A F-ing Good Time

I had some extra time on my hands, and so I decided to open the Third International Unabridged dictionary to the "Fl's" and begin my journey. If you truly love words and are committed to embracing the worlds they open, you also have fewer more pleasurable activities than simply slowly going line by line through unabridged dictionaries. Some of the words I discovered on this romp were: flatus vocis, flebotomus, fleam, flebile, fletcherism, fletton, fliffus (or fliffis) and flinders. Since I have already discussed fleam here, we have one less word to understand. Ah, but let's replace it with flanni. I found flanni someplace in the Unabridged but it is, in fact, an Icelandic (and not English) word. It is the Icelandic word for penis. You never know when it might come in handy, however. Suppose you are being held up. A guy with a crazed look in his eye sputters, "Unless you tell me the Icelandic word for penis, you are dead meat!" Thus, you could extricate yourself effortlessly from this potentially very tense situation.

1. Let's begin with flebotomus, which really should be phlebotomus. First, what does it mean? And, second, why is it so spelled? Well, let's first give the rather cryptic definition from the Unabridged: "syn of phlebotomus--a prior name made unavailable by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature." Hm. What might this mean? Well, the OED informs us that prior to 1835 the term phlebotomus was used to describe a lancet, or fleam, used to perform phlebotomies. The word was derived from the Greek words meaning "cuting a blood vessel or vein." We still have the word phlebotome in English today (rare) to describe a lancet used for phlebotomy. Thus, the historical word was phlebotomus, and it was a fleam/lancet. But then, in an Italian publication in 1840, the word Flebotomos (the Late Latin rendering of Phlebotomus) was introduced to describe the sandfly. By 1846 the word Phlebotomus was used for the genus name of the sandfly, thus effectively relegating the old word for fleam to obsolescence. By 1900 the word Phlebotomus was used exclusively to describe the sandfly; there was no longer any room for the old meaning of the term. And, in addition, since flebotomus had also been used to describe the phlebotomus, that word was effectively also taken out of usage. Now we understand the Unabridged's reference to flebotomus being made "unavailable" because of the naming work of the zoologists. By the way, for all that trouble, you ought to be rewarded with a picture of a Phlebotomus (blood sucker); scroll downward for an ugly picture of a person affected with leishmaniasis (more on Leishman and leishmaniasis below).

2. I hadn't run into the word Fletcherism but the concept is so common as not really to deserve a special name. It is defined as "the practice of thorough mastication advocated by Fletcher" (Horace Fletcher lived 1849-1919). Well, isn't this just a "mommism"--can't you hear your mother saying, "Billy, chew your food thoroughly!" But apparently, before mom said this, Horace said it. As this article says, he was known as the "Great Masticator." He contended that food should be chewed 32 times (100 times per minute) before you swallow it. His slogan, "Nature will castigate those who don't masticate" has, mercifully, been largely forgotten. But, just to show you that a simple idea like this is all you need to become rich in America, he counted celebrities such as John Rockefeller and Mark Twain as his clients, became quite rich, and then retired to an Italian palazzo with his amateur-painter wife. "Fletcherism," he argued, would turn a "pitiable glutton into an intelligent epicurean." I think this word has justifiably fallen out of the language in large measure (though both the Unabridged and OED have it). It is fascinating to me which words stay and which fade away. Grimthorpe is a word that should stay, in my judgment, while fletcherism should fade. But one way to have your name persist is to have it associated with a disease--such as leishmaniasis.

Actually, the story of the naming of leishmaniasis is pretty fascinating, and this digression will, I hope, clarify it. William Boog Leishman (1855-1926) was the son of the Regius Professor of Medicine at Glasgow. He himself became a doctor, and served in the Army Medical Service in India from 1890-1897. His first major success was the discovery in 1900 of the protozoan parasite, now known as leishmania, responsible for the disease variously known as kala-azar or dumdum fever. But he delayed publishing his results. We know the proverb, "He who hesitates is lost," and this was almost the case here. When he published his findings in 1903, he had to share his "discovery" with C. Donovan, who independently discovered the same parasite. Yet, when the dust had settled, the parasite became officially known as the "Leishman-Donovan body" while the disease is now known only as leishmaniasis. So, he had the rare experience of having a disease named after him..

3. I can't end this essay without a third word, and this is flebile (FLEB ill). Flebilis is the Latin word meaning "that is to be wept for; also tearful, plaintive." So, it means, relating to style: "Doleful, mournful, plaintive." The OED tells us that the word is "obsolete," but that is only its opinion. From 1734: "A flebile Style this upon a mournful Occasion." The OED suggests that it is related to feeble, and this is a good wordto have in mind while thinking of it. So doleful, mournful, elegiac, flebile. We really need all of these words.

Oops. I am not through the list of "fl" words--one more essay is needed.

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