Lapidate

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Dr. Goodword
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Lapidate

Postby Dr. Goodword » Fri Oct 21, 2022 8:07 pm

• lapidate •


Pronunciation: læ-pê-dayt • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Verb, transitive

Meaning: To pelt with stones, to stone (to death)

Notes: This form of capital punishment is still legal or customary in Iran, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Yemen and Somalia, though rarely carried out. according to Wikipedia. Its lexical family includes a host of words, like lapidary "related to gem cutting", lapidation "stone-throwing", and lapidator "stone-thrower". It is also related to the fascinating word lapicide "stone-cutter", not the expected "stone-killer". -Cide is the combining form of cædere "to cut, kill", but is rarely used in the sense of "cut".

In Play: This word is seldom used except in the literal sense: "Muslims who participate in the pilgrimage to Mecca each year perform a ritual in which they symbolically lapidate the Devil." However, we may use it when metaphorically referring to the most horrendous forms of execution: "Phil Anders should be lapidated by her entire family for what he did to June McBride."

Word History: Today's Good Word comes to us directly from lapidatus, the past participle of lapidare "to stone" which, in turn, comes from lapis "a stone". It is related to Greek lepas "crag", but we don't find evidence of it in any other Indo-European language before Greek and Latin. We do know that Latin lapis went on to become Portuguese lápis, Italian lapis, and Spanish lápiz, all of which mean "pencil". This brings us to dilapidated, a combination of Latin dis- "asunder" + lapidare "to throw stones at". So the original meaning of dilapidated was in a state of disrepair as though stoned (in the old sense of the word).
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Slava
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Re: Lapidate

Postby Slava » Fri Oct 21, 2022 8:27 pm

This inquiring mind will inquire; how does stone become pencil? I don't see the connection. Were all those stone roots the local word for graphite?
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Debbymoge
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Re: Lapidate

Postby Debbymoge » Sat Oct 22, 2022 11:34 am

Slava, I have no training to answer your question authoritatively, but my first thought on reading the explanation in the column today, after being surprised to find "pencil" as the translation, was that stones were used to scratch writing onto/into various materials before pencils were invented, no?
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David Myer
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Re: Lapidate

Postby David Myer » Sun Oct 23, 2022 6:53 am

Impressive thinking Debby. I like it. In much the same way as scoring was done by marking a slate say, with a stone scratch.

bnjtokyo
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Re: Lapidate

Postby bnjtokyo » Mon Oct 24, 2022 3:48 am

As Mrs Tessie Hutchinson in Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" said, “It isn’t fair.”

George Kovac
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Re: Lapidate

Postby George Kovac » Mon Oct 24, 2022 9:57 am

The uses of "lapidate" and its cousins are all pretty harsh: death by stoning, "dilapidated" as a description of something in disrepair. The word took some odd turns in other languages to refer to pencils and tombstones...dull and dead stuff. I'm guessing that lapidate's family reunions are not upbeat affairs.

But a member of this family is (IMHO) one of the most beautiful words in the English language: "lapidary," which was the word of the day April 23, 2016. That adjective describes something characterized by an exactitude and extreme refinement that suggests gem cutting, as in "the lapidary metaphors of John Updike."
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Re: Lapidate

Postby Philip Hudson » Mon Oct 24, 2022 11:20 am

I read "The Lottery" when I was about eight years old. I was shocked as much as if I had been lapidated.
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