Word of the Day
insipience
noun
Archaic.
lack of wisdom; foolishness.
More about insipience
Insipience “foolishness” comes via Old French from Latin insipientia. The Latin prefix in-, which has a negative or privative force, as in insipientia, is the ordinary Latin development of a reduced form of Proto-Indo-European ne “not,” which is the same source of Germanic (English un-). The Latin stem –sipient– is a reduced and combining form derived from sapientia “reason, soundness of mind, wisdom,” hence insipientia “foolishness, folly, stupidity.” The root word behind sapientia and insipientia is sapere “to taste, taste of, smell of, have good taste, feel, show good sense, be intelligent.” Sapere is the source of Italian sapere, Spanish saber, and French savoir, all meaning “to know.” The Latin noun sapor “flavor, taste, odor, smell” becomes Italian sapore, Spanish sabor, French saveur, and, through French, English savor and its derivative adjective savory. Insipience entered English in the 15th century.
how is insipience used?
Too many prefer the charge of insincerity to that of insipience—Dr. Newman seems not to be of that number.
It has to be frustrating to know that you’re surrounded by intelligent, earnest individuals who are prone to moments of public insipience, usually when their fingers are on the voting button.
More about shog
The verb (and noun) shog “to shake, jolt, to jog along” is now used mostly in British dialect. The Middle English verb shogge(n) is possibly a variant of shock “to strike, jar” and is probably related to the Old High German noun scoc “a swinging, a swing,” Middle High German schock “a swing, a seesaw,” and Middle Dutch, Dutch schok “a shake, a jolt.” Shog entered English in the early 15th century.
how is shog used?
If you don’t mind I’ll shog on! I’ve got to walk fast now, or Gerda will be worrying.
Then shog along homeward, chat over the fight / And hear in our dreams the sweet music all night.
epiphonema
noun
Rhetoric.
a sentence that is an exclamation, a general or striking comment, or a succinct summary of what has previously been said.
More about epiphonema
In classical rhetoric, epiphonema is a term for an exclamation or reflection that strikingly sums up a previous passage or discourse—a kind of moral of the story. It comes via Latin epiphōnēma from Greek epiphṓnēma “a witty saying,” from epiphōneîn “to mention by name, call out, address,” composed of a prefixal use of the preposition epí “upon, on” and phōneîn “to make a sound.” Phōneîn is derived from phonḗ “sound, tone, voice,” ultimately seen in a variety of English words, such as Anglophone, microphone, phonetics, phonology, polyphony, and (tele)phone. Oh, what euphonious words derive from ancient Greek!
how is epiphonema used?
To round off his argument, Montaigne reaches for an epiphonema … “Oh, what a sweet and soft and healthy pillow is ignorance and incuriosity, to rest a well-made head!”
When the Great Teacher wished to recall or rouse attention he employed an epiphonema, saying, “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear,” “Verily, verily, I say unto you,” “Hearken unto me every one of you.”