Prophylactic

[Dr. Goodword]

• prophylactic •

Pronunciation: prah-fê-læk-tik, pro-fê-læk-tik • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Adjective, noun

Meaning: 1. (Adjective) To prevent disease, as 'prophylactic treatment'. 2. A medicine or medical procedure for the prevention of disease. 3. (Noun) A condom.

Notes: In the adjective usage, you may add the meaningless suffix -al should you need an extra syllable, but you must add it before the adverb suffix -ly, even though it isn't pronounced, prophylactically. The noun for the adjective sense is prophylaxis. Don't forget in all these words the [f] sound is spelled PH.

In Play: Prophylactic originated in medical terminology: "Madison had become hard-hearted to the point that prophylactic heart surgery was warranted." However, it has meandered out into the general vocabulary: "A prophylactic rule in police procedures prohibits arm-twisting to obtain confessions."

Word History: Today's Good Word comes to us from Middle French prophylactique, inherited from Latin prophylacticus, which borrowed it from Greek prophylaktikos "precautionary, preventive". The Greek adjective was created from prophylattein "to guard before, prevent, ward off", comprising pro "before" + phylassein "to watch over, to guard against", a verb based on the noun phylax "guard", a word of unknown origin. The origin of pro- may be traced back to PIE per-/por- "before, forward, first", source also of English for, fore, forth, and first. In German we see it in vor "before" and Frau "woman". In Greek is emerged as para "around". (Out gratitude today is due Rob Towart, a stalwart contributor of superior Good Words like today's.)

[David Myer]

Easy to see how prophylactic has come to be used for condom. It is clearly a preventative. But whether babies constitute a disease, is probably debatable.

David

[Philip Hudson]

The following little poem popped into my head when I read this Good Word. I think it came from the 1920s and was probably delivered to me by one of my aunts, Aunt Alta to be specific. She dealt in the arcane. I couldn't remember it all, so I Googled it and got:

The Antiseptic Baby and the Prophylactic Pup
Were playing in the garden when the Bunny gambolled up;
They looked upon the creature with a loathing undisguised;
It wasn’t disinfected and it wasn’t sterilised.

They said it was microbic and a hotbed of disease;
They steamed it in a vapor of a thousand-odd degrees;
They froze it in a freezer that was cold as banished hope
And washed it in permanganate with carbolated soap.

In sulphurated hydrogen they steeped its wiggly ears;
They trimmed its frisky whiskers with a pair of hard-boiled shears;
They donned their rubber mittens and they took it by the hand
And ’lected it a member of the Fumigated Band.

There’s not a micrococcus in the garden where they play;
They bathe in pure iodoform a dozen times a day;
And each imbibes his rations from a hygienic cup —
The Bunny and The Baby and The Prophylactic Pup.

[David Myer]

Quality! I like it very much.

[Slava]

"Cold as banished hope." Wow!

[Dr. Goodword]

Quite a verbiferous lady, your aunt.

[Philip Hudson]

Thank all of you for your kind comments. I am very pleased with the family with which God gifted me.