Quiescence

It is quiescent this morning, and before there is any ruction or I get the paroxysm of energy necessary to mow the lawn I thought I’d post on three of the (still) over 200 remaining words on my list.

Actually, paroxysm might be a slight misuse of the word. It is a sudden (applicable) or violent (not accurate) outburst, or a fit of violent (not accurate) action or emotion (not accurate). It is also used in medicine of some quick growth of a disease or a seizure or convulsion. It has been in English since it came from Middle French word paroxysme in the early 1400s. The Medieval Latin word paroxysmus referred to a fit of a disease or an incidence like I had as a youth at summer camp with poison ivy. Para- means beyond and oxynein means to sharpen or goad, according to etymonline.com. Oxynein is from the Latin word oxys that means sharp or pointed and from which we get the word acrid.

Acrid only came into English in 1712, when it was formed (irregularly according to etymonline) from the Latin word acer, that means “sharp, pungent, bitter, eager, fierce.” But nowhere in the etymonline.com explanation does the word oxys appear, so I don’t know why it’s included as part of the listing on paroxysm.

At any rate, paroxysm was only used as a medical word until about 1600 when its meaning broadened to include any outburst or fit or strong emotion.

A ruction is a disturbance, particularly between two individuals. Its etymology is unknown, and is somewhat colloquial or even dialectical, but has been around since 1825. It may be a portmanteau word (like brunch) formed from eruption and insurrection. Brunch is a portmanteau of breakfast and lunch reported in the Aug. 1, 1896 issue of “Punch” as introduced by Mr. Guy Beringer. (Smog is another portmanteau word, formed in 1905 from smoke and fog. It seems to have been coined in reference to London’s air. Its first attestation is in a paper read by Dr. H.A. des Voeux, treasurer of the Coal Smoke Abatement Society in the “Journal of the American Medical Association” issue of Aug. 26, 1905. Take that, Los Angeles!)

Quiescent is a wonderful word that describes the calm, quiet stillness of a summer’s day when the world is inactive and motionless. The word comes from the Latin word quiescentem, which is a form of quiescere, described by etymonline.com as an “inchoative verb formed from quies.” Quies is the Latin word from which the Old French got their word quiete and which supplied us (in about 1300) with the word quiet. Since about 1500 we have had the adjective quiescent in English, and since the 1630s the noun form, quiescence, but only since 1821 the verb form: quiesce.

So on this day of rest in the Christian world, quiesce a little. Avoid ruction and don’t engage in any paroxysms.