Tag Archives: logophile

Logophile – Xenophobia

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Where is xenophobia normally directed?
Xenophobia, built on two Greek roots that trace back over 2,000 years, is yet a very young word dating back just 100 years or so. We all know that phobia is fear. All manner of things are deemed to be the objects of phobia (fear) today. I guess if you have logo-phobia you won’t be reading these logo-phile posts.
The key to the meaning of xenophobia is the ‘xeno’ prefix. This Greek root means foreigner or stranger. So xenophobia identifies an unreasonable fear of foreigners, strangers or people who are different.
Xenophobia is likely to be higher in communities where cultural homogeneity is strong. In multi-cultural societies, filled with diverse people, you would expect unreasonable fear of strangers to be reduced.
Another contributor to xenophobia is the loss of the notion of ‘one blood’. Biblical creation teaches that all people came from the same original family stock. We are all ‘one blood’. We are all related, even if as distant relatives. So we can be confident that people share much in common and don’t need to be feared and distrusted unreasonably.

Logophile – Maelstrom

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Where will you most easily find a maelstrom?
The word maelstrom is likely to be used today to describe a bustling office, downtown traffic or hurricane winds. Turbulence, chaos, bustle and similar notions are linked to a maelstrom.
Originally, however, way back in the mid 1500’s, it had a specific meaning which put it on the map, so to speak. The Dutch cartographer (map maker) Mercator, who has given us today’s commonly used map, the Mercator Projection, located a specific maelstrom off the northwest coast of Norway.
So, where will you most easily find a maelstrom? On an ancient Dutch map. Well, you might be lucky to ever find one anywhere else, since they are hardly common.
A maelstrom is a huge whirlpool. It comes from the linking of grinding/swirling and stream or waters. Grinding, swirling waters make a maelstrom.
Movie-goers will most easily find a maelstrom in the third Pirates of the Caribbean movie. Computer animation creates a vast maelstrom, even called such by the sailor who first spots it. So if you’d like to get the sense for a maelstrom in action get to your nearest video shop.
Because of the upheaval and destruction caused by a maelstrom it becomes an appropriate metaphor for intense activity and swirling destruction.
May your life be spared the maelstroms of nature, society and personal upheaval.

Logophile – Canorous

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Which sense identifies what is canorous?
We have five senses: taste, smell, touch, hearing and sight. Something that is canorous might possibly touch two of those. Principally, however, it is the sense of hearing that will appreciate that which is canorous.
Canorous comes from a base which speaks of song and melody. Anything that is pleasant to the ear could be said to be canorous. Birds singing, a melodious speaking voice, choir singing and even the hum of a motor.
Now some sounds are not only resonant, but cause things to vibrate, such as with rumbling thunder. So a canorous sound could be sensed by our touch.
When I was in my first year at school, in the small country town of Lake Cargelligo, central New South Wales, there was a deaf boy in my class. When we did class singing the teacher would lead him by the hand and sit him at her feet, putting his hands onto the wooden panels as she played the piano. He could not hear the music but he could feel the vibrations from the sound-board. This would always bring the most delighted look to his face.
May the sounds that surround you be sweetly canorous and may your home be filled with the music of the heart and soul.

Logophile – Halcyon

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To what does halcyon best refer?
You may have heard the expression ‘halcyon days’ or enjoyed some halcyon weather. The notion of happiness or enjoyment is linked to this term, but many do not know its mythical origins. Halcyon originally referred (back around 1350AD) to a mythical bird said to breed about the time of the winter solstice in a nest which floated on the sea, and to have the power of calming the winds and waves.
A variety of kingfisher is called halcyon. But the word is mostly applied in reference to the sense of calm, for which the halcyon bird was responsible.
So halcyon days and halcyon weather are those experiences which are calm, peaceful and enjoyable. We all wish for such times. Sadly, there is no such bird with those mythical powers. However, there is one who has calmed the storm. 2,000 years ago Jesus Christ commanded a storm to stop, and it did. On another occasion Jesus walked on the water and when he came to His disciples, struggling in the boat, the storm was stilled.
So if you are in need of some ‘halcyon’ changes in your life, don’t go hunting kingfishers, but turn in prayer to the one who can still nature and human nature, bringing peace that passes understanding.

Logophile – Afflatus

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From whom would one normally expect an afflatus?
Afflatus comes from a root which means wind or breath. In centuries past much was made of the notion of breath – even back to the Greek word for spirit being pneuma – breath. Similarly the word ‘inspire’ comes from a root that means ‘to breath upon’.
And where does the most powerful breath come from? Where does the greatest inspiration originate? The breath of God has always been regarded as the source of true inspiration. And so it is with an afflatus. It is an inspiration, resulting from being breathed upon by God.
One dictionary definition for afflatus is: divine communication of knowledge
Now, in common usage, the term afflatus has been secularised to simply mean personal inspiration, as if ideas came from within a person. A poet’s afflatus may be seen as his own personal gifting to perceive and convey notions. But the place we would normally expect an afflatus is from God, Himself.
Example: Peter the fisherman, disciple of Jesus Christ, once declared that Jesus is the messiah they were all expecting and also the Son of God. Jesus’ response was to declare that Peter had an afflatus, although He did not use that terminology. Jesus said, Flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, by My Father in Heaven revealed this to you (Matthew 16:17).
May the pneuma of God blow on you, by His Holy Spirit, to inspire you, so you enjoy a daily afflatus and have much divine revelation to guide and empower you in the purposes of God.

Logophile – Verdant Vesture

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What colour is a verdant vesture?
It’s the same colour as a verdant pasture and a verdant forest. Verdant ultimately derives from the Latin word viridis, which means “green”.
So a ‘verdant vesture’ is a garment of green colour.
Because vegetation is green the word verdant has taken on the meaning of vegetation. Verdant fields may mean they are green or that they are lush with vegetation. Hence we sometimes see people talk about the verdant greenery, or the verdant, green jungle undergrowth. In such cases the sense of lush vegetation has displaced the notion of ‘green’ and so the word ‘green’ is also inserted.
The Irish, at least those who aren’t Orange, spend at least one day of the year clad in verdant array. The Irish wear green to celebrate St Patrick’s Day.

Logophile – A spot test

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How good is your command of English words?
Here are a few questions about words which you have probably heard. Do you know what the words mean or where they come from? Answer all the questions before checking your answers. Note your answers. I will post the answers, one each day for a week – so you will have reviewed them all in a week’s time. If I have piqued your interest to do your own word searching that’s fine too.

What colour is a verdant vesture?
From whom would one normally expect an afflatus?
To what does halcyon best refer?
Which sense identifies what is canorous?
Where will you most easily find a maelstrom?
Where is xenophobia normally directed?
Which substance is behind the word aplomb?

Be sure to get the answers sent to you by clicking the link on the lower left of the blog page, to get these posts sent to you by email.

Learning – extra 3 R’s

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You’ve heard of the 3 R’s – Reading, Writing and ‘Rithmetic. That’s the junior school learning that we all have to undergo. But once we’ve moved on from the first 3 R’s there’s an extra 3 R’s that enhance our learning. Many of the posts on this blog site have the extra 3 R’s in mind.

The extra 3 R’s are: Reasoning, Repetition and Recall.

Reasoning is the ability to think clearly and to see through the bluff and guff that is thrown at us all the time. If a person cannot reason well they will fall prey to the mind games and delusions of others. This site helps you reason things out by presenting clearly stated Biblical and other insights in a simple and reasoned manner. You don’t have to agree or disagree with what is posted, but the posts will stimulate your thinking and help you foster good reasoning processes.

As an instinctive teacher, Repetition and Recall are favourites of mine. Long ago I discovered that the way to master things and to lock them away for long-term access involves hearing things multiple times (that’s where Repetition comes in) and being prompted to bring something back from the back our your mind (that’s the Recall component). Good exam preparation, for example, should involve repetition, but also test questions that force the student to recall what they have learned. Spot quizzes, revision questions and similar tests are great for recall.

As I prepare various posts I am naturally inclined to remind you of things that I may have not spoken about for a while. That process prompts both repetition and recall. With the logophile, vocabulary subject, I’d like to get you doing some daily repetition and recall. The same goes for the church history posts.

That’s why I recommend that you subscribe to the daily email service built into this blog. Click the link on the lower left of the homepage and subscribe to receieve an email each time a new posting is made. Those frequent repetitions and reminders will be part of your on-going learning experience.

You’re never too old to keep learning and growing – so activate those extra 3 R’s by subscribing to the email feed of this blog.

 

Logophile Mania – Fighting Words

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Having introduced you to my interest in words I now offer a rather over-the-top collection of verbal bric-a-brac. The only purpose is to put a few lesser known words into a sentence of two in the hope of getting something of a grip on the terms themselves.

For the sport of it, see how many words you would not need to look up to be sure to use them correctly.

Here ’tis:
“Though I am a crapulous dilettante and ignorant parvenu with no virtu, I will with alacrity provide munificent titivation to this apothegm (or is it a pablum?) with some salutary simulacrum of the ululation of an aubade.

Though this is outside my métier please do not be a hortatory martinet but show benignant acceptance of my rebarbative panoply of fustian. If you, as a cognoscente, deny me fulsome acclaim and force me to rusticate in the desuetude of my métier I will seek equipoise through aspersions cast at your turgid and otiose persona. I will attack your cupidity with every appurtenance at my disposal. I will not derogate from this execrable objective until I remove every patina around you and expose you as a harridan, and defenestrate your reputation with edacious cupidity.”

Logophile – Nehemiah Story

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A logophile is a lover of words – so posts with this label will involve discussion of vocabulary, word meanings and the like. I guess I’m a logophile, as part of my modest poetic inclinations. I like evocative words and turns of phrase which convey much in a short phrase. I like catchy titles, alliteration and fancy permutations of well-known expressions.

My friend, Ray, in Dallas, put me on to Dictionary.com and I have received their daily word definitions for several years. What I found missing, however, was the opportunity to apply the words I was being presented with. I find it easier to learn and remember things in packages, than as discrete pieces of information. So I created the occasional bizarre collection of words to have an excuse for applying them.

Now, Nehemiah, a 500BC leader of the Jews as they resettled in their homeland after 70 years of exile, was not known as a word lover. But I decided to create a short summary of the situation he faced as an excuse to bring a few less frequently used words into a package. There is nothing particularly intimidating about my word choice here, so I am using it simply to tune you in to my logophile activities. You may like to reply to this post, with your own extensions and expansions on the starter text I now present.

Here ‘tis:
“Under what aegis and whose imprimatur did Nehemiah defy the concatenations of Sanballat and Tobiah who lambasted his ambitions? It was not that of the Persian kings, Cyrus, Darius and Artaxerxes, who are but mere mortal minions to him in whose tutelage he stood.

The chimera of obstruction stayed him not, much to his nettlesome opponents’ chagrin.

His own amanuensis, he recounts the duel, his perdurable spirit and his ultimate triumph.

Audaciously he declares that God, Himself, blessed all he did and gave the copasetic outcome.”

Now, if you are so inclined, send me a reply with your own obtuse choices inserted.