Fulgurate

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Dr. Goodword
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Fulgurate

Postby Dr. Goodword » Mon Sep 26, 2022 5:24 pm

• fulgurate •


Pronunciation: fUl-g(y)ê-rayt • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Verb

Meaning: 1. To flash brightly, intensely, like lightning. 2. (Medical) Electrocauterize, cauterize or destroy tissue with electricity.

Notes: Today we have something different: a term whose medical usage outperforms its general usage. It comes with a large family of lexical relatives, some of whose meanings are a bit askew. The action noun is fulguration, and the adjective, fulgurant with its noun, fulgurance. These are all from a base noun fulgor "splendor, dazzling brightness". The personal noun, fulgurator, refers to a mystic who predicts the future from bolts of lightning.

In Play: The flashes must be spectacularly bright: "Coastal lighthouses fulgurated in the moonless night, keeping the shipping lanes a safe distance from the shore." In this word's more frequent medical sense you might read something like this: "During the patient's colonoscopy three polyps were fulgurated and removed."

Word History: Today's Good Word was made from fulguratus, the past participle of Latin fulgurare "to lighten, flash", from fulgur "lightning". Latin created this word from PIE bhel- "shining, white", which turned up as Sanskrit bhalam "luster, shine", Greek falos "white". Russian as belyi "white" and beluga "white whale", Welsh ufel "fire", and Irish bán "fire". All other offspring of the PIE mother are metathesized, like Latin flamma "flame" (whence English flame), and flagrare "to blaze", the present participle of which is flagran(t)s. This version of bhel- ended up in English by various means as blank (from French blanc "white"), bleach, blond and, believe it or not, black. Occasionally over time, words assume an antonymic meaning, like cold and scald. (Now let's thank, yet again, wordmaster and major contributor to the Agora, George Kovac, for snatching today's Good Word from the jaws of the medical vocabulary and sharing it with us.)
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bbeeton
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Re: Fulgurate

Postby bbeeton » Mon Sep 26, 2022 6:48 pm

And then there are fulgurites, glassy structures produced when a bolt of lightning strikes sand or soil and fuses the minerals therein.

Debbymoge
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Re: Fulgurate

Postby Debbymoge » Tue Sep 27, 2022 10:53 am

You might want to change the spelling of the heading word?
I do, however, like the sound of this form.
Conjures pictures of fluffy flames firing off --
against a black sky
I am but mad north-north-west. When the wind is southerly, I know a hawk from a handsaw.
Shakespear

George Kovac
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Re: Fulgurate

Postby George Kovac » Wed Sep 28, 2022 8:30 am

Wow! Thanks, Dr GoodWord, for that fulgurating etymology—a dizzying journey across time, cultures and language. It demonstrates that language evolves and mutates in a process akin to stream of consciousness — but with a liminal coherence.
"Every battle of ideas is fought on the terrain of language." Zia Haider Rahman, New York Times 4/8/2016

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Re: Fulgurate

Postby Dr. Goodword » Thu Sep 29, 2022 8:27 am

Remember that from PIE to modern IE languages is a temporal journey of about 6000 years.
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Debbymoge
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Re: Fulgurate

Postby Debbymoge » Thu Sep 29, 2022 10:59 am

Good Doctor, is there a book you could recommend that would explain how PIE has been "created"/"understood"?
6000 years seems to me to require a LOT of guesswork especially as it was not a written language, no?
I'm most curious as to how pronunciation is derived, and of course, how the definitions and the early sounds are married.
My understanding is that Roman Latin, a mere 2000 years old, still engenders forceful and erudite argument about pronunciation and meaning.
Thanks for any suggestions,
Debby M.
I am but mad north-north-west. When the wind is southerly, I know a hawk from a handsaw.
Shakespear


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