September 2, 2014 Tuesday "zeitgeist"

Reading the Merriam Webster Dictionary Backwards

September 2, 2014 Tuesday  "zeitgeist"

blog address: Readingthedictionarybackwards.blogspot.com

email: ishmaelish36@blogspot.com

You can find my other blog of pediatric anecdotes, poetry, artwork and literature at ishmaelish36.blogspot.com

    zeitgeist: [German: zeit time, geist spirit] pronounced \zite geye st\  (long i in both syllables)

         world view, literally the "spirit of the times"

      A story about these words from my past…  At Princeton, I was a Freshman in 1970 and I walked into the office of Professor Walter Kaufmann, who was Chairman of the Philosophy Department.  In all my naiveté, I announced that I wanted to study Heidegger with him.  I had read Heidegger's book Being and Time (Sein und Zeit, pronounced \zine und zite\) and I was intrigued.  

     He asked me if I spoke German.  I said no.  He said, "You can't."  He then asked me what other languages I spoke.  I said French.  He said, "You will study Sartre's Being and Nothingness."

     That was that. 

September 1, 2014 Monday "zany"

Reading the Merriam Webster Dictionary Backwards

September 1, 2014  Monday  "zany"

blog address: Readingthedictionarybackwards.blogspot.com

email: ishmaelish36@blogspot.com

You can find my other blog of pediatric anecdotes, poetry, artwork and literature at ishmaelish36.blogspot.com

zany: absurdly ludicrous 

[Italian, zanni, a traditional masked clown]

    I love this definition…not just ludicrous but absurdly ludicrous.  I wish I could remember the joke that a very funny Mother in my practice just told me…it was more of an ironic, dry comment about her child's behavior…that was so funny that it made me bark out loud like a dog.  I laughed so hard with a single, uncontrollable whoop…it was absurdly ludicrous.  

August 31, 2014 Sunday "Zephyrus"

Reading the Merriam Webster Dictionary Backwards

August 31, 2014 "Zephyrus"

blog address: Readingthedictionarybackwards.blogspot.com
email: ishmaelish36@blogspot.com

You can find my other blog of pediatric anecdotes, poetry, artwork and literature at ishmaelish36.blogspot.com

Zephyrus: the west wind personified

     Zephyrus: the Greek god of the West Wind

     See the exquisite prologue to Chauer's Canterbury Tales.   I learned this by heart in Old English

during my studies at a Jesuit High School in St. Louis (SLUH) and it is one of my favorites…the coming of Spring:

     "Whan zephyrus eek (also) with his sweeta breeth
      inspired hath in every holt and heeth"
    ((when the west wind, zephyrus, has also with his sweet breath
      has breathed into every holt and heath))

This is my choice for the most poetic "z" word.  

Introduction and Index: August 30, 2014 Reading the Dictionary Backwards "zig"

Reading the Merriam Webster Dictionary Backwards

August 30,2014 "zig"
blog address: Readingthedictionarybackwards.blogspot.com
email: ishmaelish36@blogspot.com

You can find my other blog of pediatric anecdotes, poetry, artwork and literature at ishmaelish36.blogspot.com

Introduction:

    I have always had a weakness for facts...eclectic, esoteric, amusing…my family sometimes calls me "Fast Facts Feole."  I am proud of there skill at alliteration.  When I see my pediatric patients, I always try to instill a spark of intellectual curiosity, whether it is showing them some origami, giving a word or math puzzle or calculator trick, making a Moebius strip…all fun.   
     Words and etymologies are interesting, and especially helpful in medicine.   While studying Pathology as a medical student, I would find myself, locked in the bowels of the library on a sunny Saturday afternoon, Robins pathology laid open before me…and I would spend hours, chalk in hand at the blackboard,  composing an allegory on T. S. Eliot's The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock from a medical thematic perspective.  So much for my pathology grade.  I also loved the book on the person who read the entire Encylopedia Brittanica in one year…something I would love to do.  I have read books on the making of the OED ("The Meaning of Everything").  I definitely have the bug.
     In any case, I suddenly got the inspiration to read the entire dictionary.  How could I go through life, a lover of words, and not read every word in the dictionary?  What could I be missing?  The "Z's seemed less daunting of a start and…I finished... all four pages.  
     I was hooked by the 9th definition:

     Zag:   a line at an angle to a zig.

    So… I will try to enter a word a day of the words I find most interesting and amusing.  I hope you enjoy this.

   Glenn Feole, M.D.  (I will keep an index, below, of these words.)



Z:

zany

zeitgeist
zenithal

Zephyrus

zest

zeugma

zilch

zoot suit
zugzwang

zym-

zymology

zymurgy

Y: 

    -y (suffix)

Yahoo

Yahweh

  Yahwism

Yahwistic

yalmulke

year

X:

     Xanadu
     xantho-
     xanthic
     xanthochromic
     xeno-
     xenophobe
     xenophile
     xenon
     xylo-
     xylophone
     xylographer


W:

     West
     westerly
     Weltanschauung
     Weltschmerz
     wettability
     whoops
     window
     wingding
     wispish
     witch of agnesi
     witenagamote
     Woden
     woodnymph
     wow
     wyvern

V:

     vaccine
     valediction
     vanadium
     Vanadis
     vapid
     vastitude
     Vedas
     Vedic
     veranda
     verboten
     verdant
     verdigris
     vespertine

F:

     Frigga
     frigorific

C:

     crepescular



Words of unknown etymology:

     wingding
     selah
     riel
     rickets
     qualm
     quandary
     quaff


Words of eclectic etymology

     Veranda: from Hindu
     French:
          soiree


Word Journeys (how the definition of the first word leads to successively unknown, interesting words, etc.)

     quetzal…trogan…nonpasserine…altricial

     how an African mammal is related to a Gothic arch:
          pangolin...imbricated…pantile…ogee…arches

     seven words that start with "cz"
          Czech, czar, czarina, czaritza (wife of the czar)