Four in One

I did a remote broadcast with Lew Gatch at WMKV-fm in Cincinnati this afternoon. A caller asked, “How many words can exist as four parts of speech—noun, verb, adjective and adverb?”

The word bank came to mind immediately.

• The bank closes at 5:00 p.m. [n.]
• You can bank on me. [v.]
• The bank shot is very effective in basketball. [adj.]

But that was the end of the line. There is no bank as adverb. That’s true of perhaps hundreds of words, because most adverbs end in –ly, thus breaking the sequence.

I haven’t given this a lot of thought, but four words now come to mind: fast, last, right, and well.

NOUN

• Fast is built into sports cars.
• A shoemaker must have a last.
• A right must be protected.
• Timmy fell into the well.

VERB

• Fast for twelve hours before the procedure.
• Good furniture will last for centuries.
• Please right that chair before someone trips over it.
• When I’m sad, tears well up.

ADJECTIVE

• Fast solutions don’t always work.
• He was the last man standing.
• Do the right thing.
• That’s all well and good, but what about the cost?.

ADVERB

• Run fast.
• When I last looked, he was sleeping.
• Stop right here.
• She works well with others.

Available from McFarland & Co.: Word Parts Dictionary, 2nd edition

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Gossip

The same language myths seem to be recycled several times a year via email; I call them verbal vampires. Showing up in my mailbox for the umpteenth time is the definitive explanation for the word gossip.

A British earl/duke/lord/king/queen (depending on the version in front of you) was worried about public opinion. In a foreshadowing of Homeland Security, he or she instructed hordes of underlings to visit local pubs and listen to what patrons were saying. “Go sip a pint or two and report to me,” was the instruction. Of course, go sip transmuted into gossip over time. Of course it did.

The reality is strange enough. The original gossip (godsibb) was a baptismal sponsor, a godparent. It was based on God and Sibb, related to sibling. It appeared in print in 1014.

By 1390, it had broadened to include a close acquaintance or friend. It then narrowed (1600) to mean female friends who might be present as attendants when a woman was giving birth. The implication was that idle chatter would take the birthing mother’s mind off the pain. By the 19^th century, it had settled into idle talk, social chatter, and rumors shared by men and women.

The word is flexible enough to be both positive and negative. A gossip-monger is an abomination, but a gossip column is a welcome read.

Available from McFarland & Co.: Word Parts Dictionary, 2nd edition

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e.g. and i.e.

In my capacity as a Michigan Commissioner (Commission on Services to the Aging), I’ve been working with a committee reviewing the by-laws for the State Advisory Council on Aging, our research arm. When we got to the section on the technical requirements for membership, I discovered that the old version had failed to distinguish between the abbreviation e.g. (exempli gratia or for example) and the abbreviation i.e. (id est or that is).

Let me illustrate with two examples not drawn from the by-laws, which are of interest only to a very small audience.

• (1) Massive November storms on the Great Lakes, e.g., Lake Michigan and Lake Superior, have resulted in hundreds of shipwrecks over the years.
• (2) Massive November storms on the Great Lakes, i.e., Lakes Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, and Superior, have resulted in hundreds of shipwrecks over the years.

The abbreviation e.g. signifies that a limited number of examples are about to be inserted, a mere sample of a larger universe. Items are deliberately left out because of time, space, or interest constraints. Since example 1 gives only two of the five Great Lakes, e.g. is the correct abbreviation.

The abbreviation i.e. signifies that a point just mentioned is about to be clarified, specified, spelled out. The understanding is that nothing will be left out; the list will be complete. Example 2 names all five Great Lakes, so using i.e. is correct.

This also explains why the first example below is wrong.

• (1) I love the Three Stooges, e.g., Larry, Curly, and Moe.
• (2) I love the Three Stooges, i.e., Larry, Curly, and Moe.

The second example (using i.e.) is correct because all three Stooges are specified. No one is left out. Using e.g. would imply that more Stooges, yet unnamed, are waiting in the wings. Heaven forfend.

Available from McFarland & Co.: Word Parts Dictionary, 2nd edition

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Horsing Around

Doug from Traverse City asked about two words, chivalry and cavort. I have to believe that he knew about their connection in advance and was simply testing me. That happens frequently during the show. Stump the Professor has become a popular game.

The connection between the two is the horse. Chivalry is a cognate of cavalry; it refers to horsemen. In the Middle Ages, it came to signify the code of conduct supposedly lived by knights. It was a blend of religious, social, and ethical elements.

Cavort originally meant to prance about like a horse. Applied to a human, it meant to frolic or to play around, generally in an aimless manner.

Another word connected to horse surprised me. It’s chagrin. Now it means disappointment resulting from being thwarted. Originally in English it was spelled shagreen, and it referred to the rough skin on the rump of a horse.

Available from McFarland & Co.: Word Parts Dictionary, 2nd edition

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Vetting Candidates

Jim from Elk Rapids came across the phrase “vetting a candidate” and wondered about its origin. It could well be replaced by “background check.”

The vet at the core of the word and its variants is the veterinarian. Veterinarian came from a Latin word meaning pertaining to cattle (1791), but it quickly widened in scope to include other farm animals.

By 1891, it was a standard term in horse racing. To vet a horse was to have it examined by a veterinarian to determine if the animal was fit for racing. It’s no coincidence that we refer to the political process as the presidential race.

By 1898, it had been expanded to mean to examine or treat a human being medically. Six years later, it had morphed into a non-medical meaning: to examine a person carefully to determine if he or she is suitable to hold a sensitive position.

Available from McFarland & Co.: Word Parts Dictionary, 2nd edition

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Post This

Betty wrote, “I know that the word part –post- means after. How does that tie into the word postulate, a self-evident assumption or axiom that is used in geometry?”

There is no connection. With surprising frequency, word parts with no connection to each other accidentally wind up with identical spelling, the very same letter sequence, even though the meaning and the source are miles apart.

A classic example is the word part –ped-. It can mean foot (pedal), child (pediatrician), or soil (pedocal). Another example is the word part –in-. It can mean inside (instill), but it can also mean not (insane).

Back to –post-. Postulate comes from a Latin word that means a demand, a forceful request. Other words sharing that same root are expostulate, postulant, and postulative. The -post- that means later in time shows up in words such as post-game, postpartum, and postmortem. A slightly different shade of meaning, behind in position, shows up in postaxial, posterior, and postchoroid.

Post—the sturdy piece of timber—comes from another source entirely, and has no connection to the word parts above.

Available from McFarland & Co.: Word Parts Dictionary, 2nd edition

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There is a collection of podcasts. Go to wtcmradio.com and click on Podcasts. Scroll down The Ron Jolly Show to find the Words to the Wise audio button.

Tintinnabulation

Charlie from Traverse City asked about the word tintinnabulation. At the core is the Latin verb tintinnare, to ring, clink, or jingle. If you say “tin-tin” aloud, you can hear that it is an approximation or imitation of a bell sound. That makes it onomatopoeia – the sound suggests the sense of the word. (Inescapably, I picture a belly dancer plying her finger cymbals.)

The OED points to the –bulation segment as a suffix of instrument. The Oxford English Dictionary also labels all variants of the word as pedantic. In other words, your average churchgoer isn’t going to remark that the bells are particularly tintinnabulent on any given Saturday or Sunday.

The word would probably have died out as being too arch or bookish had it not been for Edgar Allen Poe. In the late 1840s, he wrote a poem titled The Bells, and he found the word very useful in establishing the desired meter in stanza 1.

Hear the sledges with the bells -

Silver bells!

What a world of merriment their melody foretells!

How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle,

In the icy air of night!

While the stars that oversprinkle

All the heavens, seem to twinkle

With a crystalline delight;

Keeping time, time, time,

In a sort of Runic rhyme,

To the tintinnabulation that so musically wells

From the bells, bells, bells, bells,

Bells, bells, bells -

From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells.

Available from McFarland & Co.: Word Parts Dictionary, 2nd edition

Check out Mike's program-based books here:
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Listen to Mike’s program in real time every Tuesday morning, 9:00 - 10:00 a.m. EST, by going to wtcmradio.com and clicking on Listen Now.

There is a collection of podcasts. Go to wtcmradio.com and click on Podcasts. Scroll down The Ron Jolly Show to find the Words to the Wise audio button.