Category: Vocabulary
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Word of the Day: Psephology
Merriam-Webster: "the scientific study of elections." "Psephology is from the Greek word psēphos, meaning 'pebble.'" Necro-psephology is a growing field of inquiry in the Chicago area. For in those precincts there is a sizable turnout at elections of the dearly departed. If you have a large vocabulary you will love my blog; if you don't, you…
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Word of the Day: ‘Perseverate’
Merriam-Webster: "continuation of something (such as repetition of a word) usually to an exceptional degree or beyond a desired point." Example: Now the media and other anti-Trump partisans are going to perseverate on whether or not Trump obstructed justice during the Mueller probe. They should leave this alone. Having bet so heavily on the collusion…
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Word of the Day: Eloignment
Removal to a distance, withdrawal. Eloignment has fallen into desuetude, as has 'desuetude.' Archaic. Quite useless for communication with deplorables, or with anyone except me and Dave Bagwill who hipped me to the word.
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‘Peninsulate’
If 'insulate' is a word, from the Latin insula, insulae, island, then why not 'peninsulate,' v. i. meaning to insulate partially? Example featuring an adjectival cognate: His is a peninsular life, a balanced life, neither continental not insular. While connected to the mainland of the traditional, the quotidian, and the commonsensical, a part of him stretches…
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Word of the Day: Dégringolade
Merriam-Webster: a rapid decline or deterioration (as in strength, position, or condition) : DOWNFALL Example from Why I Left by Jim Holt: I will now confess to the obvious: the foregoing account of my spiritual dégringolade, while true in every detail, is a caricature. My alienation from the Catholic Church was not mainly intellectual. It was moral, even…
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Word of the Day: Witzelsucht
Punning mania.
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Word of the Day: Demesne
Merriam-Webster: 1: legal possession of land as one's own 2: manorial land actually possessed by the lord and not held by tenants 3a: the land attached to a mansion b: landed property : ESTATE c: REGION sense 2, TERRITORY 4: REALM sense 2, DOMAIN How does one acquire a large vocabulary? The first rule is to read, read widely, and read worthwhile materials, especially old books and…
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Word of the Day: Costive
Merriam-Webster: 1a: affected with constipation b: causing constipation 2: slow in action or expression 3: not generous : STINGY Where did I find it? In a fine analysis of the concept of charm by Joseph Epstein. Here is a taste that features the word under definition: Some people I talked with thought charm was synonymous with “cool.” In fact, the two,…
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Word of the Day: ‘Ultracrepidarian’
Here: adjective 1. expressing opinions on matters outside the scope of one's knowledge or expertise. "“Dad, how do we know the universe is expanding?” inquires your six-year-old. Try answering that without resorting to an ultracrepidarian trick here or there" noun 1. a person who expresses opinions on matters outside the scope of their knowledge or…
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‘Wankerati’ and Other Terms of Abuse
I picked up a new piece of invective from Mark Steyn. I believe he intends 'wankerati' to be coextensive with 'left-wing commentariat.' Read his The Turning Point and see if you don't agree. The brilliant polemicist offers up other choice phrases such as "malign carbuncles on the body politic." That's a reference to Di Fi…
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Publishing Slang: Graf
Paragraph. Example: I know y’all are worn out by all my takes on the Catholic abuse scandal, but if you can stand it, Megan McArdle’s column on it is worth reading. This graf jumped out at me:
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Phrase of the Day: ‘London to a Brick’
I just now encountered this strange expression in Graham Oppy's review of Owen Anderson's, The Clarity of God's Existence: The Ethics of Belief after the Enlightenment. The phrase occurs in this passage: On the one hand, given that Anderson insists that he cannot be satisfied with ‘a sound proof that is extremely difficult to understand and…
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Propaganda
Despite the term's largely pejorative connotation, propaganda is not by definition false or misleading or harmful. Propaganda is anything of a verbal or pictorial nature that is propagated to influence behavior. Propaganda can consist of truths or falsehoods, good advice or bad, exhortation to good behavior or subornation of bad. Anti-smoking and anti-drug messaging are…
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Phrase of the Day: ‘Infra Dig’
I just came across the following sentence in Charles R. Kesler's Claremont Review of Books article, Thinking about Trump: It is not entirely clear whether his liberal and conservative critics disapprove of Trump because he violates moral law or because he is infra dig. The 'infra dig' threw me for a moment until I realized…