The Things We Make Exceptional

The Word Collector — part 13

This is the latest in a series of articles about new words and phrases, specimens collected during expeditions into the unexplored deepest, darkest reaches of the literary wilderness,

casuistry — this specimen was discovered in an article by John Crace who writes satirical political sketches for “The Guardian” newspaper. It was used in relation to the behaviour of a member of the UK government would you believe, and means the use of clever but unsound reasoning, especially in relation to moral questions; sophistry no less. An outrageous suggestion!

autotomy — this rare species was heard while watching one of my favourite TV nature programmes, “Springwatch”, though given the amount of predation on display you need a hard heart and a strong stomach at times! (The episode I watched today featured both a buzzard chick trying to push its sibling out of the nest, and a female kestrel feeding the deceased runt of its brood to its surviving siblings — fortunately my parents were not so brutal.) Autotomy comes from the Greek auto-, “self-” and tome, “severing”, αὐτοτομία) or self-amputation, and is the bizarre behaviour whereby an animal, often a reptile, sheds or discards one or more of its own appendages,[ usually as a self-defence mechanism to elude a predator’s grasp or to distract the predator and thereby allow escape. Some animals have the ability to regenerate the lost body part later. Autotomy has multiple evolutionary origins and is thought to have evolved at least nine times independently in animals. The term was apparently first coined in 1883 by Leon Fredericq.

The next specimens all come from the book “Everyone Brave is Forgiven” by Chris Cleave which was recommended to me and which I am currently reading. He is described in the blurb as something of a wordsmith, so I am hoping for rich pickings.

lucent — glowing with or giving off light.

purdonium- this species is on the red list for extinction given our changing world, meaning a type of coal scuttle having a slanted cover that is raised to open it, and an inner removable metal container for the coal.

infrangible — unbreakable; inviolable.

lanceolate — shaped like a lance head; of a narrow oval shape tapering to a point at each end.

finial-a distinctive section or ornament at the apex of a roof or canopy, on a building.

perdition-in Christian theology, a state of eternal punishment and damnation into which a sinful and unrepentant person passes after death; complete and utter ruin.

refractory –stubborn or unmanageable; resistant to a process or stimulus; of a person, resistant to illness or infection; of a substance, resistant to heat; hard to melt or fuse.

Finally a couple of interesting phrases from the same book –

“like a Chubb key in a Yale lock” — an interesting simile which may mean nothing to an international audience, but these are different brands of lock in the UK and seemed quite inventive, and a variation of the more common expression, “like a square peg in a round hole”.

And a sentence that reads like one from a classic, the sort of writing one aspires to –

“All the things we make exceptional are merely borrowed from the mundane and must without warning be surrendered to it.”

A deep thought to leave you with, and great writing by Cleave so I look forward to the rest of the book.

As always, thank you for reading.

To join a new Facebook group “Medium Matters” where writers can support each other and share articles.

Mastodon- you can find me here