How to be a Vehemently Obseqious Quidnunc

Continuing my holiday book binge word ideas, I encountered the word obsequious, and could not remember having covered it heretofore in this blog. I’d covered similar words like sycophant and toady in this blog’s second post (this blog is now 201 posts long) but I had not covered obsequious.

Obsequious crossed the English Channel in the late 1400s, arriving from the Middle French word obséquieux that meant “prompt to serve.” The Middle French got the word from the Latin word obsequiosus, which meant obedient or compliant. The Latin word was formed by combining the Latin prefix for after (ob-) with the word for follow (sequi, from which we get the word sequel and sequence.)

So if you think of someone who serves promptly by following after another person, you have a pretty good idea of the meaning of obsequious. While it seems to be increasingly used negatively, it need not have that meaning. Please use it as a good word meaning prompt and compliant service.

I encountered another word that I was surprised I had not covered, it’s such a good word: quidnunc. While my post on sycophant suggested that word to be a good word to use instead of “brown noser” the word quidnunc is a good word to use instead of gossip-monger or busybody, also known as someone who "shares their opinion about other people's life choices." How great to encounter a busybody and “compliment” them on being such a quidnunc. Using a good Latin word makes the person sound enlightened rather than base.

Quidnunc is formed from two Latin 101 words. Even though I flunked Latin (twice) I remember quid means “what” (I used it a lot as a one-word Latin question) and nunc means “now.” So quidnunc literally means “What now?” It was first used in English in 1709, probably to describe a person who is constantly asking “What’s the news?” so they can share it with everyone else if it is juicy enough.

Before we get to more words from my reading (next week), let’s cover the word vehement; it will come in handy. Vehement came to English in the late 1400s directly from a Middle French word of the same spelling, which came from a Latin word, vehementem, that means impetuous or carried away. How the word vehementem came into being is a matter of conjecture. The two primary possibilities is that 1. There used to be (it’s lost now) a middle participle of vehere, that means “to carry” and from which we get our word vehicle, or 2. It was formed by combining the prefix for lacking (vehe-) and the word for mind (mens). Perhaps vehementem originally had both meanings: getting carried away and losing your mind.

Today the word vehement means zealous, ardent, or impassioned. Its usage really would be an intensive of all three, or a combination of all three descriptive words. Vehement is a strong word, in my experience it is stronger than zealous, ardent, or impassioned. So to differentiate, next week we will cover ardent, fervid, and fervent, and zealous, and where they all fit on the pvaziff (perfervid, vehement, ardent, zealous, impassioned, fervid, fervent) scale.

But until then you know can be a vehemently obsequious quidnunc.