"Epizeuxis"

/

From Wikipedia

In rhetoric, an epizeuxis is the repetition of a word or phrase in immediate succession, typically within the same sentence, for vehemence or emphasis.

From the OED

Etymology: modern Latin, < Greek ἐπίζευξις a fastening upon, < ἐπιζευγνύναι, < ἐπί upon + ζευγνύναι to yoke

Rhetoric.

  A figure by which a word is repeated with vehemence or emphasis.

epizeuxischurchillbuckleyspeaking.jpg

"Mountebank"

/

From Google:

moun·te·bank

ˈmoun(t)əˌbaNGk/

noun

noun: mountebank; plural noun: mountebanks

a person who deceives others, especially in order to trick them out of their money; a charlatan.

synonyms: swindler, charlatan, confidence trickster, fraud, fraudster, impostor, trickster, hoaxer;More

historical: a person who sold patent medicines in public places.

late 16th century: from Italian montambanco, from the imperative phrase monta in banco! ‘climb on the bench!’ (with allusion to the raised platform used to attract an audience).

"Vicissitude"

/

From the OED:

The fact of change or mutation taking place in a particular thing or within a certain sphere; the uncertain changing or mutability of something; OR A change or alteration in condition or fortune; an instance of mutability in human affairs.

From Google:

The OED includes something they call "Frequency Bands" with each of their definitions. This metric helps to convey how frequently a word is currently being used in the English language, which types writing it appears in and whether is it beginning to show signs of fading away. From the page linked above: "Each non-obsolete word is assigned to a frequency band based on its overall frequency score. Bands run from 8 (very high-frequency words) to 1 (very low-frequency). The scale is logarithmic: words in Band 8 are around ten times more frequent than words in Band 7, which in turn are around ten times more frequent than words in Band 6."

"Vicissitude" is a Frequency Band 5 word: "This word belongs in Frequency Band 5. Band 5 contains words which occur between 1 and 10 times per million words in typical modern English usage. These tend to be restricted to literate vocabulary associated with educated discourse, although such words may still be familiar within the context of that discourse..."

Sonder: The Realization That Everyone Has A Story

/

I've just discovered The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, and it's lovely :)

sonder - n. the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own. Narrated, written, directed, edited and coined by John Koenig. THE DICTIONARY OF OBSCURE SORROWS http://www.dictionaryofobscuresorrows.com The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows is a compendium of invented words written by John Koenig.

Lost in Translation - more untranslatable words

/

First we had "Found in Translation." Now I have also come across "Lost in Translation!" Ella Frances Sanders also illustrates words that are not easily translated into English. Check out her book on Amazon here, and see below for some of my favorite illustrations from it.

n. The time needed to eat a banana. (Malay)

 

n. The mark left on the skin by wearing something tight. (Tulu Indian)

 

adj. Describes much more than just coziness - a positive warm emotion or feeling rather than just something physical - and connotes time spent with loved ones, togetherness. (Dutch)

"Peregrinate"

/

From Merriam-Webster:  To travel, especially on foot 

From the OED:  

Peregrination: The course of a person's life viewed originally as a temporary sojourn on earth and hence as a spiritual journey, esp. to heaven. In early use it was frequently associated with the period during which the Israelites dwelt in tabernacles in the desert, before entering the promised land.

"Laugh"

/

This was a fun one to explore!

It seems like "laugh" is largely onomatopaeic in its origins, as so many different languages have a similar sounding word for it. You will be able to tell right away by the enormous list in the etymology I pulled from OED below! However, as the article notes, some of these similarities could also be due to languages imitating each other or borrowing the words from other languages.

"Laugh"

Etymology:  Cognate with Old Frisian hlakkia , hlākia , laittia (weak verb, past tense hlakkade ; West Frisian laitsje ), Middle Dutch lachen , past tense (strong Class VI) loech , also occasionally (weak) lachede , lachte , past participle (strong Class VI) gelachen , also occasionally (weak) gelacht (Dutch lachen , past tense lachte , past participle gelachen ), Old Saxon *hlahhian (strong Class VI, only attested in inflected forms: past tense plural hlōgun , past participle hlagan (attested for the derivative bihlahhian ); Middle Low German (weak) lachen , past tense lachte ), Old High German *hlahhen (strong Class VI, only attested in a glossary in the 3rd singular past tense hlōc ), also hlahhēn (weak Class III, past tense hlahhēta ; Middle High German, German lachen (weak), past tense lachte , past participle gelacht ), Old Icelandic hlæja(strong Class VI, past tense singular hló , past tense plural hlógu , past participle hleginn ), Old Swedish leia (strong, past tense lo ; Swedish le, past tense log ), Old Danish le (strong, past tense lo ; Danish le , past tense lo ), Gothic hlahjan (strong Class VI, past tense singular *hloh , past tense plural hlohun (attested for the derivative bihlahjan )), Crimean Gothic lachen , all probably ultimately of imitative origin, probably < an Indo-European base of imitative origin; similar formations are seen in e.g. Byzantine Greek κλώσσειν to cluck, Old Church Slavonic klokotati , Old Russian klokotat′ (Russian klokotat′ ) to bubble, boil, gargle, Russian kloktat′ , kloxtat′ to cluck, and the words cited at clock n.1

This idea of onomatopoeia got me thinking about all the amazing words we have in English that mean "laugh", so I decided to dig into a few of those as well.

"Giggle"

This word has a more innocent connotation, and I always have thought it to be more "girly" than other words for "laugh".

Etymology:  Echoic; compare the synonymous Dutch giggelen , giegelen , gi(e)chelen , Middle High German gickeln , modern Germangichelen , gickeln , gichern , kichern ; also various other imitative words in English with the frequentative suffix -le suffix, as gaggle, cackle. (Johnson 1755 remarks ‘It is retained in Scotland’; but there is no scarcity of examples in English writers of the 18th cent.)

"Cackle"

"Cackle", as it is mentioned in the previous etymology for "giggle", has an imitative aspect to it as well. (I can think of some very guilty "cacklers" who have just the type of laugh for this word). This word (to me) also has taken on a sinister connotation, and can bring to mind a wicked, evil type laugh, like the one belonging to the Wicked Witch of the West that terrified me a child (and maybe even now!).

Etymology:  Early Middle English cakelen : corresponding to Dutch kakelen , Low German kâkeln , Swedish kackla , Danish kagle ; compare also German gackeln , Dutch gaggelen , and gaggle n. The evidence does not make it certain to what extent the word has arisen separately in different languages in imitation of the animal sounds, or has been adopted from one language into another. The word may have been West Germanic or at least Saxon: but the English may also have been from Scandinavian.

And finally, I couldn't leave out one of my favorites, "guffaw". NO idea where the crazy Scots got this one from! Maybe their laughs sound different up there in the mountains and fog. More "guffaw-y".

"Guffaw"

Etymology:  Echoic; compare the related noun and gawf v. Scots

As I was reading about all these etymologies, it occurred to me that many of the best "laugh" words only really come up in a written context, and rarely used out loud. I am trying to imagine myself trying to work "gaffaw" into a normal conversation, and it just seems ridiculous. More often, I find myself saying things like, "She was dying laughing", "she lost it", or "I had her in tears". Interesting, since there are so many lovely and delightful words to describe this goofy thing we humans do!