An Inverted Pyramid Of Piffle On The Bed Of Procrustes

The Word Collector — part 17

This is the latest in a series about new words and phrases, specimens collected during expeditions into the deepest, darkest literary wilderness, for your amusement, admiration and adoration. You may know some of these words and phrases already, in which case enjoy that warm glow of intellectual superiority!

Numismatics — the study or collection of currency, including coins, tokens, paper money, medals and related objects — the word was spotted in a Facebook feature.

Gini co-efficient — In economics, the Gini coefficient, also known as the Gini index or Gini ratio, is a measure of statistical dispersion intended to represent the income inequality, the wealth inequality, or the consumption inequality within a nation or a social group. It was developed by statistician and sociologist Corrado Gini.

Quitrent — a tax or land tax imposed on occupants of freehold or leased land in lieu of services to a higher landowning authority, usually a government. From the book “End Times — Elites, Counter-elites, and the Path of Political Disintegration” by Peter Turchin.

Corvée — a day’s unpaid labour owed by a vassal to his feudal lord. From the book “End Times — Elites, Counter-elites, and the Path of Political Disintegration” by Peter Turchin.

Concatenate — a verb meaning to link things together in a chain or series. From the book “End Times — Elites, Counter-elites, and the Path of Political Disintegration” by Peter Turchin.

Polity — a form or process of civil government or constitution; an organized society; a state as a political entity. From the book “End Times — Elites, Counter-elites, and the Path of Political Disintegration” by Peter Turchin.

The bed of Procrustes — an arbitrary standard to which exact conformity is forced . Procrustes was mythical robber, and had an iron bed (or, according to some accounts, two beds) on which he compelled his victims to lie. Here, if a victim was shorter than the bed, he stretched him by hammering or racking the body to fit. Alternatively, if the victim was longer than the bed, he cut off the legs to make the body fit the bed’s length. In either event the victim died. Ultimately Procrustes was slain by his own method by the young Attic hero Theseus, who as a young man slayed robbers and monsters whom he encountered while traveling from Trozen to Athens. The “bed of Procrustes,” or “Procrustean bed,” has become proverbial for arbitrarily — and perhaps ruthlessly — forcing someone or something to fit into an unnatural scheme or pattern. From the book “End Times — Elites, Counter-elites, and the Path of Political Disintegration” by Peter Turchin

Pleonasm — the use of more words than are necessary to convey meaning (e.g. see with one’s eyes), either as a fault of style or for emphasis. From a Guardian article.

“An inverted pyramid of piffle” — this is a rather wonderful turn of phrase by the former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, when denying an affair, which he was subsequently found to have indulged in, and is quoted in the book “Assault on the Truth” by Peter Oborne which I am currently reading.

Catamite — a boy kept for homosexual practices — from the book “Assault on the Truth” by Peter Oborne.

Gonzo journalism — is a style of journalism that is written without claims of objectivity, often including the reporter as part of the story using a first-person narrative. The word “gonzo” is believed to have been first used in 1970 to describe an article about the Kentucky Derby by Hunter S. Thompson, who popularized the style. It is an energetic first-person participatory writing style in which the author is a protagonist, and it draws its power from a combination of social critique and self-satire. It has since been applied to other subjective artistic endeavours. From the book “Assault on the Truth” by Peter Oborne.

“Prodigiously provocative and preposterously perspicacious” — this rather wonderful alliterative phrase cropped up in a Radio 4 programme.

The Bechdel test — You may have gathered by now that I inherited the excellent habit of being a “Guardian” reader, and it is from this esteemed publication that I came across this specimen. It is essentially a measure of how good the representation of women is in a film or other work of fiction, and is named after the cartoonist Alison Bechdel. It must be pretty cool to have something named after one in this way -

More about the test on the links below –

If I was to have something named after me, I would like it to be something worthy, for example a test of how corrupt a politician is, but in the unlikely event “the Pearce test” was ever named it would be more likely to be the amount of a day spent watching Netflix, or something equally frivolous.

Solastalgia — this word appeared in a Guardian article and is a new word invented by philosopher Glenn Albrecht, in his 2005 article “Solastalgia: a new concept in human health and identity”, formed by the combination of the Latin words sōlācium (comfort) and the Greek root -algia (pain, suffering, grief), that describes a form of emotional or existential distress caused by environmental change. It is best described as the lived experience of negatively perceived environmental change. A distinction can be made between solastalgia linked to distress about what is in the process of negatively perceived change and eco-anxiety linked to what may happen in the future (associated with “pre-traumatic stress”, in reference to post-traumatic stress).

I hope you enjoyed this latest collection and do share any favourite new specimens of your own in the comments.

As always, thank you for reading.

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