FUTPNBCII (Follow Up - The Pedantic Night Before Christmas, Part II)

It’s time for another installment of the follow up to The Pendantic Night Before Christmas.

The next words we’ll get to are plangency, etiology, meiosis and irrupt.

“Out on the lawn there arose such a plangency” – plangency is the noun form of the adjective plangent. Plangent came into English at almost exactly the same time (1822) as Clement Moore’s poem (1823). It came directly from the Latin word plangentem, the present participle of plangere, which is the word used for striking or beating something. But its meaning in English is to describe any loud sound that results from striking something – a bell, a gong, cymbals, or the hard landing of a sleigh with eight reindeer and billions of gifts.

“…all etiological urgency” – etiology is (as the –ology suffix indicates) the study of something. This is a great word for exactly what is described in this line – studying the cause of the plangency. While used primarily in reference to the study of the cause of diseases, ultimately etiology comes from the Greek word aitiologia, a combination of the Greek words aitia, meaning cause, and logia, meaning “a speaking”. The Latin word aetiologia, which the Romans got from the Greek word, is from the English of the 1550s got the word. So if you’re trying to find the cause of something you are engaged in etiology.

“…gave effulgence of midday…” – effulgence is simply a brilliant radiance or a shining forth. It came from Late Latin in its adjectival form in the 1660s from the word effulgentia. Effulgentia is formed from the prefix ex- (meaning out or from) and fulgere, meaning to shine. It took over 75 years for the noun form to arrive.

“…when to my meiosis of mind should irrupt…” – meiosis in rhetoric, which I’m given to, is belittlement or expressive understatement, especially litotes. While this word is not the pedantic version of wondering, I like to use the phrase “my alleged mind” on occasion, and this would be its sense here. Meiosis came to English in this sense in the 1580s from the Greek word of the same spelling that means “a lessening”, which is a form of the Greek word for less or lessen. It eventually (in 1905) developed a biological meaning, but since I presume few cell biologists read this blog, I’ll forego that explanation.

Irrupt is related to erupt. In fact, it’s in a way the opposite of erupt, which describes something coming out quickly and forcibly. Irrupt describes something that breaks or bursts in suddenly. It also is used to express the violent activity or emotion as of a group of people. It could have been formed from the Latin word irruptus. Its first use in its verb form is from in 1855 (so Clement Moore didn’t use it because it hadn’t come to English yet). But since irruption, the noun form, had been used since the 1570s, it’s more likely that it is a back formation of the noun form, which came across the channel from the Middle French word irruption. The original Latin word, however it got to English, is irruptionem, which means “a breaking in or bursting in or invasion” and is formed from combining in- and rumpere, from which we get the word rupture. So next time you’re watching Seinfeld and see Kramer’s traditional entry into Jerry’s apartment, you’ll see an irruption.

That's enough irruption for one day; I hope the effulgence has, even if I'm engaging in meiosis, been etiological.