Words for All Seasons No. 4

Latin, v.:
To interlard with Latin.

"The unlearned or foolish fantastical, that smells but of learning (such fellows as have been learned in their days), will so Latin their tongues, that the simple cannot but wonder at their talk, and think surely they speak by some revelation."
From footnote 16 of Frederic Wheelock, Latin (New York: Barnes & Noble, 1963) p. xxii.

The OED definition is even better than the word itself.

Words for All Seasons No. 3

Accidie:
Sloth, torpor.
Etym: blogspot can't interpret the non-qwerty letters. I shall solve this problem eventually. Look it up if you like: it goes all the way back to the Greek.

"After the synne of Envye and of Ire, now wol I speken of the synne of Accidie. For Envye blyndeth the herte of a man, and Ire troubleth a man, and Accidie maketh hym hevy, thoghtful, and wraw. / Envye and Ire maken bitternesse in herte, which bitternesse is mooder of Accidie, and bynymeth [takes away from] hym the love of alle goodnesse. Thanne is Accidie the angwissh of troubled herte; and Seint Augustyn seith, "It is anoy of goodnesse and ioye of harm." / Certes, this is a dampnable synne; for it dooth wrong to Jhesu Crist, in as muche as it bynymeth the service that men oghte doon to Crist with alle diligence, as seith Salomon. / But Accidie dooth no swich diligence. He dooth alle thyng with anoy, and with wrawnesse, slaknesse, and excusacioun, and with ydelnesse, and unlust; for which the book seith, "Acursed be he that dooth the service of God necligently."...
Agayns this roten-herted synne of Accidie and Slouthe shold men exercise hemself [themselves] to doon goode werkes, and manly and vertuously cacchen corage well to doon, thynkynge that oure Lord Jhesu Crist quiteth [rewards] every good deede, be it never so lite. Usage of labour is a greet thyng, for it maketh, as seith Seint Bernard, the laborer to have stronge armes and harde synwes; and slouthe maketh hem feble and tendre. / Thanne comth drede to bigynne to werke anye goode werkes. For certes, he that is enclyned to synne, hym thynketh it is so greet an emprise for to undertake to doon werkes of goodnesse, / and casteth in his herte that the circumstaunces of goodnesse been so grevouse and so chargeaunt for to suffre, that he dar nat undertake to do werkes of goodnesse, as seith Seint Gregorie....
Agayns this horrible synne of Accidie, and the branches of the same, ther is a vertu that is called fortitudo or strengthe, that is an affeccioun thurgh which a man despiseth anoyouse thinges. / This vertu is so myghty and so vigerous that it dar withstonde myghtily and wisely kepen hymself fro perils that been wikked, and wrastle agayn the assautes of the devel. / For it enhaunceth and enforceth the soule, right as Accidie abateth it and maketh it fieble. For this fortitudo may endure by long suffraunce the travailles that been covenable [fitting/allowed]....
Eke ther been mo speciale remedies against Accidie in diverse werkes, and in consideracioun of the peynes of helle and of the joyes of hevene, and in the trust of the grace of the Holy Goost, that wole yeve hym myght to perfourne his goode entente."
Excerpts of lines 676-738 of the Parson's Tale from Geoffrey Chaucer, The Poetical Works of Chaucer, ed. F.N. Robinson (London: Oxford UP, [no publication date given]), pp. 296-99.

No apologies for mis-spellings.

Words for All Seasons No. 2

Barbara, n:
Logic
A term designating the first mood of the first figure of syllogisms. A syllogism in Barbara is one of which both the major and minor premisses, and the conclusion, are universal affirmatives: thus, all animals are mortal; all men are animals; {ergo} all men are mortal.
Etym: Look it up in a logic textbook. It's complex, but brilliant.

"There were two forms of Protestantism, one before and one after the reign of Mary Tudor. The first was greedy, aggressive, regardless of the lives and consciences of others; borrowing and using without stint the offensive weapons of the old Faith it had so loudly condemned; and tyrannizing with its Barbara and Celarent over the harmless weaknesses of men. The other, though not without its faults, was tender and heroic, touched with the fires and memories of Smithfield."
From the introduction to Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of the Reign of Henry VIII, ed. J.S. Brewer, p. cciii, 1875.

Words for All Seasons - Introduction

At some point in the rose-tinted future, my website will be handsome. It will also have tabs at the top to allow you to navigate between the sorts of things I write. For now, I must make do with this highly inefficient system of entries in series (rather than in parallel), so please accept my apologies.

My next trick is for lovers of the English language, where I brush the dust off of those old and pretty words which civilization forgot. Many beautiful people do just this, but, while like good librarians they catalogue the titles, they often forget to open the covers, to read, and to smell the pages fragrant with decomposition - rosin from the ink, vanillin and alchohols from the wood pulp. The soul of words is their historical meaning, and for this we must have context. The words here will come with the sentences where I found them, and their (historical) definitions and etymologies as given in the OED.

Collins, n.:
A letter of thanks for entertainment or hospitality, sent by a departed guest; a ‘bread-and-butter’ letter.
Etym: The name of a character, William Collins, in Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice (ch. xxii)!
"When he left, his thanks were never formal; delicacy, humour and affection, often adorned with a sketch or a poem, turned the briefest note into a treasured literary possession. He was certainly the greatest writer of Collinses in English social history."
R. Speaight (1957) p.513 Hilaire Belloc