In defense of adoxography… My reference to John Updike’s execrable poem in a prior post notwithstanding, “adoxography” is not necessarily a pejorative or trivial exercise. Here’s a recurring example: Dan Neil writes the automobile reviews for the Wall Street Journal that are full of adoxography. As ...

What a great word! I’m OK with the “fine” point in the definition. But must “adoxography” be limited to fine prose? Why not fine poetry, too? Here is an extreme example of poetic adoxography, “The Beautiful Bowel Movement,” a poem published and anthologized by Updike. This is not some joke poem he d...

Here is a prodigy of the use of the adjective "obfuscatory." It appears in a letter to the editor in today's Wall Street Journal: "In contrast, Eisenhower could be deliberately obfuscatory when presented with diplomatic or political challenges, preferring to be perceived as confused w...

I was wondering about verger, the guy who holds the verge, which according to dictionary.com is "a rod, wand, or staff, especially one carried as an emblem of authority or of the office of a bishop, dean, or the like." Spot on, Slava. In Anglican and Catholic practice, the verger leads ec...

“Exodic” is a terrific word (new to me) that has many possible applications. Thanks! There are other Biblical adjectives that can be deployed productively which are worth auditioning for wider usage. “Abrahamic” describes several diverse religious traditions: Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Druze. Per...

Paying attention to the first rather than the last syllable, there's "pain perdu ", a rather elegant French toast. I discovered that “perdu” is itself a legitimate English word. It is defined as “hidden; concealed; obscured.” It deserves wider currency. Perdu is definitely a good word: te...

santa cena.jpg In Spanish speaking countries, the Last Supper is known as la Última Cena or Santa Cena. When the Spaniards conquered Peru they imposed Catholicism upon the native population, with some nods to local culture. In the cathedral in Cusco, there is a painting of the Last Supper, roughly ...

So, how did we get from death to seduction? That linkage has arisen in other English words as well. John Donne, Shakespeare and the metaphysical poets punningly exploited the word “die” to mean mortal death and, well, not to mince words here, orgasm. Lots of graduate students and assistant professo...

I just watched “Saving Private Ryan,” a great film, and one I have seen several times. For this viewing I selected the “close captioning” option so that I could closely follow the dialog, some of which is obfuscated by the noise of battle. I noticed that the Tom Hanks character shouted to his advanc...

In “The Joys of Yiddish,” Leo Rosten provides this charming gloss on luftmensch (Rosten spells the word without a penultimate "c"): The prototype of the luftmensh was one Leone da Modena, a sixteenth century Venetian Jew, who listed his skills and cited no fewer than twenty-six professions...

Hmm…. So how did we get to the verb “to court,” a thoroughly respectable verb, whether it is “to court favor with …” or to engage in the respectable ritual of slowly and publicly trying to persuade a nice woman that you would be a suitable husband?

Yes, a rare and arcane Good Word, but one which deserves currency, as this recent example demonstrates: Emperor Napolean managed, through the alembic of his personal charisma, to transform [the patriotic singing of the “Marseillaise”] into a personal loyalty that endured,at least in part, through hi...

Thanks Slava. I agree and would like to add to your list one of my favorite (but rare) words which blossoms from the same root word: “floruit.” Dictionary.com defines it as “he (or she) flourished: used to indicate the period during which a person flourished, especially when the exact birth and deat...

I just came across this exquisite metaphorical use of “etiolate.” James Gleick, who is the reviewer in this case, is a writer of clarity, style and eloquence who makes complex science and its history accessible to lay readers. From James Gleick’s review of “Free Agents: How Evolution Gave us Free Wi...

I can remember when old, white-haired women would bleach their hair and it would come out as pale blue. Anyone else remember that? Yes, I do remember that. An expression of that time was “blue-haired ladies” to refer to older women of a certain type. Today that atavistic expression would be confusi...