| A Word to the Wise
Verbum satis sapientibus: A word to the wise is sufficient
by Gerald Waite
Gawky, awkward, sinister and gauche—each of these words has an unpleasant denotation, and, while their origins are different, they all once meant the same thing. Surprisingly, all meant left or left-handed. This month, the curious, even dark etymologies or origins of these and a few other words is our subject.
Historically, left-handers have had a tough enough time in this right-handed world, but it seems the very language conspires against them. Folks of my well-seasoned vintage can recall when it was common for parents and teachers to try to convert lefties to use of the right hand.
Still, I was mildly shocked to learn as a high school Latin scholar that our word sinister comes from the Latin word spelled the same, but meaning left or left hand. Our modern sense of the word does not convey the left any more, but both senses of the word—left and malicious—coexisted in English for many hundreds of years, at least until the late 1600s. In 1682, the poet John Dryden wrote in his lively satire Mac Flecknoe, “In his sinister hand…he placed a mighty mug of potent ale.”
The word gauche, meaning graceless or clumsy, meant left-handed in French. Gawky sounds similar and means much the same thing, but probably has its origin in a North English dialect instead of French. Its original sense was left-handed. Awkward too has been around in English for a very long time, and its original meaning was “to be directed the wrong way, or back-handed or from the left hand.”
To add insolence to insult, our word adroit—that is, adept or skillful—is from the French for right, while dexterity is from the Latin word also meaning right. Fortunately, none of these words today suggest to us anything to do with right or left.
Other terms have as interesting if more tasteful histories. Exhilarate or the more common exhilarating, meaning to refresh or delight, traces its sunny heritage to the Latin word for cheerful, hilarus. And by the way, I can remember how to spell exhilarate (no i in the middle) when I recall that we derive hilarious from the same root, which Hilary would be pleased to know.
When we choose our dining partners, we want someone we enjoy talking with, someone companionable. And the word companionable literally means sharing bread, from the Latin cum or con, and panis, these meaning respectively with or together, and bread.
Pamphleteer is a noun or verb referring to someone who writes short treatises, or as a verb, the action of doing this. Its history began with a short twelfth century document on love named Pamphilus, from the Greek meaning loved by all. Not long thereafter, any such individually published tract or poem became known as a pamphlet.
The adjective laconic describes a person of few words, a dry sort, one not wont to show much emotion. It comes from a proper name, the country of Laconia in ancient Greece, to the south of Athens. Laconians, whose capital was Sparta, were known for their military bent, men of action and not big talkers.
By the 1500s, the word had drifted into English through Latin, meaning concise or dry.
Gossamer is an adjective describing something, such as a fabric, that is very light, delicate, even translucent. It literally means goose summer and in the Middle Ages referred to mild weather in late fall, what we might today call Indian summer. Long ago gossamer also could refer to cobwebs, in that the down of a goose and the work of the spider shared a light and filmy quality.
Word for the month
Patronymic (pat-row-NIM-ic) describes a proper name derived from the name of the father or some other paternal ancestor. The root words are Greek for father and name. For example, Ericson is a patronymic derived from Eric; the valiant explorer Leif Ericson was the son of another notable traveler, Eric the Red.
The many Irish and Scottish names beginning with Mac or Mc are patronymics, like McCauslin or MacTavish, the prefix denoting sonship. And the common Irish prefix O- is from the old Irish au- and means a descendant of.
An O’Neil was descended from the powerful Neil clan. In his popular 1730 play Tom Thumb, Henry Fielding writes, “As Ireland her O’s, her Mac’s let Scotland boast.” Like Mc, Mac, O and the Danish –son, the suffix –ing is England’s patronymic, as in Hosking or Fleming. Or Fielding.
In his poem Mac Flecknoe, Dryden satirizes a contemporary poet, Thomas Shadwell, giving him the name Mac Flecknoe in reference to a certain long forgotten writer named Richard Flecknoe. Flecknoe, who had died shortly before the satire was written, reputedly was a wretched playwright, and has been long out of print. Shadwell, unless he had a superior sense of humor, must have blanched at the association.
—Gerald Waite
Editor’s Note: Questions or comments are welcome by writing MM or by e-mailing marquettemonthly@chartermi.net
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