Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Word of the Day -- November 18, 2008 -- Prolix

I've used this word before. Can anyone tell me when? Or in reference to whom? Vee haff vays of making you...

Oh, chill. I just couldn't pass up the opp to underscore my aversion to all things, animate or inanimate, that are tediously wordy. Less is more.

A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

prolix

PRONUNCIATION:
(pro-LIKS, PRO-liks)
MEANING:
adjective: Tediously wordy.

ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin prolixus (extended, poured), from liquere (to flow), which is also the source of words such as liquid, liquor, licorice. Now you see the connection -- why consuming liquor makes people prolix.

USAGE:
"No one has ever called him prolix. At a future-war seminar that he sponsored, Mr. Andrew Marshall mumbled a few introductory words and then sat in silence, eyebrows arched, arms folded, for the remaining two days."
James Der Derian; The Illusion of a Grand Strategy; The New York Times; May 25, 2001.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Martyrdom has always been a proof of the intensity, never of the correctness of a belief. -Arthur Schnitzler, writer and doctor (1862-1931)


Love the etymology. Liquor and licorice. Like Sambuca in a double espresso with three beans. Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Prolix, indeed.

3 comments:

Roy A. Mura said...

Carrying the bucket for no one, Hugh Fustercluck got the right answer, but to avoid an unnecessary and tedious commentary row, I've decided to exercise my editorial privilege and not publish Hugh's comment. Besides, self-discovery is the best kind of discovery.

Anonymous said...

I don't want to precipitate another imbroglio, Roy, but doesn't the Catholic Church frown on "self-discovery"? Or am I thinking of another self-actualizing activity that supposedly causes poor eyesight and palmar hirsuitness?

I hope I've used enough ten-dollar words in this posting to pass muster for publication, Roy.

Anonymous said...

ProLix, I had a girlfriend I used to call this...or was that ProLips?? hmmmmm, it was soooo long ago.