Anniversary part 2

So our marriage has been irrefutably strong; not that we haven’t had our problems, but it’s not a litote to say its efflorescence has been supernal rather than specious.

A litote a form of speech taken directly from the Greek word litotes, which is a form of the word litos that means smooth, plain, small, or meager. The speech form is defined as an understatement for effect, and is usually made in the negative (as in “not a few regrets”).

Efflorescence is a relatively late addition to English, having come in the 1620s from the French efflorescence. The French got the word from Latin, where it was efflorescentum. Florescere means to begin to blossom, and efflorescence means 1. a flowering or blooming, 2. the time of flowering, or 3. the peak or fulfillment, as of a career. It is in the third sense that I used the word.

Supernal in 12th century Old French was formed from the Latin word supernus, which means situated above, or celestial. It was first used in English in 1447, and means heavenly or divine, the antithesis of infernal. My dictionary defines it as of, from, or as though from the heavens.

Specious is a word whose meaning has changed dramatically over time. It comes from the Latin word speciosus, which means “good-looking or beautiful” and is a form of the Latin word species, which means “appearance” and from which we get our word species. When specious first was used in English (in the 1400s) it retained the meaning of good-looking or pleasing to the sight. But in 1612 it was used pejoratively as only appearing to be good. That usage (in my dictionary) is now listed as obsolete, and current usage is to use specious to describe that which is “seeming to be good, sound, correct, logical, etc., without really being so; plausible but not genuine.”

My final sentence about our marriage is that we did not abjure and have accreted blessings.
Abjure means to give up rights on oath, renounce, or recant. It came to English through Middle French in the early 15th century. The Middle French word was abjurer, and came from the Latin word abjurare. The Latin word was formed from ab-, which means “away”, and jurare, which means “to swear”. (It’s the same word from which we get jury.)

There were times when abjuring our original oath was tempting, and perhaps even a part of our private consideration. There was one time when Dovie and I sat in a rest stop on the Pennsylvania turnpike and considered it. But we decided to persevere, and over time have grown together and stronger in our marriage as a result.

And also as a result we have accreted recondite benisons. Accrete is a back formation of accretion, which came to English in the 1610s from the Latin word accretionem. Accretionem is “a noun of action” and means “a growing larger.” Accrete means to grow by being added to, or to grow together, or adhere. I think all three definitions apply to our marriage.