaelic, Finnish, Tibetan, German, you name it. Diversity is a beautiful thing!
I love hurling insults through better English. Anyone can call another individual an "ass". It takes class to call someone an "enincephalic humunculous" and trust me, the recipient will not have a clue as to what that means unless he or she is in the medical field or a real history buff. Or you can use more interesting terms such as guttersnipe or blowmaunger (1879), or maybe pilgarlick (1811).
Or even modern British lingo: bugger off, mate, time to scapa!
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