A.W.A.D. - Fancier Words

Once in a while delivery of this newsletter is delayed and messages start pouring into my mailbox complaining of withdrawal symptoms. "Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind," British writer Joseph Rudyard Kipling said, and that might help explain why some of us get so hooked on them.

As time passes, we experience symptoms of mithridatism, the condition of immunity acquired by taking gradually increased doses of something (coined after Mithridates VI, king of Pontus, who tried to build immunity against poisoning). Slowly they take over and we realize we need words with even greater potency, words that are unusual, esoteric, or even preposterous, to get a still greater high.

Are you one of those for whom the dictionary might be better characterized as addictionary? Help is at hand. Consider this week's words as extra high doses of your daily fix. These are words that ask, "Why use a simple word when a fancy one is available?"

dactylogram
PRONUNCIATION: (dak-TIL-uh-gram)
MEANING: noun: A fingerprint.
NOTES: The study of fingerprints for identification purposes is known as dactylography or dactyloscopy. Dactylonomy is the art of counting on fingers. Dactylology is finger-speech -- communicating by signs made with fingers.

ETYMOLOGY: From Greek daktylos (finger or toe) + gramma (something written).

apograph
PRONUNCIATION: (AP-uh-graf)
MEANING: noun: A copy or a transcript.

ETYMOLOGY: From Greek apo- (away, off, apart) + -graph (writing).

argillaceous
PRONUNCIATION: (ahr-juh-LAY-shuhs)
MEANING: adjective: Made of, resembling, or relating to clay: clayey.

ETYMOLOGY: From Latin argilla (clay). Ultimately from the Indo-European root arg- (to shine; white), that is also the source of words such as argentine (silvery) and argue (from Latin arguere, to make clear).

pleonexia
PRONUNCIATION: (pli-uh-NEK-see-uh)
MEANING: noun: Excessive or insatiable covetousness.

ETYMOLOGY: From Greek pleonektein (to be greedy), from pleion (more) + ekhein (have).

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