Scatology

[Dr. Goodword]

• scatology •

Pronunciation: skæ-tah-lê-ji • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun

Meaning: 1. The scientific study of feces, as in medicine, paleontology, and biology. 2. Obscene language or literature.

Notes: Here is a word I've been avoiding until we all grew older. It offers a way to dance around the s-word. It comes with an adjective, scatologic(al), an adverb, scatologically, and a personal noun, scatologist.

In Play: Today's Good Word is often used by science in its original sense: "Scatological studies in paleontology reveal not only what our ancestors ate, but how they hunted and gathered." However, it is more often used as a substitute for profanity: "Scatology seems to be widening its appeal to modern readers and theater-goers." This meaning is so far from the original that it may now be used figuratively in the sense of "really bad": "Politicians these days are digging deeper and deeper in the bucket of scatological political tricks."

Word History: Scatology is made up of scat "dung" + -ology "study of, fascination with". Scat comes from Greek skor, genitive skatos "dung", inherited from PIE sker-/skor- "poop, dung", source also of Latin stercus "dung", which eventually turned into Portuguese esterco, Italian sterco, and Spanish estiércol. The word originally meant "to snip, clip; clipping", for we find the same root in English shear and sharp. We see it again in short, since PIE [k] regularly became [h] in Germanic languages. Latin eliminated the initial S for its cortex "(tree) bark" and curtus "short", which English remodeled into curt. We also find it in Latin muscerdae "mouse droppings". Coming down through English's Germanic ancestors it was, indeed, transformed into the s-word. (Today we thank Albert Skiles for his courage if not daring in recommending today's Good Word with its naughty history.)

[misterdoe]

Scatology should be about singing songs you don't know the words to.

[George Kovac]

Hmmm...

See my post of earlier today about “afflatus.”

To paraphrase that post: Perhaps one vowel does not make much of a difference, as the expression "not one iota" suggests. But if that vowel is epsilon, well, that results in the difference between scatology and eschatology.

[George Kovac]

Misterdoe wrote

Scatology should be about singing songs you don't know the words to.

Very clever pun, sir.

But someone has already written a mainstream song about actual scat. When my children were young they enjoyed the popular songs of the “Animaniacs.” Their songs were amusing, educational and sometimes subversive. A family favorite were their songs about geography. Here are the lyrics to the Animaniacs’ song “Lake Titicaca”:

[Verse: The Warners:]
Lake Titicaca, Lake Titicaca
It's between Bolivia and Peru
Lake Titicaca, yes, Lake Titicaca
With waters tranquil and blue

Oh, Lake Titicaca, yes, Lake Titicaca
Why do we sing of its fame?
Lake Titicaca, yes, Lake Titicaca
'Cause we really like saying its name!
Titicaca!

[misterdoe]

[David Myer]

Yes we do like saying its name. Titicaca. Not just because it is vaguely salacious. It just sounds good.

Which was the great poet that wrote "Chimborazo, Cotopaxi took me by the hand"? I think it was not because they are magnificent mountains that he was so enraptured, but because there is a magic in the sound of their names.