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• carminative •

Pronunciation: kahr-min-ê-tiv, kahr-mê-nay-tiv • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Adjective, Noun

Meaning: 1. (Adjective) Capable of relieving gas in the stomach. 2. (Noun) A medication capable of relieving gas in the stomach and reducing the resultant eructation and flatulence.

Notes: Today's Good Word is a member of a class of adjectives ending on -ive that may be used as nouns referring to medications, like additive, decongestive, and palliative. It is akin to the obsolete verb carminate "to reduce wind in the bowels", which has an equally obsolete noun, carmination, referring to such reduction.

In Play: Carminatives are known to allay all the symptoms of stomach gas: "Perhaps a well-chosen carminative would improve the smell of your house." Carminatives are chiefly obtained from vegetation like ginger root, cardamoms, anise seeds, and caraway seeds: "Sue Flay always cooked with as many carminatives as her recipes would tolerate to reduce the after-dinner borborygmic cacophony at her table."

Word History: Carminative was borrowed from Old French as carminatif. Old French created this word from Latin carminatus, the past participle of carminare "to card (comb) wool" + suffix -if (feminine -ive). It is based on carmen "card (for carding wool)", a word which the Romans created from carere "to card". What is the relation of carding to relieving the innards of gas? Carminative, according to Hensleigh Wedgwood in his A Dictionary of English Etymology (1859-1865), is "[a] medical term from the old theory of humours. The object of carminatives is to expel wind, but the theory was that they dilute and relax the gross humours from whence the wind arises, combing them out like knots in wool." (Lest we cause him to need a carminative, let us all thank Luciano Eduardo de Oliveira, one of the Good Word's loyal editors.)

"Flatulence," a fine word, but a foul referent. Still, it was good to learn the palliative (if not curative) role carminatives play. Dr. Goodword's public service announcement will provide relief to those most in need. Thanks also to Luciano Eduardo de Oliveira for his inspired word choice, divine afflatus if you'll pardon the pun. But, I have moved away, "downwind" so to speak, from today's word, "carminative," and will struggle to pull myself back. It is well-known that dogs are the greatest offenders, especially in confined spaces. Indeed, so powerful are the noxious effects of canine flatulence that even a small dog like a terrier has been known to empty an entire room of party goers, leaving the host and hostess feeling deflated. Carminatives help prevent such contretemps. The wise hostess will ensure her pet has been primed with carminatives (herbal and otherwise) well in advance of any social gatherings. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of embarrassment! Lest readers be misled flatulence is not a serious subject, the province of tittering school boys, consider flatulence can be a terminal condition, commonly known as "TF." In cases of inflated risk carminatives can save lives. Much more could be said, but this writer is aware the subject is explosive, and so will close before he treads further on any delicate sensibilities.

I would have thought that the French root was clear enough: the sound of carding cotton or flax is certainly fart-like.

-dlj.

Excellent reading, MTC, certainly a nomination for your
Apocrypha.

And certainly we all remembr our government was doing a serious study of bovine flatulance as a major source of global warning. Every time I eat a steak, I think, "One less creature to foul the air!"

And if you eat beans????

I actaully try to avoid beans before I go out in publc.

"Beans, beans, the musical fruit,
The more you eat the more you toot."

Eating beans is no problem for me. At least i don't notice it.

Excellent reading, MTC, certainly a nomination for your
Apocrypha.

Thanks, Luke.