FECKLESS, PARIAH, SQUALID: Words of the Day

Oh boy, I've missed a few days. My school had a conference for teachers (pointless, crowded) in Orlando on Friday and I stayed on to have a long lunch (engaging, doughy) with my parents, who came down to our neck of the lakes to see G. B. Shaw's Arms and the Man (hilarious, witty). We had a dessert with Ellen's mother and her Bob (savored, warming - the dessert, not Bob) after which I went to bed to wake up early for our multi-post-poned Regional swim meet (uncomfortable, degrading), finally! Then Ellen and I spent the day shopping (bargained, flattering), separately, and came together to brag and play dress-up. It's all over now and I'm back home and feel obligated to make up for the lost words of the day, though I'm sure it didn't bother too many people out there.

So here they are, the best and the brightest of the past three days (I disregarded milieu at first, but I think I'm going to put it in as a bonus: I heard it on three separate occasions on Friday - too many to be dismissed as mere chance!!! :-D).

feckless (adj.)

Pronunciation: fkls

Definition: 1. lacking purpose or vitality; feeble or ineffective 2. careless and irresponsible

You can fecklessly perform a piece of music, or fecklessly attempt to persuade/dissuade someone from something. Fecklessness is often pervasive among the callow and green.

This word means without feck. You'd never guess. Feck is actually a word from Scotland coming around in 1599. It is a shortened version of effect, and means virtually the same thing: effect, value, vigor. The Scottish thinker Thomas Carlyle, an incendiary figure in history and philosophy, popularized its use and is probably at fault for the dialectical amnesia of its antagonist, feckful. Aw, poor feckful. Carlyle has an interesting theory of God, or more precisely, faith in God. He calls the spirit of faith in God the Everlasting Yea, which is really a response to the spirit of unbelief in God, the Everlasting Nay. Oh, those Scottish - always rhyming.

"For auld lang syne, my dear
For auld lang syne.
We'll tak a cup of kindness yet,
For auld lang syne."

That's "old long ago," for those of you, like me, who never understood why we would be toasting "Old Langside."

"O, my luve is like a red, red rose
That's newly sprung in June.
O, my luve is like a melodie,
That's sweetly play'd in tune."

'Nuff o' that, auld Rabbie Burns.

The Everlasting Yea and Nay is really Carlyle's doctrine that there is no such thing as a faith in God, except as an antagonism to the spirit opposed to God - the spirit which is forever denying the reality of the divine in the thoughts, the character, and the life of humanity, which has a malicious pleasure in scoffing at everything high and noble as hollow and void.

So, on to pariah. :-D

pariah (n.)
Pronunciation: p-r

Definition: 1. a social outcast; an untouchable

This is our first word that comes from Portuguese: paria. It also comes from paraiyar, from Tamil (a Dravidian language, or language from southern India and northern Sri Lanka - ancestry for my old man Michael Ondaatje). It means "drummer," since most of India's drummers were from the lowest caste, the outcasts. It has since generalized to mean any social outcast, of any social level.

How do we reconcile this discrepancy of languages? We don't. We ignore it.

On to squalid.

squalid (adj.)

Pronunciation: skwld

Definition: 1. dirty and wretched, as from poverty or lack of care 2. morally repulsive; sordid

I suppose most squalid people are pariahs. The squalid pariahs. Great band name, if you ask me.

This comes from Middle French and Latin, squalide and squalidus, respectively, meaning "rough, coated with dirt, filthy." Related to squales and squalus and squalare. And I have no idea where it comes from before that.

But don't forget to use squalor. Or squalididly, or squalidness, or squalidity.

And read, if you get a chance, "For Esme, with love and squalor."






post script:

milieu (n.)

Pronunciation: \mēl-ˈyə(r), -ˈyü, -ˈyœ; ˈmēl-ˌyü

Definition: an environment, setting; the totality of one's setting

Its plural having been a subject of much discussion (i.e. railing by my father), I will set the record straight, if it had been crooked ever. The plural is spelled either milieus or milieux (Ellen and I hereby officially endorse the milieux spelling as "more French"). It is pronounced as the singular pronunciation, so don't go around saying "mill-ussssse." The French Connection'll get ya.