Myriad

Myriad is the word of the Month of February.

I can see it comes to us from Greek, because of the "y" being used as a vowel.

As a noun it means multitude or plethora (another Greek etymology!).

As an adjective, it means many and varied, or multitudinous.

It's one of myriad synonyms for abundant, like limitless, infinite, bountiful, numerous, etc.

I also want to address a question that came from someone in response to one of my articles on Musinglog.blogspot.com.

What is mawkish?

Thanks, Lou, for your question.

Mawkish means sentimental, especially overly sentimental.

It comes from some language other than Greek. Though there are many Greek last names in the US that start with the letter "K," you won't see many words translated from Greek that contain "k."

If you would like to create a mawkish atmosphere, or if you like sand clocks and lava lamps, see "Polite Addition" in Musinglog.!

Phenomenal Words

You are a phenomenal person!

And phenomenal is a phenomenal word!

It comes from Greek, see the "ph?"

The adjective phenomenal means remarkable, outstanding. and comes from the noun, phenomenon, which means something that can be observed by the 5 senses. The plural is phenomena.

treasure

I just found out the word Thesaurus is derived from the Greek word meaning treasure. I love thesauri! Almost as much as I love dictionaries.

The plural form is thesauri or thesauruses, because it did come to English through Latin.

Zestful Zeal (or Zealous Zest)

You don't hear words that start with Z much. It must be a very small section of the dictionary.

Towards the end of the definition section of the dictionary, you will find words that start with ZO, like zoo and zoology. I know they come from a Greek word, zoi, which means life.

Zeal and zest are not much different.

Zeal means enthusiasm, passion, fervor. From Latin, originally from Greek.

Zest means enjoyment, relish. (And also lemon or orange flavoring from the peels.) From French. The closest synonyms are savory, and Piquant. (That could be the subject of a future article for the philologue. Pi-quant! Well, it sure doesn't come from Greek!)

Zesty means hot (temperature-wise) in Greek.

Zealous and Zestful are adjectives, while Zeal and Zest are nouns. A person with Zeal is a zealot. A person with Zest is a ... carefree living treasure?

If you live to be 97 in Okinawa (and lots do!), you have a special birthday celebration, called a ka-jee-maya, and they call you a Living National Treasure. I will discuss this in my next class, The Hypnotic Fountain of Youth, starting Sept 17, at 7 pm, at the Unity Church of Palm Harbor. See http://verbalimpact.blogspot.com/ for details.

Pedantic Sophistry

A Pedant is someone who likes to show off their knowledge. The dictionary says it is from Middle French, and lists 3 definitions: a male school teacher, one who parades his learning, or one who emphasizes trivial points in the presentation or use of knowledge. I think the description we might use for the last one is anal retentive, a psychological term that is found in popular usage today.

A Sophist is an ancient Greek teacher of pholosophy, or a thinker, or a fallacious reasoner. Although, S-O-P-H indicates wise or expert, it also carries the meaning of deceptively clever.

Sophisticated means cultured, knowledgeable or disillusioned, or something which has become more complex or developed.

Sophomore which comes from the words for Wise and Moron in Greek, means a second year student, and sophomoric means foolish, or overconfident, but immature.

I suspect these words all come from Sophicles, not Sophia as I originally thought. Must be a gender bias. Great Dictionary!

Burning Bush

I saw a burning bush just the other day. I was driving down a steet with lovely flowers on the median. I saw smoke and drove by cautiously. One flowering bush was lit up, but not in flames, yet. I called 911 and said there's a fire in the middle of the street. A few moments later it hit me. That was weird,

a burning bush!

A burning bush? What does that signify? When I told my son, he said maybe it's a sign of the apocalypse. A- po- ca- lips. What an interesting word. I know it must come from Greek (see the y as a vowel in the last syllable?). Now that I write it, I see that this word is related to calypso. Apocalypse means a prophetic disclosure or revelation. It comes from apokalupsis, a- po- ka- loop- sees, revelation. It is also the name of the last book of the Bible. Calypso means a type of music from Trinidad, but guess what, it is also the name of a character in Greek mythology. She is mentioned in the Odyssey.

So what does the burning bush signify? Big changes. There is a meeting this afternoon where I will find out the future of the program I have been working on for almost 4 years. Maybe next time I will discuss the term, "laid off."

I have another blog, musinglog.blogspot.com, which rarely gets comments. And this article is the one on this blog that gets lots of comments. I think they are all computer generated, though. I don't know why this blog draws them. I published this 2 years ago, and it is the one that still gets the most comments. Since this one gets the most attention, I want to point out my other blogs, hoping someone will notice ithem. They are both on the upper right of this page. Thank you for reading them!

You are invited to a meeting of the TBNGH at Books a Million in Palm Harbor on April 30, 2011. We are going to demonstrate Phone Hypnosis at 7 pm. The public is invited to watch and learn about the marriage of hypnosis and new technology!

Read about it on VerbalImpact.blogspot.com. There should be a link next to this one.

Ecstasy

Where does the word ecstasy come from? "ec" as a suffix means out. So what is "stasy?"

I am ecstatic! Or should I say, I am euphorious! euphorious always means ecstatically joyous. Ecstasy can mean the extreme of any emotion, not just joy or happiness.

It says in the dictionary that ecstasy is a state of exalted delight, or a state of any emotion so intense that rational thought and self-control are obliterated. It comes from Greek through Latin, meaning to drive out of one's senses.

It also says that exaltation is more elevated than euphoria. Euphoria comes from Greek also.

Exaltation is from Latin, "up high."