While Webb Weekly is officially published on Wednesdays, some faithful readers get their copy on Tuesday instead. Which means that just now, many of you are still flooded with the ongoing onslaught of political ads — while others are resting in relief that it’s over. (Admittedly, that relief will be tempered, for some, by the fact that their favorite candidate came in second!)
In any case, we’ve got another edition of Webb’s Weird Words to take your mind off pre-election mania (or post-election, as the case may be). Here’s a round half-dozen odd or funny-sounding vocabulary:
Capybara (kap-uh-BAHR-uh [or BEAR-uh], noun) – We tend to think of rodents as relatively small: rats, mice, squirrels, hamsters, etc. But the semiaquatic capybara of South and Central America can grow to over four feet long; it is in fact the world’s largest rodent. Capybaras are also distinguished from most other Rodentia by the absence of a tail.
The order, incidentally, is named for the large central teeth they all have in common. Rodent originates in a Latin term meaning “chew, gnaw, eat away”; from this, of course, we also get corrode and erode.
Ecdysiast (ed-DIZ-ee-ast, noun) – Ecdysis is a biology term for the shedding of outer layers by some insects and reptiles. The less official ecdysiast was coined by famed American writer and linguist H. L. Mencken. It means “strip-tease artist” — a term that, to me, still sounds a bit like an oxymoron; but then again, considering the explicit filth that’s so sadly and widely available these days, such performances seem almost quaint by comparison. Ugh.
Ensorcell (en-SORE-sull, verb) – To bewitch or enchant. And yes, it is related to sorcerer — so you might say, “That wizard ensorcelled us!”; but perhaps “my girlfriend ensorcells me” does not work quite so well.
Both ensorcell and the related sorcerer go back to the Latin sortarius, a Medieval fortune-teller who used the casting of lots. And in this way, the word is also related — somewhat surprisingly — to the much more common sort.
Palilalia (pal-uh-LAY-lya, noun) – “A speech disorder in which a word or phrase is rapidly repeated.” While that’s from Collins, Wikipedia adds that it can involve just syllables, and is strictly involuntary.
The word comes from a Greek base, lal-, meaning “to babble” — which has also given us echolalia and the alarming coprolalia, which is involuntary utterance of swear words or other inappropriate verbiage. (I guess some of us might be a little borderline on that one.)
Prestidigitation (press-ti-dij-uh-TAY-shun, noun) – Originally meaning magic tricks (or conjuring), it can now indicate any sort of fast-moving skill or cleverness; a good synonym is legerdemain. And both words originate from “hand” (as in sleight-of-hand) — with the first using digit (i.e., finger) and the latter employing the common base man- (as in manual, manipulate, manicure and dozens of other English terms).
Susurration (suss-ur-A-shun [with a long “a”], noun) – “A soft, whispering or rustling sound; a murmur” (American Heritage). Also styled as susurrus, the word is indeed “imitative” — or, more fancily, onomatopoeic.
In addition to sources credited above, this piece also owes a debt to dictionary.com, the excellent Random House College Dictionary (1975) and of course, Merriam-Webster. But even with those acknowledgements:
My name is Joe Smith, and I approve this column.
