What's "the word I'm thinking of"? Today, it's...
MAMMONISM [MAM-un-IS-em] (noun)
The greedy pursuit of riches
"Between Mammonism and myself there is a war to the knife, the knife to the hilt, the hilt to the hand."
--Mercer Green Johnston, "Patriotism and Radicalism" (1917)
What's "the word I'm thinking of"? Today, it's...
FRONDESCENTIA [FRON-dess-SEN-tee-UH] (noun)
It refers to the "leafing season", or the time of the year when plants unfold their leaves -- springtime, in other words.
"Frondescentia is the leafing of a plant; florescentia is, for like reason, the flowering of a plant."
--"The Analectic Magazine" (1817)
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ICARIAN [ih-KAIR-ee-UHN] (adjective or noun)
Having qualities similar to the Greek mythological character Icarus, especially his excessive ambition and recklessness
"Predictably, the hazardous displays of the Icarian are prone to provoke countertransference reactions that, much like a failed parachute, collapse an analytic attitude."
--Terrence McBride, Maureen Murphy, "Trauma and the Destructive-Transformative Struggle" (2019)
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DYSANIA [dis-AY-nee-uh] (noun)
The state of having a hard time waking up and getting out of bed in the morning
"Will our postdigital universe emerge carelessly from the griffonages of a soggy-brained professor, afflicted with dysania, or from some bio-powered hard drive afflicted by a crapulent program created by some cocaine-addicted technician working a second job in a meth lab?"
--Peter McLaren, Petar Jandric, Postdigital Dialogues on Critical Pedagogy, Liberation Theology and Information Technology (2020)
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SOMNICULOUS [som-NIC-yoo-luss] (adjective)
Sleepy or drowsy
"She soon went to sleep, but dreamt of distresses and vexations, of exertions demanded, and powers not to be excited; of falling from precipices, of painful adieus, and of boats foundering in shoreless waters, and was haunted by all the train of somniculous misery, which the superstitious resolve into causes, and the less weak into effects."
--Laetitia Matilda Hawkins, The Countess and Gertrude (1812) (TWITO, page 139)
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STHENIA [STHEE-nee-uh] (noun)
strength, energy, vitality
"The first condition he called sthenia," I explained. "Meaning lots of energy." "Correct. And the other group, by distinction had a-sthenia." "No energy." "Correct again. You do know your etymology, Samantha."
--Beach Conger, It's Probably Nothing: More Adventures of a Vermont Country Doctor (2011)
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PSITHURISM [SIGH-thur-IS-em] (noun)
The sound of rustling leaves or wind in the trees.
"Another day the sweet south is blowing; do you not see how the larch and lime palpitate with pleasure? ... do you not hear the musical psithurism of the feathered foliage?"
--Mortimer Collins, "The Secret of a Long Life" (1875)
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OVATE [OH-vait] (adjective)
Having an oval shape, like an egg
"Todd Smith's engaging small paintings create intricate patterns out of myriad, carefully hand-painted ovate dots, which set the eye dancing in somewhat the same manner as op-art."
--Peter Clothier, "Gallery Rounds/Bergamot Station" (2007)
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GELASTIC [jel-AS-tic]
(adjective)
Provoking laughter
"Only Desmond's gelastic comments made the tedious seminar bearable." (TWITO, page 60)
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EDACIOUS [ih-DAY-shuss] (adjective)
Voracious;
devouring
"Abigail flailed in despair as the edacious
aphids consumed her garden." (TWITO, page 44)
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DELIQUIUM [del-IK-wee-um] (noun)
Melting or
dissolution; liquefying; a maudlin mood
"When at length overtaken and reconveyed to the house, deliquium
followed deliquium, and when they
ceased, frenzy succeeded; the dark night of insanity had utterly quenched the
light of reason."
--Reuben Percy, The Mirror of Literature, Amusement,
and Instruction (1834)
"The worship of
Odin astonishes us, -- to fall prostrate before the Great Man, into deliquium of love and wonder over him,
and feel in their hearts that he was a denizen of the skies, a god!"
--Thomas Carlyle, On Heroes, Hero-Worship
and the Heroic in History (1840)
Things melt. The salad left too long in the refrigerator turns to green slime.
A vinyl phonograph disc left in the sun warps disastrously. A plastic carafe
left too close to the stove burner assumes a comical shape. All these things
have happened to me, sad to say. But the worst was during my childhood, when my
parents gave me a chocolate bunny one hot Easter morning. While we attended
some religious rite, we left the confection in the car. When we returned, all
that was left of my sacchariferous hare was a pool of chocolate milk. And yes,
that put me in a deliquium. (TWITO, page 40)
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SACCADE (noun) [sa-KAHD]
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NEPHELOCOCCYGIA (noun) [nef-el-o-kok-sij’-ia]
Cloud gazing; the act of looking for and finding
shapes in clouds; also, when capitalized, the name of "Cloud-Cuckoo-Land" in
Aristophanes’ The Birds
"Terrence spent Saturday prostrate in the yard and in nephelococcygia,
finding inspiration in the thunderheads."
I remember seeing a lot of things in clouds as a kid:
faces, cities, fabulous beasts. I can’t do that anymore, which is sad. Now I
just see water vapor, though I still can’t quite believe, sometimes, that I
couldn’t sit on one of those diaphanous thrones if I could just get up there. (TWITO, page 95)
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