Here are the topics covered by my selection of this year’s anniversaries, illustrated below: • chemistry (discovery of cadmium, lithium, and selenium; the Law of Mass Action); • infectious diseases (antisepsis; smallpox; measles); • molecular biology (structure of ribonuclease); • neurology (An Essay on The Shaking Palsy); • politics (Action on Smoking and Health); • […]
Category: Jeff Aronson’s Words
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Powers of ten
It’s appropriate that this blog, my hundredth under the “When I Use a Word” heading, a hundred being ten times ten, should appear in December, which, until the addition of January and February, was counted as the tenth month in the solar calendar. From the IndoEuropean root DEKM, ten, came the Greek word δέκᾰ, the […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Ḥanukkah at Christmas
This year the first day of the Jewish festival Ḥanukkah falls on the first day of Christmas. Call it “Chrismukkah”, if you like. [The letter Ḥ is pronounced like the ch in loch.] This occurs only once every 30 years on average, and this is only the eighth time they have coincided since 1777. The […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Wye speling matturs
Drug names are difficult to remember, pronounce, and spell. For example, which of the following, if any, is the correct spelling? • amitriptylin • amitryptiline • amitriptylline • amytriptyline • amitriptiline One way to find out is to enter the name into PubMed. Here’s what I got when I searched for “amitriptylin”: […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Palindromes
A palindrome reads the same backwards as forwards, from the Greek παλίνδρομος, recurring or running back again, a compound of παλίν, back, and δρόμος, a course or racetrack. Other words that start with palin- include palingenesis (regeneration, rebirth, revival, resuscitation), palinode (originally an ode or song in which the poet retracted a view or sentiment […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Gross negligence
The charge of gross negligence manslaughter, a criminal offence, is rarely invoked in medical cases. In the most recent, a surgeon, Mr David Sellu, was convicted but released after serving half of a 30 month sentence, the judge having failed to instruct the jury on the difference between gross and simple negligence. Liam Donaldson, Clare […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Melancholic
The fourth of Galen’s four fluid humours of the body, μέλαινα χολή, black bile, was associated, when in supposed excess, with a melancholic temperament, as defined in the OED: “Originally … sullen, unsociable, given to causeless anger, brooding (obs.). Later: liable to melancholy; depressed, gloomy, mournful”. The IndoEuropean root MEL described any dark colour, typically black. […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Rhetoric and oratory
You might think that “rhetoric” and “oratory” came from the same linguistic root. But it appears not, which is fitting, considering the difference in meaning. Scholars tell us that rhetoric comes from the hypothetical IndoEuropean root WER, meaning to speak, and oratory from ŌR, meaning a sound, or more specifically a ritual formula, particularly one […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Presidential rhetoric
The main current meaning of rhetoric is “the art of using language effectively so as to persuade or influence others” (OED). But in ancient Greece and Rome rhetoric was an important component of education, part of the curriculum known as the trivium—grammar, rhetoric, and dialectic (logic). In this sense it was elegantly defined by Margaret […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Choleric
The third of Galen’s four fluid humours of the body, χολή, [yellow] bile, was associated, when in supposed excess, with a choleric temperament, “disposed to anger or easily angered; hot-tempered, fiery; bad-tempered, irascible; irritable, cantankerous” (OED). This couldn’t be more different from the phlegmatic temperament, “not easily excited to feeling or action; stolidly calm, self-possessed, […]