Six Degrees of Sir Thomas Urquhart

Linkage

2013-05-24T21:00:00.000+10:00

Since I am, as mentioned, at SWF being impressed by Faramerz Dabhoiwala, brought to tears by an astounding Women of Letters session, developing a mild crush on David Astle and of course listening to the Inky Fool talk about all the words, today you just get a link or two to read.

Conrad H. Roth has a long, thoughtful and slightly quirky piece on neologism, which starts here. Sir Thomas doesn't appear until the second part, but it's worth a read otherwise, and when it gets to Sir Thomas we also get some maths discussion - make sure you read the comments as well.

On the lighter - and shorter - side, here is a Wordnik list of words from Sir Thomas' Rabelais. I have my doubts about a few of them, but it's an entertaining list.

Voltaire on Rabelais

2013-05-22T21:00:00.000+10:00

I'm gallivanting at the Sydney Writer's Festival for the rest of the week, so blogging may be intermittent (err, more intermittent?) due to my being overcome by logofascination, liquor, lack of sleep or all three. Fear not, though - I have a number of links and things which I shall foist on you in the interim.

To start you off, here is Voltaire's opinion of Rabelais - I'm afraid I've lost the referencing for it, but I will attempt to restore it later*:

The former has interspersed his unaccountably-fantastic and unintelligible book with the most gay strokes of humour; but which, at the same time, has a greater proportion of impertinence. He has been vastly lavish of erudition, of smut, and insipid raillery. An agreeable tale of two pages is purchased at the expense of whole volumes of nonsense. There are but few persons, and those of a grotesque taste, who pretend to understand and to esteem this work; for, as to the rest of the nation, they laugh at the pleasant and diverting touches which are found in Rabelais and despise his book. He is looked upon as the prince of buffoons. The readers are vexed to think that a man who was master of so much wit should have made so wretched a use of it; he is an intoxicated philosopher who never wrote but when he was in liquor.

For one iconic French writer to have such a poor opinion of another has caused a number of people some difficulty, although it has also given them something to write theses and books about. Rabelais is considered by some to be an early champion of democracy, individualism, libertarianism or various other -isms as the writer saw fit. I suspect Rabelais would have made fun of -isms on general principle, but here is a link to a biography of Rabelais from a libertarian perspective, which claims that Voltaire eventually saw some worth in Rabelais' work.

*Update: it's from Voltaire's Letter XXII.--On Mr. Pope and Some Other Famous Poets; thanks to a commenter for the link.

Pasquinade

2013-05-22T01:00:00.001+10:00

Meaning: a lampoon, satire or libel. Cotgrave:

The name of an Image, or Poste in Rome, whereon Libels and defamatorie Rimes are fastened, and fathered; also, as Pasquille. A Pasquill; a Libell clapt on a Poste, or Image.

Usefulness: 2 (The reply-all email, the passive-agressive post-it, the anonymous online outburst, the aggrieved graffito; pasquinades all, and all potentially as comic.)

Logofascination: 1 (Derived from the nickname of a statue in Rome, on which such things were posted - for more on the statue, and the etymology of lampoon as a bonus, see here.)

In the wild: First encountered at LTA (see here for one in Latin) and then in the post linked to above, which mentioned Rabelais.

Degrees: 2

Connections: Pasquinade - Pasquilli

Which is used in: Book the Second (Pantagruel), VII: How Pantagruel came to Paris, and of the choice books of the Library of St. Victor. The wondrous library of St Victor is a pasquinade in its own right, lampooning academic texts so well that it could still apply today - titles include:

The Snatchfare of the Curates.
Reverendi patris fratris Lubini, provincialis Bavardiae, de gulpendis lardslicionibus*, libri tres. (Frame translates loosely as: Reverend Father Friar Gulligut Smellsmock, On the nibbling of bacon snacks, three books)
Pasquilli Doctoris Marmorei, de capreolis cum artichoketa comedendis, tempore Papali ab Ecclesia interdicto. (Frame: Pasquin, the Marmoreal** Doctor, On eating roe-deer with artichokes in Lenten time when it is forbidden by the Church.)
The Invention of the Holy Cross, personated by six wily Priests.
The Spectacles of Pilgrims bound for Rome.

A number of these would now be considered Market Research.

*I should really trademark this. Bacon snacks called Lardslicionibus would sell.

**Of marble

Quellenforschung

2013-05-21T00:47:00.001+10:00

Meaning: source research; the study of a work's sources and influences.

Usefulness: 1 (If I'd known this word earlier, this blog would be the Sir Thomas Urquhart Quellenforschung, or possibly the Quellenforschung* Urquhartian.)

Logofascination: 2 (My German etymology is not so strong; the OED links it to a few other words - including quellen for sources - but they're all either very old or very dialect, or both. Unrelated to quell as in quash.)

In the wild: It was the OED word of the day recently, and LTA dug up a few earlier citations.

Degrees: 2

Connections: quellenforschung - research

Which is used in: Trissotetras; the first paragraph. Sir Thomas is going to discuss angles, so he first needs to explain degrees:

Every circle is divided into three hundred and sixty parts, called degrees, whereof each one is sexagesimated, subsexagesimated, resubsexagesimated, and biresubsexagesimated, in minutes, seconds, thirds, fourths, and so far forth as any computist is pleased to proceed, for the exactnesse of a research, in the calculation of any orbiculary dimension.

This of course only makes sense if you know that sexagesimated means divided by sixty, and that orbiculary is a particularly fancy way of saying round; as you may recall from previous extracts of the Trissotetras, it doesn't get much more helpful.

*The conjugation would probably be different. If I run into any Germans I'll let you know what it should be.

Cidentine

2013-05-14T23:09:00.001+10:00

Meaning: this side of the teeth

Usefulness: 2 (I'm having trouble putting it in a sentence: "You might want to eat some chocolate while some of it remains cidentine" doesn't specify whose teeth it is on 'this side' of. Its opposite, tradentine, meaning beyond or on the other side of the teeth, might be more useful. "Where'd that chocolate go?" "It's already tradentine." Suggestions welcome.)

Logofascination: 1 (Invented by Sir Thomas; the Alpine comparison - see below - makes me wonder if he had made this joke before.)

In the wild: Not really; Sir Thomas seems to have been the only person to use these words, which fortunately hasn't stopped the OED including them.

Degrees: 0

Connections: n/a

Which is used in: G&P, Book the Second (Pantagruel), XXXII: How Pantagruel with his tongue covered a whole army, and what the author saw in his mouth. Pantagruel is in his largest stage (which varies according to narrative requirements) and the author spends six months exploring inside his mouth and throat, discovering not just people and towns, but entire countries:

I perceived well that, as we have with us the countries Cisalpine and Transalpine, that is, behither and beyond the mountains, so have they there the countries Cidentine and Tradentine, that is, behither and beyond the teeth.

Rabelais had: "A quoy ie congneu que ainsi comme nous avons les contrées de deça & de delà les monts, aussi ont ilz deça & delà les dentz." Sir Thomas has taken the alliterative de deca & dela and transformed them in to the cis- words we see above. Cisalpine is this side of the mountains - the Italian (Roman) side - and transalpine is, obviously, the other side.

Accidence

2013-05-13T23:30:00.002+10:00

Meaning: Inflectional morphology. (Helpful, eh?) The parts of grammar that are concerned with the way words change to indicate different things - conjugation, declension and so on.

Usefulness: 2 (At first I thought this might mean I wouldn't have to think about whether a word was being conjugated or declined, but after writing that definition I think I'm better off sticking with my basic verbs-are-conjugated theory.)

Logofascination: 1 (It's accidents, but this specialised term has developed from the sense of an accident as something incidental, not of the essence. So number and gender are incidental - accidental - to some words, rather than essential, and are therefore expressed through inflection. The word cars indicates that there is more than one car, but the car-ness of the cars involved is not altered by the -s; the plural is an accident.*)

In the wild: Mentioned in Asterix, and explained rather better in the post translating the Latin joke in the same comic: it's funny, if you find grammar amusing. There's a post for every Asterix book here - I'm going to be scouting second hand bookshops for a while, as it's brought on a terrible nostalgia for them.

Degrees: 1 or 2 (I'm really not sure.)

Connections: n/a

Which is used in: Logopandecteision; also in Ekskybalauron, since it repeats large chunks of Logopandecteision, but as we're concerned with language we'll go with the former. Sir Thomas is discussing the shortcomings of existing languages, and I really can't tell whether he means accidents in the grammatical sense (which existed at the time - the OED's first citation is from 1434) or if it's a reference to the haphazard formation of languages:

27. Nevertheless, why for representing to our understandings the essence of accidents,** the fluency of the form as it is in fieri**, the faculty of the agent and habit that facilitates it, with many thousands of other such expressions, the tearms are not so genuine as of the members of a man's body, or utensils of his house; the reason is, because the first inventers of languages, who contrived them for necessity, were not so profoundly versed in philosophical quiddities as those that succeeded after them; whose literature increasing, procured their excursion beyond the representatives of the common objects imagined by their forefathers.

Sir Thomas is positing that languages start with the words for body parts, and things around the house, and then move on to fancier things.

*Clarification or correction welcome, as always! This is my best explanation.
**This could be a little joke, since, as above, the grammatical - and philosophical - sense of accident is as something that is not essential, the essence of accidents is a contradiction.
**In becoming, in progress.

Philodine

2013-05-11T00:06:00.000+10:00

Meaning: A bdelloid rotifer of the genus Philodina or family Philodinidae. (Straight from the OED: I don't know enough to try and write it myself).

Usefulness: 1 (Besides rotifers being ridiculously interesting - in a really geeky way - philodine could well mean a love of whirling, or a whirl of love, either of which is useful.)

Logofascination: 1 (If you can resist saying 'bdelloid rotifer' aloud, you should probably stop reading this blog. The OED etymology for philodine merely points out that it's from philo- and dinus, the Greek for whirling or vertigo. Rotifers are very, very tiny and very, very interesting - for starters they are technically animals despite being so tiny, and for seconds the Bdelloidea* have managed to survive for 80 millions years despite reproducing asexually. Since this isn't a science blog, I will stop there and point out that however much I like the idea that a biologist named them lovers of whirling, it's also possibly it is, etymologically, something more like the 'whirling family', or 'family of whirlers'.**)

In the wild: The philodine themselves are everywhere, but this being the internet, there are a number of fan pages.

Degrees: 2 (They were only discovered in 1696, after all)

Connections: Philodine - whirl

Which is used in: Book the Third, XVII: How Panurge spoke to the Sibyl of Panzoust. Yesterday's post mentioned the treachery of words; we are a few chapters earlier here, and see the actions of the Sibyl's prophecy which prompted that debate.

The old trot for a while remained silent, pensive, and grinning like a dog; then, after she had set her withered breech upon the bottom of a bushel, she took into her hands three old spindles, which when she had turned and whirled betwixt her fingers very diversely and after several fashions, she pried more narrowly into, by the trial of their points, the sharpest whereof she retained in her hand, and threw the other two under a stone trough.

*So named because some of them crawl like leeches, bdella in Greek - one of the rare bd- words.
**Due to the cilia around their mouths, which give the appearance of spinning.

Amphibologies

2013-05-09T23:14:00.001+10:00

Meaning: Those self-contradictory words listed in emails about the craziness of English; 'to dust', for example, can mean removing something or adding something. As Cotgrave says:

A doubtfull, or double, meaning in one, or many, words.

Usefulness: 1 ("We like to call this the amphibologies building; our sales team and legal team share the space.")

Logofascination: 1 (Partly because it seems to be the theme this week - see below - and partly because it means I can use one of my favourite Much Ado About Nothing quotes: "There's a double meaning in that!" Also because since I learnt that the Greeks had this problem, I wonder if they had the equivalent lists of the wackiness of the Greek language.)

In the wild: So, this week Stan Carey discussed fulsome, and linked to his previous post on chuffed (which is where I ran into amphibolous) and the ever-awesome Dinosaur Comics take on these things. LTA then mentioned auto-antonyms and a plethora of posts on the classical variety, and then (no, really) Ed Latham wrote an excellent-but-annoying* post about literally becoming (already being?) one of these words, not that he used any of the fancy technical terms.

Degrees: 1 (Another reason for my logofascination; Sir Thomas and Rabelais both used this word.)

Connections: n/a

Which is used in: Book the Third, XIX: How Pantagruel praiseth the counsel of dumb men. It's the first non -mancy Thursday for a long time, but we can't escape the prophecies:

the surest and most veritable oracles were not those which either were delivered in writing or uttered by word of mouth in speaking. For many times, in their interpretation, right witty, learned, and ingenious men have been deceived through amphibologies, equivoques, and obscurity of words, no less than by the brevity of their sentences. For which cause Apollo, the god of vaticination**, was surnamed Loxias.

*I mean, really, he points out how really could probably have once meant, well, real, and is now just used for emphasis or interjection... unless, of course, you really mean it.
**prophecy.

Defenestrate

2013-05-07T23:31:00.000+10:00

Meaning: to throw someone or something out of a window.

Usefulness: 1 (It's a useful threat, and has apparently also become a "neologism, humorous" for uninstalling / removing Windows from a computer.)

Logofascination: 1 (It's my 200th post, so I'm being a bit nostalgic; I've been fascinated by this word since I was introduced to it at uni. Defenestration was threatened for misbehaviour in a clubroom on the second floor; reasonable when there was a balcony outside, slightly less reasonable - but possibly more interesting - when we relocated and you'd have dropped into the tavern below. Defenestrate is actually a back-formation from defenestration, and the OED doesn't have a citation until 1915.)

In the wild: Lots of people are fascinated by this word, not least because it was coined to describe the Defenestration of Prague, which started the Thirty Years' War. Possibly the most interesting example is Brian Goggin's art installation on an abandoned building in San Francisco.

Degrees: 2

Connections: defenestrate - windows

Which is used in: Ekskybalauron; Sir Thomas claims granting his demands and clearing his debts is as easy as opening a window or a door, and will be of such great benefit to the country that it would be unnatural not to.

Finally, he knowing that any man in a chamber desirous to enjoy the light of the sun, would be offended at him who by holding the windows shut should detain him in darknefe, as also be displeased with such a one as would keep fast the door against that person did intend to present him with a rich diamant; seeing the expansion of a door and window-leaf is able to admit the brightnefs of the one and wealth of the other, he expects that the State, considering how easily he may be disburdened of the aforesaid letts, and how upon their removal dependeth an illumination and enrichment of the minde in the knowledge of divers exquisite things, will not wittingly lose a matter of so great concernment for the not-performance of so mean a task; for when utility may be obtained with ease, and the steps to profit trod upon with facility, it needeth not to be imagined, where wisdom superiorizeth most, that such conveniences will be set at nought and omitted.

Mind, that's just one sentence in the introduction to the sixth book of Eksky, which argues the case fully. This sentence is surprisingly lacking in neologisms and Latin or Greek; indeed, 'not-peformance' smacks a little of translation from another language.

Torchecul

2013-05-06T23:19:00.000+10:00

Meaning: Sir Thomas provides the unusually coy "wipe-breech" as a synonym in the chapter title, but later on translates Rabelais' simple torchecul as a list: "arsewisps, bumfodders, tail-napkins, bunghole cleansers, and wipe-breeches." Cotgrave tells us that it is a "wispe for the tayle".

Usefulness: 2 (Though I suspect Rabelais and Sir Thomas would give a fancy word for toilet paper a 1.)

Logofascination: 1 (This many posts in, and words still surprise me: torche-, a French word meaning wipe, is from the Latin torqueo - twist, wind, bend, torment. Torqueo is at the root of thwart, torch, torque, tort, torture and nasturtium, nose-twisting flowers that they are. Also, of course, the -tort word family: contort, distort, extort, intort, obtort, retort. I suspect this ended up in torchecul as per Cotgrave's 'wispe' - a twist of something with which to wipe the tail.)

In the wild: It's not in the OED, which I think is a bit unfair. Someone has helpfully posted a photo of the relevant page of an illuminated Rabelais here.

Degrees: 1

Connections: n/a

Which is used in: Book the First (Gargantua), XIII: How Gargantua's wonderful understanding became known to his father Grangousier, by the invention of a torchecul or wipebreech. As you might expect, torchecul is used a few times, but this is my favourite line:

Now, I prithee, go on in this torcheculative, or wipe-bummatory discourse, and by my beard I swear, for one puncheon, thou shalt have threescore pipes, I mean of the good Breton wine, not that which grows in Britain, but in the good country of Verron.

Afterwards I wiped my bum, said Gargantua, with a kerchief, with a pillow, with a pantoufle, with a pouch, with a pannier, but that was a wicked and unpleasant torchecul; then with a hat.

Wipe-bummatory is rather appealing - it's (un)suprisingly fun to say, and I like to imagine Sir Thomas telling people he was up to the wipe-bummatory chapter.

You can read the full chapter online - for all the wipe-bummatory discourse, it has some lovely lists, and includes Sir Thomas' attempt to translate Rabelais' scatological poems.

Book the Third, XXV: How Panurge consulteth with Herr Trippa. (The -mancy chapter.)

2013-05-02T21:00:00.000+10:00

The grand finale: the full -mancy chapter in all its glory! The -mancies are mostly toward the end; see if you can find the one I've just discovered I forgot to write up...

"Nevertheless," quoth Epistemon, continuing his discourse, "I will tell you what you may do, if you believe me, before we return to our king. Hard by here, in the Brown-wheat (Bouchart) Island, dwelleth Herr Trippa. You know how by the arts of astrology, geomancy, chiromancy, metopomancy, and others of a like stuff and nature, he foretelleth all things to come; let us talk a little, and confer with him about your business."

"Of that," answered Panurge, "I know nothing; but of this much concerning him I am assured, that one day, and that not long since, whilst he was prating to the great king of celestial, sublime, and transcendent things, the lacqueys and footboys of the court, upon the upper steps of stairs between two doors, jumbled, one after another, as often as they listed, his wife, who is passable fair, and a pretty snug hussy. Thus he who seemed very clearly to see all heavenly and terrestrial things without spectacles, who discoursed boldly of adventures past, with great confidence opened up present cases and accidents, and stoutly professed the presaging of all future events and contingencies, was not able, with all the skill and cunning that he had, to perceive the bumbasting of his wife, whom he reputed to be very chaste, and hath not till this hour got notice of anything to the contrary. Yet let us go to him, seeing you will have it so; for surely we can never learn too much."

They on the very next ensuing day came to Herr Trippa's lodging. Panurge, by way of donative, presented him with a long gown lined all through with wolf-skins, with a short sword mounted with a gilded hilt and covered with a velvet scabbard, and with fifty good single angels; then in a familiar and friendly way did he ask of him his opinion touching the affair. At the very first Herr Trippa, looking on him very wistly in the face, said unto him: "Thou hast the metoposcopy and physiognomy of a cuckold,--I say, of a notorious and infamous cuckold." With this, casting an eye upon Panurge's right hand in all the parts thereof, he said, "This rugged draught which I see here, just under the mount of Jove, was never yet but in the hand of a cuckold." Afterwards, he with a white lead pen swiftly and hastily drew a certain number of diverse kinds of points, which by rules of geomancy he coupled and joined together; then said: "Truth itself is not truer than that it is certain thou wilt be a cuckold a little after thy marriage."

That being done, he asked of Panurge the horoscope of his nativity, which was no sooner by Panurge tendered unto him, than that, erecting a figure, he very promptly and speedily formed and fashioned a complete fabric of the houses of heaven in all their parts, whereof when he had considered the situation and the aspects in their triplicities, he fetched a deep sigh, and said: "I have clearly enough already discovered unto you the fate of your cuckoldry, which is unavoidable, you cannot escape it. And here have I got of new a further assurance thereof, so that I may now hardily pronounce and affirm, without any scruple or hesitation at all, that thou wilt be a cuckold; that furthermore, thou wilt be beaten by thine own wife, and that she will purloin, filch and steal of thy goods from thee; for I find the seventh house, in all its aspects, of a malignant influence, and every one of the planets threatening thee with disgrace, according as they stand seated towards one another, in relation to the horned signs of Aries, Taurus, and Capricorn. In the fourth house I find Jupiter in a decadence, as also in a tetragonal aspect to Saturn, associated with Mercury. Thou wilt be soundly peppered, my good, honest fellow, I warrant thee."

"I will be?" answered Panurge. "A plague rot thee, thou old fool and doting sot, how graceless and unpleasant thou art! When all cuckolds shall be at a general rendezvous, thou shouldst be their standard-bearer. But whence comes this ciron-worm betwixt these two fingers?"

This Panurge said, putting the forefinger of his left hand betwixt the fore and mid finger of the right, which he thrust out towards Herr Trippa, holding them open after the manner of two horns, and shutting into his fist his thumb with the other fingers. Then, in turning to Epistemon, he said: "Lo here the true Olus of Martial, who addicted and devoted himself wholly to the observing the miseries, crosses, and calamities of others, whilst his own wife, in the interim, did keep an open bawdy-house. This varlet is poorer than ever was Irus, and yet he is proud, vaunting, arrogant, self-conceited, overweening, and more insupportable than seventeen devils; in one word, Ptochalazon, which term of old was applied to the like beggarly strutting coxcombs. Come, let us leave this madpash bedlam, this hairbrained fop, and give him leave to rave and dose his bellyful with his private and intimately acquainted devils, who, if they were not the very worst of all infernal fiends, would never have deigned to serve such a knavish barking cur as this is. He hath not learnt the first precept of philosophy, which is, Know thyself; for whilst he braggeth and boasteth that he can discern the least mote in the eye of another, he is not able to see the huge block that puts out the sight of both his eyes. This is such another Polypragmon as is by Plutarch described. He is of the nature of the Lamian witches, who in foreign places, in the houses of strangers, in public, and amongst the common people, had a sharper and more piercing inspection into their affairs than any lynx, but at home in their own proper dwelling-mansions were blinder than moldwarps, and saw nothing at all. For their custom was, at their return from abroad, when they were by themselves in private, to take their eyes out of their head, from whence they were as easily removable as a pair of spectacles from their nose, and to lay them up into a wooden slipper which for that purpose did hang behind the door of their lodging."

Panurge had no sooner done speaking, when Herr Trippa took into his hand a tamarisk branch. "In this," quoth Epistemon, "he doth very well, right, and like an artist, for Nicander calleth it the divinatory tree."

"Have you a mind," quoth Herr Trippa, "to have the truth of the matter yet more fully and amply disclosed unto you by pyromancy, by aeromancy, whereof Aristophanes in his Clouds maketh great estimation, by hydromancy, by lecanomancy, of old in prime request amongst the Assyrians, and thoroughly tried by Hermolaus Barbarus. Come hither, and I will show thee in this platterful of fair fountain-water thy future wife lechering and sercroupierizing it with two swaggering ruffians, one after another."

"Yea, but have a special care," quoth Panurge, "when thou comest to put thy nose within mine arse, that thou forget not to pull off thy spectacles."

Herr Trippa, going on in his discourse, said, "By catoptromancy, likewise held in such account by the Emperor Didius Julianus, that by means thereof he ever and anon foresaw all that which at any time did happen or befall unto him. Thou shalt not need to put on thy spectacles, for in a mirror thou wilt see her as clearly and manifestly nebrundiated and billibodring it, as if I should show it in the fountain of the temple of Minerva near Patras. By coscinomancy, most religiously observed of old amidst the ceremonies of the ancient Romans. Let us have a sieve and shears, and thou shalt see devils. By alphitomancy, cried up by Theocritus in his Pharmaceutria. By alentomancy, mixing the flour of wheat with oatmeal. By astragalomancy, whereof I have the plots and models all at hand ready for the purpose. By tyromancy, whereof we make some proof in a great Brehemont cheese which I here keep by me. By giromancy, if thou shouldst turn round circles, thou mightest assure thyself from me that they would fall always on the wrong side. By sternomancy, which maketh nothing for thy advantage, for thou hast an ill-proportioned stomach. By libanomancy, for the which we shall need but a little frankincense. By gastromancy, which kind of ventral fatiloquency was for a long time together used in Ferrara by Lady Giacoma Rodogina, the Engastrimythian prophetess. By cephalomancy, often practised amongst the High Germans in their boiling of an ass's head upon burning coals. By ceromancy, where, by the means of wax dissolved into water, thou shalt see the figure, portrait, and lively representation of thy future wife, and of her fredin fredaliatory belly-thumping blades. By capnomancy. O the gallantest and most excellent of all secrets! By axionomancy; we want only a hatchet and a jet-stone to be laid together upon a quick fire of hot embers. O how bravely Homer was versed in the practice hereof towards Penelope's suitors! By onymancy; for that we have oil and wax. By tephromancy. Thou wilt see the ashes thus aloft dispersed exhibiting thy wife in a fine posture. By botanomancy; for the nonce I have some few leaves in reserve. By sicomancy; O divine art in fig-tree leaves! By icthiomancy, in ancient times so celebrated, and put in use by Tiresias and Polydamas, with the like certainty of event as was tried of old at the Dina-ditch within that grove consecrated to Apollo which is in the territory of the Lycians. By choiromancy; let us have a great many hogs, and thou shalt have the bladder of one of them. By cheromancy, as the bean is found in the cake at the Epiphany vigil. By anthropomancy, practised by the Roman Emperor Heliogabalus. It is somewhat irksome, but thou wilt endure it well enough, seeing thou art destinated to be a cuckold. By a sibylline stichomancy. By onomatomancy. How do they call thee?"

"Chaw-turd," quoth Panurge.

"Or yet by alectryomancy. If I should here with a compass draw a round, and in looking upon thee, and considering thy lot, divide the circumference thereof into four-and-twenty equal parts, then form a several letter of the alphabet upon every one of them; and, lastly, posit a barleycorn or two upon each of these so disposed letters, I durst promise upon my faith and honesty that, if a young virgin cock be permitted to range alongst and athwart them, he should only eat the grains which are set and placed upon these letters, A. C.U.C.K.O.L.D. T.H.O.U. S.H.A.L.T. B.E. And that as fatidically as, under the Emperor Valens, most perplexedly desirous to know the name of him who should be his successor to the empire, the cock vacticinating and alectryomantic ate up the pickles that were posited on the letters T.H.E.O.D. Or, for the more certainty, will you have a trial of your fortune by the art of aruspiciny, by augury, or by extispiciny?"

"By turdispiciny," quoth Panurge.

"Or yet by the mystery of necromancy? I will, if you please, suddenly set up again and revive someone lately deceased, as Apollonius of Tyane did to Achilles, and the Pythoness in the presence of Saul; which body, so raised up and requickened, will tell us the sum of all you shall require of him: no more nor less than, at the invocation of Erictho, a certain defunct person foretold to Pompey the whole progress and issue of the fatal battle fought in the Pharsalian fields. Or, if you be afraid of the dead, as commonly all cuckolds are, I will make use of the faculty of sciomancy."

"Go, get thee gone," quoth Panurge, "thou frantic ass, to the devil, and be buggered, filthy Bardachio that thou art, by some Albanian, for a steeple-crowned hat. Why the devil didst not thou counsel me as well to hold an emerald or the stone of a hyaena under my tongue, or to furnish and provide myself with tongues of whoops, and hearts of green frogs, or to eat of the liver and milt of some dragon, to the end that by those means I might, at the chanting and chirping of swans and other fowls, understand the substance of my future lot and destiny, as did of old the Arabians in the country of Mesopotamia? Fifteen brace of devils seize upon the body and soul of this horned renegado, miscreant cuckold, the enchanter, witch, and sorcerer of Antichrist to all the devils of hell! Let us return towards our king. I am sure he will not be well pleased with us if he once come to get notice that we have been in the kennel of this muffled devil. I repent my being come hither. I would willingly dispense with a hundred nobles and fourteen yeomans, on condition that he who not long since did blow in the bottom of my breeches should instantly with his squirting spittle inluminate his moustaches. O Lord God now! how the villain hath besmoked me with vexation and anger, with charms and witchcraft, and with a terrible coil and stir of infernal and Tartarian devils! The devil take him! Say Amen, and let us go drink. I shall not have any appetite for my victuals, how good cheer soever I make, these two days to come,--hardly these four."

If nothing else, I hope you all appreciate how much reading I do for this blog.

Polypragmon

2013-05-01T23:24:00.000+10:00

Meaning: busy-body

Usefulness: 1

Logofascination: 1 (The Greek is fairly straightforward - perhaps that's what I find appealing. Poly-, meaning many, and prag-, from the same root as pragmatic, meaning deed or act or thing. Many things; apparently being busy has never been a compliment, as pragmatic also once meant meddlesome. I'll need a different answer for people asking about my work.)

In the wild: Not really, but someone has written a book about exactly what the ancients thought of it.

Degrees: 1

Connections: n/a

Which is used in: the -mancy chapter (I know it's not Thursday, but I'm building up to tomorrow), La Tiers-Livre, XXV: In which Panurge etc. It's a bit you haven't seen much of, because there are no -mancys.

He hath not learnt the first precept of philosophy, which is, Know thyself; for whilst he braggeth and boasteth that he can discern the least mote in the eye of another, he is not able to see the huge block that puts out the sight of both his eyes. This is such another Polypragmon as is by Plutarch described.

Apparently Plutarch suggested that polypragmons should occupy themselves with science or history in order to keep out of mischief.

Sercroupierizing

2013-04-30T23:08:00.003+10:00

Meaning: serial rumpy-pumpy, as in, with one person and then another.

Usefulness: 3 (I can only imagine this being used in a derogatory sense, so usefulness depends on your need for such a descriptor; discussing rugby scandals, perhaps?)

Logofascination: 1 (Invented by Sir Thomas to expand Rabelais' French - see quotes below. I used rumpy-pumpy in the definition not for fear of offending your delicate sensibilities but to allude to croup. Ser- is fairly straightforward, and presumably from the same root as series. Croup is an older word meaning the rump or hindquarters of a horse, and is actually the root of croupier.)

In the wild: No.

Degrees: 0

Connections: n/a

Which is used in: the -mancy chapter, which is of course focussed on adultery. Book the Third, XXV: In which Panurge consulteth Herr Trippa.

Come hither, and I will show thee in this platterful of fair fountain-water thy future wife lechering and sercroupierizing it with two swaggering ruffians, one after another.

Rabelais has:

Dedans un bassin plein d'eau ie te montreray ta femme future brimballant avecques deux rustres.

Google Translate renders this as "Within a basin full of water I'll show you your future wife brinbaler two louts", and Cotgrave helpfully tells us that brimbaler is "To tumble downe headlong, to fall downe topsie-turvie; also, to shake, swag, or quag". Sir Thomas duplicates for emphasis - lechery and sercroupierizing - and then adds the 'one after another' in case you didn't quite understand.

Visuriency

2013-04-29T23:17:00.002+10:00

Meaning: the state of having the desire to see

Usefulness: 1 (Could apply to people visiting opthalmologists, or to the relative appeal of the latest blockbuster: "George Lucas does not inspire visuriency in the public in the way he used to." Or, of course, various aspects of voyeurism.)

Logofascination: 1 (Due to being invented by Sir Thomas; related to video, of course.)

In the wild: Not really, but another of Sir Thomas' words which turns up in The Horologicon.

Degrees: 0

Connections: n/a

Which is used in: Ekskybalauron, as cited on Friday.

each part and portion of the persons of either was obvious to the sight and touch of the persons of both; the visuriency of either, by ushering the tacturiency of both, made the attrectation of both consequent to the inspection of either.

Full text at hirquitalliency.

Tacturiency

2013-04-26T21:00:00.000+10:00

Meaning: the state of having the desire to touch

Usefulness: 1 ("Textured fabrics induce a terrible tacturiency in me; I find it hard to resist touching velvet." Or a sign in a shop: "Whatever your tacturiency, please resist.")

Logofascination: 1 (Besides being invented by Sir Thomas for one of his more well-known original passages, this lead to an interesting consideration of the difference between a word ending in ence - tacturience - or ency. I think it's that tacturience is the desire to touch, while tacturiency is being in the state of having that desire. As ever, clarification welcome.)

In the wild: Besides appearing in The Horologicon, it turns up in the usual logofascinated corners of the internet, and also as the name of a rather alternative art project. At least, I think it was art.

Degrees: 0

Connections: n/a

Which is used in: Ekskybalauron, as the Admirable Chrichton and his lady pass the time: note its mutuality.

the tacturiency of both, made the attrectation of both consequent to the inspection of either; here was it that passion was active, and action passive, they both being overcome by other, and each the conqueror.

The full passage is at hirquitalliency.

Omphalomancy

2013-04-25T23:35:00.001+10:00

Meaning: Divination by belly button; apparently inspection of a baby's navel can reveal the number of children the mother will bear, although there's another theory that this originally involved counting the number of knots in the umbilical cord.

Usefulness: 1 (Forget numbers of children, it's terribly useful to have a word for the outcome of omphaloskepsis* - consideration of one's navel. "How did you arrive at this result, Jenkins?" "It took considerable omphalomancy, sir, but we go there in the end.")

Logofascination: 2 (I like this almost as much as tyromancy, but etymologically it's just the Greek for navel and -mancy.)

In the wild: Not really, but someone has helpfully compiled a montage of bellybuttons for Wikipedia.

Degrees: 2

Connections: Omphalomancy - capnomancy

Which is used in: the -mancy chapter; this is the last -mancy from this chapter and for this blog**, but the final one is a bit boring so I thought I'd write up one of the more interesting ones I found along the way, and omphalomancy qualified. The final -mancy from Book the Third, XXV: How Panurge consulteth Herr Trippa is...

By capnomancy. O the gallantest and most excellent of all secrets!

Capnomancy is divination by smoke, a synonym for libanomancy.

*The OED's first citation for omphaloskepsis is a Mr A. Huxley.
**probably.

Volery

2013-04-23T22:44:00.000+10:00

Meaning: A flock or flight of birds, or a large aviary - Cotgrave:

A great cage, or coope wherein birds have roome ynough to flutter.

Usefulness: 2 (Mainly to trick people; I was quite excited when I saw this word, because I liked the idea of something full of voles.)

Logofascination: 2 (This might be coloured by my disappointment on discovering that voleries are not, in fact, full of voles, but it is an example of the quirks of word formation. From the French word voliere of the same meaning, in turn from voler, to fly, and etymologically unrelated to the vole.)

In the wild: Gets mentioned occasionally as an exotic collective noun.

Degrees: 2

Connections: volery - cage

Which is used in: Logopandecteision, The Epilogue. Sir Thomas thanks Cromwell for granting him parole (within the bounds of London) and thereby freeing him to write, since

it could not in that eclipse of liberty lie in my power to frame myself to the couching of one sillable, or contriving of a fancie worthy the labour of putting pen to paper, no more then a nightingale can warble it in a cage, or linet in a dungeon.

Copesmate

2013-04-22T21:25:00.001+10:00

Meaning: It eventually meant an associate, friend, partner, but the OED defines its oldest sense as "A person with whom one copes or contends; an adversary, antagonist."

Usefulness: 1 (Someone you cope or contend with? This word is ripe for resurrection regarding office companions, housemates, and - depending on your family - siblings. "A new copesmate joined our team today; she bought muffins, so we think we're going to like her.")

Logofascination: 1 (This makes more sense when you realise that cope originally meant "to come to blows with". Like cope, copesmate has evolved from that antagonistic origin, with a diversion into meaning adulterous lover, paramour and/or spouse.)

In the wild: Shakespeare uses it in The Rape of Lucrece:

'Mis-shapen Time, copesmate of ugly Night,
Swift subtle post, carrier of grisly care,
Eater of youth, false slave to false delight,
Base watch of woes, sin's pack-horse, virtue's snare;
Thou nursest all and murder'st all that are:
O, hear me then, injurious, shifting Time!

Degrees: 1 (Sir Thomas' G&P is cited by the OED under the "paramour" sense, although he also used it to mean spouse and adulterous lover at different points.)

Connections: n/a

Which is used in: G&P, Book the Third, XXVIII: How Friar John comforteth Panurge in the doubtful matter of cuckoldry. Friar John tells Panurge the story of an old jeweller who marries a young wife:

Notwithstanding all this, he found her always more and more inclined to the reception of her neighbour copes-mates, that day by day his jealousy increased.

It does not end well.

Emblustricate

2013-04-17T23:55:00.000+10:00

Meaning: To bewilder. Cotgrave borrows some synonyms from incornifistibulating to define the French version:

To trouble, blunder, or or pester the mind with, to beat the braines about.

Usefulness: 1 (It just sounds right: "I"m just so emblustricated!" "Your emblustrications won't work this time, my friend." "I managed to emblustricate the boss enough that he just agreed to my pay rise!")

Logofascination: 1 (Even if it weren't a 0-degree word, the OED etymology note would improve its rating: "Whimsically formed to render the equally fantastic French emburelucoquer." We who are logofascinated salute you, oh distant lexicographer.)

In the wild: not really.

Degrees: 0 (Although it's formed after the French word, I think this is sufficiently changed to be a new English word. Feel free to argue the point.)

Connections: n/a

Which is used in: G&P, Le Tiers-Livre, XXII: How Panurge patrocinates and defendeth the Order of the Begging Friars. As quoted yesterday and previously:

the Romish Church, when tottering and emblustricated with the gibble-gabble gibberish of this odious error and heresy,

is apparently saved from emblustrication by the Mendicant Friars and Jacobins. The Jesuits had only existed for 13 years when Rabelais died, so there's no way he could have realised their ability to save the day.

Filopendulums

2013-04-16T23:25:00.000+10:00

Meaning: Frame glosses this as counterweights which, in context (below), seems about right; something like the weights in a clock, perhaps.

Usefulness: 3 (I'd be impressed if you could work this into conversation, but Rabelais' line might be worth learning.)

Logofascination: 2 (From the Latin for thread and hanging, I wonder if Rabelais is suggesting that these counterweights are flimsily suspended).

In the wild: Although filopendulums isn't defined anywhere, the botanically-inspired filipendulous was recommended by the OED today.

Here's a wonderful word for you: filipendulous, adj.: hanging or having the appearance of hanging by a thread.
— The OED (@OED) April 16, 2013

Degrees: 1

Connections: n/a

Which is used in: G&P, Book the Third, XXII: How Panurge patrocinates and defendeth the Order of the Begging Friars. Panurge is speaking of the Mendicant Friars and Jacobins:

who are the two hemispheres of the Christian world; by whose gyronomonic circumbilvaginations, as by two celivagous filopendulums, all the autonomatic metagrobolism of the Romish Church, when tottering and emblustricated with the gibble-gabble gibberish of this odious error and heresy, is homocentrically poised.

As mentioned in the celivagous post, I think Frame has the sense: the orders are counterweights with heavenly tendencies.

Saccharescent

2013-04-15T23:12:00.001+10:00

Meaning: exuding sweetness, overly sweet.

Usefulness: 1 (With a suggestion of artificiality, it's a useful way to describe those who are, well, artificially sweet.)

Logofascination: (Ezra Pound coined it for one of his Cantos, consigning the saccharescent to an eternity in glucose. It was written just after World War I, which was apparently, when saccharin became more widely used. The artificiality of saccharin and the abstract chemistry of glucose against the absent sugar; it's a modern Hell that Pound is imagining.)

In the wild: In Canto XV, which is particularly Boschian, so I'd only look it up if you're feeling strong-stomached and / or cynical. If you're after something a bit lighter, I found it in this quiz.

Degrees: 2

Connections: saccharescent - sugar

Which is used in: Gargantua (Book the First), XXXVII: How Gargantua, in combing his head, made the great cannon-balls fall out of his hair. Gargantua and Pantagruel are giants - when it suits the narrative - which Rabelais conveys through things like the size of their supper:

This said, they made ready supper, and, of extraordinary besides his daily fare, were roasted sixteen oxen, three heifers, two and thirty calves, three score and three fat kids, four score and fifteen wethers, three hundred farrow pigs or sheats soused in sweet wine or must, eleven score partridges, seven hundred snipes and woodcocks, four hundred Loudun and Cornwall capons, six thousand pullets, and as many pigeons, six hundred crammed hens, fourteen hundred leverets, or young hares and rabbits, three hundred and three buzzards, and one thousand and seven hundred cockerels.

Bougetier

2013-04-14T00:07:00.000+10:00

Meaning: Cotgrave*: A budget-maker... as in Bougette. (Bougette: A little coffer, or trunke of wood, covered with leather, wherewith the women of old time carried their jewels, attires, and trinkets at their saddle bowes, when they rid into the countrey; now gentlemen call so, both any such trunke; and the box, or till of their Cabinets wherein they keepe their money; also, a little male, pouch, or budget.)

Usefulness: 1 (Apologies for the intermittent posting recently; by day I'm an accountant, or, as my new business cards will proclaim, a bougetier. Budgets, whether the bags or chests of old, or the spreadsheets of new, take time and energy from important things like how many synonyms Sir Thomas had for bodily functions.)

Logofascination: 1 (Etymologically, budgets are little bags, related to bulges and bellies, and by meaning, to postmen. The male mentioned by Cotgrave above is our mail.)

In the wild: Since it's technically a French word, only on French sites. If you think they're wild, you need to get out more.

Degrees: 1

Connections: bougetier - budget

Which is used in: at least five places in G&P, demonstrating the number of meanings budget has/had. Here are a few:

1,XIII: and ever since have retained them in the budget of my memory
2, VIII: together with a capacity in memory equal to the measure of twelve oil budgets or butts of olives.**
2, XIV: for thy pains I will give thee my codpiece (budget); take, here it is, there are six hundred seraphs in it, and some fine diamonds and most excellent rubies.

*I know, again with the Cotgrave. I'll update the description of the blog.
**cited by the OED for a sense meaning "leather bag".

Lecanomancy

2013-04-12T00:15:00.001+10:00

Meaning: Cotgrave: divination by water in a basin. Often involves adding something to the water and observing the patterns: oil, tiles, etc.

Usefulness: 3 (I might have been fascinated 31 -mancys ago, but things are at the point where even my mother is over the -mancys. There is one more, but it's pretty boring so I'll be doing the most interesting of the other -mancys out there and then stopping. These have all been from the one chapter of the third book of Gargantua and Pantagruel, for those of you who missed the start.)

Logofascination: 2 (Divination by dish: pretty straightforward, but highlights the lack of other descendants from the λεκάνη root.)

In the wild: No, but I'm rather fond of the intro to the Wikipedia article: "a form of divination which, like many ancient forms of divination, has multiple interpretations". I wonder sometimes if this is because only three people ever practiced them. )

Degrees: 1

Connections: n/a

Which is used in: G&P, Book the Third, XXV: "In which Panurge consulteth Herr Trippa" and I become an expert on forms of divination.

by hydromancy, by lecanomancy, of old in prime request amongst the Assyrians, and thoroughly tried by Hermolaus Barbarus.

Lecanomancy is of course a subset of hydromancy.

Rabelaisia

2013-04-09T22:44:00.000+10:00

Today is the 460th anniversary of Rabelais' death (probably, although we're more certain of that than of the day - or year - of his birth). You can see a few of my favourite quotes* over on @SDOSTU. If you need a word fix, here are some coined by Rabelais himself and Anglicised by Sir Thomas:

Celivagous

Circumbilivagination

Fredin-fredaliatory

*that I could get down to 140 characters, anyway. The wipe-bummatory chapter was unfortunately eliminated.

Metamazion

2013-04-08T23:23:00.000+10:00

Meaning: between the breasts; Sir Thomas helpfully provides a Latinate synonym, intermammillary.

Usefulness: 2 (Perhaps best used as Sir Thomas did, to describe jewellery: "Your metamazion ornament is lovely; where did you get it?" Although I have known those of a more bathycolpian tendency to store things - including, occasionally, mobile phones - metamazionally.)

Logofascination: 1 (A Sir Thomas original, which I suspect would be more widely known if it'd ended up in his G&P. From meta-, obviously, and mazo-, a variant of Greek masto-, relating to the breast. Mazo- is part of some Greek folk etymology - i.e. probably wrong - for the Amazons.)

In the wild: No, but the OED thinks that formations using mazo- were only found from the 19th century, so I'll have to let them know. They do have intermammillary, also a Sir Thomas original (see quote below), meaning you get two zero degree words in one post. Bargain.

Degrees: 0

Connections: n/a

Which is used in: Ekskybalauron. As mentioned the other day, the Admirable Chrichton meets a sad end, and the entire court mourn him:

most of the young ladies likewise, that were anything handsome*, in a memorial of his worth, had his effigies in a little oval tablet of gold hanging 'twixt their breasts, and held, for many yeers together, that metamazion, or intermammilary ornament, an as necessary outward pendicle** for the better setting forth of their accoutrements, as either fan, watch, or stomacher.

*Sir Thomas is probably using this in an earlier sense, meaning well-mannered, decent.
**Pendant.