The Joy of Learning New Words

[Mike]

This will be a pretty straightforward thread: what new word have you learned recently?

Just list it here, define it, and add any other musings you wish.

The new word I learned today is sublimity

Most of us are familiar with the word sublime of course, but I did not know it could be altered slightly and used as a noun. I enjoyed that little discovery.


sublimity
noun
sub·​lim·​i·​ty sə-ˈbli-mə-tē
plural:sublimities

1: the quality or state of being sublime
2: something sublime or exalted

[Michel Leclerc]

Many adjectives can be used as nouns, Mike – in English, that is. In more philosophically tinged texts one may encounter "the sublime”, which is clearly the adjective "sublime" used as a noun. "Sublimity" however is a different word, derived from "sublime" of course (by adding the noun-building suffix “ity”).

In many languages there is a close relationship between the "noun" use of a word and the "adjective" use of a word. In Arabic there is for all such words no difference at all. "kabîr" is both "tall" and "tall one". (In English, it is not always as in "sublime": think of "strange" and "stranger".) The same holds for Romance languages, but in German and Dutch there is a regular suffix difference: "tall" is "groß” in German, but "tall one” can be “großer”, “große", and "großes” and that is just in the nominative.

In other languages one finds strikingly different relationships. In Japanese quite a number of adjectives also function as verbs: as if in English, "sublime" and "be/am/is/are sublime” were the same words!

To reply to your question: my new words are Russian words, because in order to fight my unconscious Russophobia, I have decided that I want to be able to at least read Russian with ease. There are a lot of them!

[Valknut3301]

I love etymology and learning new (actually old but yet unlearned by me) words, so this thread is one I could certainly enjoy.

Yesterday I learned several words, or definitions, due to the power being out and having nothing better to do. The first was Mungency, which is defined as 'nose noise', and I'm looking forward to referring to someone as being 'Mungus'.

I also learned the word Elan means 'impetuous, or vivacious', and Musk comes from an old Sanskrit word meaning 'scrotum, or testicle', and I find it rather amusing how Elon Musk's name translates to vivacious testicle. It just seems to fit him somehow.

[Jaak]

Just stumbled upon this word . I doubt i will ever use it.

sesquipedalian
/sĕs″kwĭ-pĭ-dāl′yən/
adjective
Given to or characterized by the use of long words.
Long and ponderous; polysyllabic.

[Mike]

Posted by Michel Leclerc (here)
Many adjectives can be used as nouns, Mike – in English, that is. In more philosophically tinged texts one may encounter "the sublime”, which is clearly the adjective "sublime" used as a noun. "Sublimity" however is a different word, derived from "sublime" of course (by adding the noun-building suffix “ity”).

In many languages there is a close relationship between the "noun" use of a word and the "adjective" use of a word. In Arabic there is for all such words no difference at all. "kabîr" is both "tall" and "tall one". (In English, it is not always as in "sublime": think of "strange" and "stranger".) The same holds for Romance languages, but in German and Dutch there is a regular suffix difference: "tall" is "groß” in German, but "tall one” can be “großer”, “große", and "großes” and that is just in the nominative.

In other languages one finds strikingly different relationships. In Japanese quite a number of adjectives also function as verbs: as if in English, "sublime" and "be/am/is/are sublime” were the same words!

To reply to your question: my new words are Russian words, because in order to fight my unconscious Russophobia, I have decided that I want to be able to at least read Russian with ease. There are a lot of them!

That's interesting about the Japanese language. I'm sure it would give me fits. And that's pretty cool how you're studying Russian. How many languages do you speak Michel?

I know that Engiish words can often act as adjectives and nouns I had just never heard of that specific word 'sublimity'.

[Mike]

Posted by Valknut3301 (here)
I love etymology and learning new (actually old but yet unlearned by me) words, so this thread is one I could certainly enjoy.

Yesterday I learned several words, or definitions, due to the power being out and having nothing better to do. The first was Mungency, which is defined as 'nose noise', and I'm looking forward to referring to someone as being 'Mungus'.

I also learned the word Elan means 'impetuous, or vivacious', and Musk comes from an old Sanskrit word meaning 'scrotum, or testicle', and I find it rather amusing how Elon Musk's name translates to vivacious testicle. It just seems to fit him somehow.

When Mike Tyson got out of prison, it's like he was on a mission to share all the new words he'd learned while reading there. One of them was "impetuous". I remember his rant, post-fight, and it's always stayed with me:

30 seconds:

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=GaSwPnsTFY4

[Michel Leclerc]

Titillated by the testicle in your post, Valknut (whale mallet?), I tried to look up mungency and mungus but.. neither of them seem to exist... Am I looking in the wrong dictionary? Are you sure you did not look them up in the dark, with the outage and all... ;-) . Supposing "mungency" would be the nose blowing sound elicited by the pungency of the scrotum, its meaning does have an air of probability about it, I must say. However. Musk’s derivation from Sanskrit is debated. For sure it is derived over Greek from Middle Persian, in which language “moshk” means musk, "harvested" from an abdominal gland of the male musk deer – which, however is not the testes. (End of titillation.)

[Mike]

Posted by Jaak (here)
Just stumbled upon this word . I doubt i will ever use it.

sesquipedalian
/sĕs″kwĭ-pĭ-dāl′yən/
adjective
Given to or characterized by the use of long words.
Long and ponderous; polysyllabic.

Wow. That's a crazy looking word! I'll just stick with "windy"

[Michel Leclerc]

Posted by Mike (here)

Posted by Jaak (here)
Just stumbled upon this word . I doubt i will ever use it.

sesquipedalian
/sĕs″kwĭ-pĭ-dāl′yən/
adjective
Given to or characterized by the use of long words.
Long and ponderous; polysyllabic.

Wow. That's a crazy looking word! I'll just stick with "windy"

Fun!

Sesqui- means one-and-a-half is it not?

So "sesquipedalian" literally means “walking on one foot and a half“? "pedaling with one foot and a half”?
"Clumsy”, then?

Another PA member can shine a light on this?

[Bill Ryan]

Posted by Michel Leclerc (here)

Posted by Mike (here)

Posted by Jaak (here)
Just stumbled upon this word . I doubt i will ever use it.

sesquipedalian
/sĕs″kwĭ-pĭ-dāl′yən/
adjective
Given to or characterized by the use of long words.
Long and ponderous; polysyllabic.

Wow. That's a crazy looking word! I'll just stick with "windy"

Fun!

Sesqui- means one-and-a-half is it not?

So "sesquipedalian" literally means “walking on one foot and a half“? "pedaling with one foot and a half”?
"Clumsy”, then?

Another PA member can shine a light on this?

That's nearly correct. Here's the etymology:

17th century: from Latin sesquipedalis ‘a foot and a half long’, from sesqui- (see sesqui-) + pes, ped- ‘foot’.



But this is interesting: the use of the word over time.





It seems to be trying to make a comeback... I wonder why?

[Jaak]

Posted by Michel Leclerc (here)

Posted by Mike (here)

Posted by Jaak (here)
Just stumbled upon this word . I doubt i will ever use it.

sesquipedalian
/sĕs″kwĭ-pĭ-dāl′yən/
adjective
Given to or characterized by the use of long words.
Long and ponderous; polysyllabic.

Wow. That's a crazy looking word! I'll just stick with "windy"

Fun!

Sesqui- means one-and-a-half is it not?

So "sesquipedalian" literally means “walking on one foot and a half“? "pedaling with one foot and a half”?
"Clumsy”, then?

Another PA member can shine a light on this?

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dict...sesquipedalian
Horace, the ancient Roman poet known for his satire, was merely being gently ironic when he cautioned young poets against using sesquipedalia verba—"words a foot and a half long"—in his book Ars poetica, a collection of maxims about writing. But in the 17th century, English literary critics decided the word sesquipedalian could be very useful for lambasting writers using unnecessarily long words. Robert Southey used it to make two jibes at once when he wrote "the verses of [16th-century English poet] Stephen Hawes are as full of barbarous sesquipedalian Latinisms, as the prose of [the 18th-century periodical] the Rambler." The Latin prefix sesqui- is used in modern English to mean "one and a half times," as in sesquicentennial (a 150th anniversary).

[Michel Leclerc]

Hello Mike. Four fluently. Many more sesquipedalianly. It just was/is my job and vocation Mike. A man should be (very) good I one thing in his life, I was taught. When he is, he can be of use.

Actually, I feel like asking all members to reply to that question. Quite a few members may speak fascinating languages. Chat pals may discover each other. (I would be delighted, personally, whether there were PA members from the US who speak a native American or from Canada an EskAleut language, for instance.) It would be nice, revealing something personal about ourselves, without breaking pseudonymity.

What do you think? Would you welcome that Mike? In that case we could PM about what could be the best way of phrasing the question.

[Mike]

Posted by Bill Ryan (here)

Posted by Michel Leclerc (here)

Posted by Mike (here)

Posted by Jaak (here)
Just stumbled upon this word . I doubt i will ever use it.

sesquipedalian
/sĕs″kwĭ-pĭ-dāl′yən/
adjective
Given to or characterized by the use of long words.
Long and ponderous; polysyllabic.

Wow. That's a crazy looking word! I'll just stick with "windy"

Fun!

Sesqui- means one-and-a-half is it not?

So "sesquipedalian" literally means “walking on one foot and a half“? "pedaling with one foot and a half”?
"Clumsy”, then?

Another PA member can shine a light on this?

That's nearly correct. Here's the etymology:

17th century: from Latin sesquipedalis ‘a foot and a half long’, from sesqui- (see sesqui-) + pes, ped- ‘foot’.



But this is interesting: the use of the word over time.





It seems to be trying to make a comeback... I wonder why?

It might be a funny exercise if we all made video posts trying to pronounce it

[Mike]

Posted by Michel Leclerc (here)
Hello Mike. Four fluently. Many more sesquipedalianly. It just was/is my job and vocation Mike. A man should be (very) good I one thing in his life, I was taught. When he is, he can be of use.

Actually, I feel like asking all members to reply to that question. Quite a few members may speak fascinating languages. Chat pals may discover each other. (I would be delighted, personally, whether there were PA members from the US who speak a native American or from Canada an EskAleut language, for instance.) It would be nice, revealing something personal about ourselves, without breaking pseudonymity.

What do you think? Would you welcome that Mike? In that case we could PM about what could be the best way of phrasing the question.

That's cool with me, Michel. That sort of thing interests me too...

[Michel Leclerc]

Posted by Jaak (here)

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dict...sesquipedalian
Horace, the ancient Roman poet known for his satire, was merely being gently ironic when he cautioned young poets against using sesquipedalia verba—"words a foot and a half long"—in his book Ars poetica, a collection of maxims about writing. But in the 17th century, English literary critics decided the word sesquipedalian could be very useful for lambasting writers using unnecessarily long words. Robert Southey used it to make two jibes at once when he wrote "the verses of [16th-century English poet] Stephen Hawes are as full of barbarous sesquipedalian Latinisms, as the prose of [the 18th-century periodical] the Rambler." The Latin prefix sesqui- is used in modern English to mean "one and a half times," as in sesquicentennial (a 150th anniversary).

Ouch! Of course!!! I should have known! Thank you Jaak. Horatius. Very funny because one-and-a-half-foot words in Latin verse would indeed have been very clumsy.

I should have known because I have been just now writing a small essay on Horace’s Twentieth and last Letter of his First Book of Letters, the one starting with "Vertvmnvm Ianvmque, liber” in which he talks to his own book as if it were a young slave who occasionally runs away from his master’s house in order to hustle in Rome’s red-light quarter — an extraordinary text which could have been written by William Burroughs — I recommend this letter to all literature lovers here (look it up!)— it is both very daringly funny and deeply philosophical..

[Michel Leclerc]

Posted by Mike (here)

Posted by Michel Leclerc (here)
Hello Mike. Four fluently. Many more sesquipedalianly. It just was/is my job and vocation Mike. A man should be (very) good I one thing in his life, I was taught. When he is, he can be of use.

Actually, I feel like asking all members to reply to that question. Quite a few members may speak fascinating languages. Chat pals may discover each other. (I would be delighted, personally, whether there were PA members from the US who speak a native American or from Canada an EskAleut language, for instance.) It would be nice, revealing something personal about ourselves, without breaking pseudonymity.

What do you think? Would you welcome that Mike? In that case we could PM about what could be the best way of phrasing the question.

That's cool with me, Michel. That sort of thing interests me too...

Great!

I will PM you tomorrow Mike. (It is almost midnight here.)

[Mark (Star Mariner)]

Great thread. A word I recently stumbled upon and which I have lately used in a piece I was working on:

haecceity
n, pl -ties
(Philosophy) the property that uniquely identifies an object.

or, the 'thisness' or 'thingness' of a thing; the quality or reality of a thing.

[Strat]

Great thread! It seems the language is being bastardized for lack of a better term, I'll try not to go off on an off topic tangent! I haven't learned any new words lately but what I've found interesting is learning the meaning behind common names. I didn't know that 'Tyler' more or less means a doorkeeper or doorman or something like that. I learned that from Hiram Key book of all places. Pretty neat.

I'd like to learn the origin of the word 'chunk' as in toss something away.

Para apprendiendo o estudiendo, no estudio palabras de Ingles, mas o meno solo Español.

[RatRodRob...RRR]

Posted by Michel Leclerc (here)
Titillated by the testicle in your post, Valknut (whale mallet?), I tried to look up mungency and mungus but.. neither of them seem to exist... Am I looking in the wrong dictionary? Are you sure you did not look them up in the dark, with the outage and all... ;-) . Supposing "mungency" would be the nose blowing sound elicited by the pungency of the scrotum, its meaning does have an air of probability about it, I must say. However. Musk’s derivation from Sanskrit is debated. For sure it is derived over Greek from Middle Persian, in which language “moshk” means musk, "harvested" from an abdominal gland of the male musk deer – which, however is not the testes. (End of titillation.)

"Mungus" is a kind of mongoose, or something like that
RRR

[RatRodRob...RRR]

Ive not learnt any new words but if i could learn a new word it would be out of the "Voynich Manuscript"..................RRR