Vocabulary II

As words go, is highfalutin, highfalutin?

Vocabulary

I've just finished reading quite a good book entitled "1491". It is a survey of contemporary understanding of the peoples of the western hemisphere at and before the arrival of Columbus. The two main ideas are that there were a lot of people here at the time, most of whom perished due to the introduction of diseases for which they had little immunity and that in many ways native American culture equaled or exceeded that of the old world. Though I enjoyed the read, the content of the book did not inspire this post. The vocabulary did. This book is peppered with words that I did not know. I was so struck by the number of such words that around page 100 I began writing them down. Between there and the end of the book there were 21 words that I had never heard of. Crazy words, wild words, highfalutin words. Here they are with definitions where I could find them in my nine pound dictionary.

Pederasty: sexual relations between two males, especially when one is a minor
Coruscating: emitting flashes of light, sparkle, scintillate
Synecdoche: a figure of speech in which a part is used for the whole or the whole for a part
Perduring:
Gawped: staring with the mouth open in wonderment
Bedizened: dressed or adorned in a showy, gaudy, or tasteless manner
Lacunae: gaps or missing parts as in a manuscript, series or logical argument
Plashing: gently splashing:
Longueur: a long and boring passage in a literary work
Plonk: inferior or cheap wine
Numinous: spiritual or supernatural
Ziggurat: a temple of Sumerian origin in the form of a pyramidal tower
Palanquin: a passenger conveyance, consisting of a covered or boxlike litter carried by means of poles resting on the shoulders of several men
Rebec: a renaissance fiddle
Imisserate:
Fissiparous: reproducing by fission
Expatiated: enlarged in discourse or writing, made copious in description or discussion
Toft: the site of a house and out building
Bedizened: same as above. The author used the word twice, once near the beginning and once near the end.

I am quite bewildered by this situation. Am I lacking in vocabulary? Are these ordinary words that most people know? Or is the author so erudite that he doesn't realize he is using words most people don't know? Seven of these words were not recognized by the spell check program I ran them through. Consider the word gawped. It seems gaped would have sufficed and been more widely known. Should I be offended by the author's showing off or actually impressed? He apparently did know the word. Surely he didn't, at that particular point in his manuscript, decide to go to his thesaurus to look for an obscure synonym for gaped. But if not from his thesaurus, then where did he get this word? If he read it or heard it, then that means that there is someone else who once chose to say gawp instead of gape. What is our author reading? The mind boggles. And what about the editor of this book? Wouldn't this linguistic chest pounding have elicited some cautionary remark and if so, doesn't it mean that the writer self-consciously persevered? Would dinner with this guy be a great time or a pain in the ass?

Theodore

What can be said about Theodore? He is nothing more than a smallish bag of protoplasm. Well, actually for his age, not so small. As I get it his activities are ridiculously limited, being eating, peeing, shitting, crying, sleeping, and just recently smiling. This is a small repetoire. Oh yes, he also bats at colored objects he sees hanging above his head. Oddly the one he does the most, sleeping, is the one he doesn't do enough. That is, I believe his mother would like him to do more of it at certain times. He has some talents of a passive nature. He rides in his stroller and car seat. He has ridden the metro and spent time at the Smithsonian Institute and other locales in our national capital. He has submitted himself to viewing by quite a few friends and family, even sharing his apartment on a nearly continuous basis through out his life. He's been to a hockey game, and though he is mostly indifferent to it, he tolerates photography. Without question his greatest talent, so far displayed, is holdability. He is extremely holdable and when he is held he fills the holder with feelings of vast affection, soaring dreams, and profound amazement. At least that is my experience with him. That's about all he does.

There is still one question about his future. Which will be faster, his slap shot or his airplane?

An explanation

Those readers who have received year end letters from me know that my wife is a patient person, inordinately supportive of whatever amendment it is that provides for unfettered written expression. There have been no postings here for some time because most of the reveries that are the birth places of these entries have been of a sort that Beth would prefer went unreported. She is entitled to have her wishes respected.















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Baby Doggerel

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Listen to me. Listen to me.
Nine pound six is what I be.
Member of fraternity,
Gender of paternity.

A Poem of Expectation

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What'll you be, what'll you be
Little baby in DC?

I can't wait 'til you see me
When I hold you on my knee.

Gifts and Giving

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Forgive me, but some ideas are just so brilliant that they require boasting.

Some gifts are obligatory, others are not. Unfortunately it is likely that most gifts are of the obligatory sort, like birthdays, anniversaries, Christmas, and now I guess Valentines Day. What's next, Columbus Day? I'm sure the national office of the Chamber of Commerce and Hallmark Cards are jointly working on a reason why it too should be honored with a gift. As a person who has a lot of trouble with obligations of all sorts, I have long thought that the spontaneous gift, the gift that is inspired by the giver's recognition of the perfect complementarity of the gift and giftee, is a far superior gift. Maybe this is just the rationalization of a cheap and lazy man.

I must admit to a bit of pride in some of the measures taken to meet my gift obligations over the years. Early on there was a wry note written to my father explaining how, despite my honest intent and sincere wish to honor his birthday by cleaning up his basement work area, not even Hercules could actually accomplish that task. By far the most frequent recipient of a last minute, not-from-any-store type gift from me is my dear wife. These gifts have been of three general types: the gift of an item owned by me and hated by her, which once gifted can be removed from the premises, (a certain lawn chair was the first in this category), the gift of exclusive use of a previously shared item. A couple of years ago I gave her the controller that commands our bedroom TV. It now bears a note that reads, "This controller belongs to Beth Gibson. If your name is not Beth Gibson put it down immediately." And finally of course there is the gift of improved future behavior which can be given by anyone who has not always behaved perfectly in the past. At the moment no example comes to mind, but I know I have used this and in fact it can be a great gift.

Beth's birthday is in October. One year after I had honored the day with one of the above type gifts I was soundly scolded by a great friend whose husband once gave her a surprise Jaguar automobile for her birthday. On Christmas eve that year I walked through a lovely snow storm the two or three miles to our nearest mall and there at a very nice ladies store I bought a red satin night gown. This night gown was worn for about twenty minutes on the night of the 25th and then returned, by Beth, on the 26th.

I'm getting close now to the point. Yesterday I believe I made my most inspired gift. It was not obligatory. It was spontaneous, thoughtful, of impressive value to the recipient, and best of all, not only painless to me, but in fact liberating. Yesterday I gave my wife my hair. Not all of it actually, but all above my mouth, in ascending order, mustache, nose, ear, eye brow and head. It's now all hers to do with as she wishes. And she has wishes, as I do not, which was always somewhat troublesome for us. But no more. One more step toward marital Nirvana.