Patronymics And Samovars

The Word Collector — part 23

This is the latest in a series about new words and phrases collected during expeditions into the deepest, darkest literary and media wilderness, for your entertainment, elucidation and enlightenment.

On the trail of the longest word

Having started this series, I have come to realise that as in every other field of life, other than perhaps how to play the accordion badly and devise novel ways to irritate Mrs. Pearce, there are always people far better qualified and knowledgeable than myself, including Matthew Verras Barros who is Professor of Linguistics at Washington University in St. Louis, and has a PhD in Linguistics.

Matthew has written a fascinating article on the search for the longest English word, a quest he says is ultimately futile, as it is always possible to make up new words, especially in the fields of medicine or computing, or add prefixes and suffixes to already long existing words.

He highlights the well-known German expertise in combining multiple words, with the wonderful example of Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz (“beef-labelling-supervision-duties-delegation-law”), a very useful word both to remember and make use of, as you can imagine! His article is on the link below -

So having learnt the futility of this quest, on to my latest collection of words and phrases.

patronymic — this word is from an excellent book “The War Came to Us” by Christopher Miller, which I recently finished. As a noun it means a name derived from the name of a father or ancestor, e.g. Johnson, O’Brien, Ivanovich. As an adjective it means denoting or relating to a name derived from the name of a father or male ancestor. In case of interest my review of the book is below.

From the same book I collected the following –

Bedroom community — when I first saw this term used by the American author Christpher Miller I thought it was a slip, and he meant dormitory, but I have looked into this, and it seems this is one of those occasions where we use English slightly differently on either side of the Pond, and in the UK we are more likely to refer to a dormitory town, ie. one where people live and commute from to work in a nearby city.

“Dum spiro spero” — Miller describes seeing this Latin motto as a tattoo on a soldier’s arm — it means literally “while I breathe I hope” or perhaps can also be translated as “where there is life there is hope”. He describes the shocking practice of Russian troops inspecting tattoos of Ukrainian captives, for any evidence that a person has been in the military.

“Hell is empty and all the devils are here” — Miller saw this sign in one of the trenches near Bakhmut, which is a quote from Shakespeare’s “The Tempest”.

Tetrapod — a noun meaning a four-footed animal, especially a member of a group which includes all vertebrates higher than fishes, or in the context used by Miller to describe a structure in Maiuipol, it is an object or structure with four feet, legs, or supports.

Carpaccio — a dish of meat or fish, thinly sliced or pounded thin, and served raw, typically as an appetizer. It was invented in 1963 by Giuseppe Cipriani from Harry’s Bar in Venice, Italy and popularised during the second half of the twentieth century.

Gonzo journalism– I had come across this term before but was uncertain to exactly what it is. So gonzo journalism is a style 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 popularised 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.

“de jure” — a Latin phrase meaning existing or holding a specified position by legal right.

Braggadocio — I already knew this word, meaning vain or boastful, but though it would be interesting to look up its origin. Though Braggadocio is not as well-known as other fictional characters like Pollyanna, the Grinch, or Scrooge, in lexicography he holds a special place next to them as one of the many characters whose name has become an established word in English. The English poet Edmund Spenser originally created Braggadocio as a personification of boasting in his epic poem “The Faerie Queene”. As early as 1594, about four years after the poem was published, English speakers began using the name as a general term for any blustering blowhard, and could be applied well to certain politicians I can think of.

“I liked to zig when everybody else zagged” — This phrase by the author Christopher Miller is a great original one I can empathise with.

Shawarma — a popular Middle Eastern dish similar to a kebab, that originated in the Ottoman Empire, consisting of meat cut into thin slices, stacked in a cone-like shape, and roasted on a slowly-turning vertical rotisserie or spit. Traditionally made with lamb or mutton, it may also be made with chicken, turkey, beef, or veal.

Serpentine — used as an adjective to mean winding and twisting like a snake.

Rebar — a noun meaning reinforcing steel used as rods in concrete.

Samovar — another word I had heard of before but wasn’t sure of — it is a highly decorated tea urn used in Russia.

Other sources

Moving onto other sources to complete this latest collection, you may also enjoy the following -

“The Golden Rule” — I collected this one from an article by my philosopher brother David, about “Hi-tech Jainism”. I had not come across the phrase before and “The Golden Rule” is the principle of treating others as one would expect to be treated themselves. Various expressions of this rule can be found in the tenets of most religions and creeds through the ages. It can be considered an ethic of reciprocity in some religions, although different religions treat it differently. In case of interest, a link to the article is below, and just to say you may need a dictionary handy -

For a dumbed down version of Jain that I can understand you may also enjoy the following which is my interpretation–

AYKM — I always love a good acronym, and this was used by Medium writer RC Hammond in his political round-up, in his story on the link below — it is short for “are you kidding me?” — though I am usually the last to learn these things, so you may already know this one!

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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