To Instaurate, without Temporizing: Don't Cavil or be Captious

I picked up a biography of Francis Bacon and recently finished reading it. Bacon was known for creating words. It’s probably the only thing he and I have in common.

The word most often used in the book was instauration, due in part to Bacon’s use of the word in the title of his magnum opus: “The Great Instauration.” Instauration was derived in about 1600 (perhaps by Bacon) from the Latin word of the same spelling that means “a renewing or repeating.” The meaning remains attached to the word today, with the additional meaning of renovation, restoration or repair. The Great Instauration  is available for online reading in several places.

Another word I picked up from Bacon’s biography is temporize. With its root in the Latin word for time (tempus) it is a word with several good uses. It came into use in the 1550s, about ten years before Bacon was born, and entered English from the Middle French (temporizer), which meant “to pass one’s time, or wait one’s time” according to etymonline.com. Apparently the Middle French got the word form Medieval Latin, where the word was temporizare and meant “pass time.” But the Vulgar Latin had the word temporare that mean to delay, and it may have come from that word, although there’s no written proof of that.

The primary meaning in my dictionary is related to the Vulgar Latin: to be indecisive – or appear to be - in order to gain time or delay acting. The second meaning is to comply with the occasion or opinion, to be “with the times.” It does not retain the Middle French meaning of passing one’s time without purpose, but the primary meaning includes the passing of time not unintentionally but with purpose.

A third word for today is similar, and is the verb meaning to raise irritating and trivial objections, sometimes with the intent being to temporize. (See how temporize works?) The word is cavil, and is another word that came from Middle French into English, also in the mid-1500s. The Middle French word caviller meant to mock or jest and came from the Latin word with the same meaning, cavillari. Cavil can also be used as a noun, to define the objection itself or the act of raising the objection.

If one cavils extensively the person might be described as captious, which means “to make much of trivial faults or defects.” It can also mean difficult to please or faultfinding. It can also mean “proceeding from a faultfinding or caviling disposition.” (See how cavil works?)

Captious has been in use much longer than our other words today, having come to English around 1400 spelled capcyus. It came either from the Middle French word captiuex or directly from the Latin word captiosus.

To instaurate, without temporizing: don’t cavil or be captious.