incalescence and ignescent and ebullition and ebullient and aestuation

Though the sun shines brightly today, the wind is fluttering the rumpled flag flying on a neighbor's porch, and the cold is bone-chilling. I am ready for some words that warm me up before heading outside into the day.

Ignescent

The unfortunate thing about ignescent is that the OED says it is rare. It has such a wonderful sound to it and such a clear meaning that it is useful not only to describe a scientific phenomenon but also to speak about human temperaments. It derives ultimately from the Latin ignis, which means fire. The inchoative form of the verb ignere is ignescere, and its participial form is ignescentem, from which we derive our word. In classical languages, an inchoative (or inceptive or ingressive) is a form of the verb that emphasizes the start of a process. Therefore the verb lying behind ignescent emphasizes the process of becoming inflamed or "taking fire." Sparks fly when ignescent is in the room. A stone which emits sparks of fire would be an ignescent stone, and, indeed, those stones which produce a real "scintillation" when struck can be referred to as ignescents.

But I am much more attracted to a figurative use of the term. An ignescent temperament would be a volatile temperament. Ignescent hate would be an outburst of such ill feeling that it seemed like a spark flying from a struck rock. "Time could not mollify his feelings nor tamp down the sense of ignescent antipathy he entertained toward his boss." A person quick to anger might be referred to as "X the Ignescent." Judges are not supposed to have ignescent temperaments. No attestations of ignescence or a possible verb ignesce appear. "Her tendency to ignescence over the most petty details hampered her effectiveness in the workplace."

Incalescence

But not everthing heats up at microwave pace. Sometimes things warm up nice and slowly, and when they do, they incalesce. Doesn't this sound more gentle than ignescent? Actually the verb incalesce is not attested in the OED, though it should be, for what other word do we have that captures the gradual heating process? But, incalescence and incalescency are there. Sometimes incalescence is used in a scientific way, as this 1761 quotation shows: "The greatest Incalescences of the Air, which..I have known take place in Twenty-four or Thirty Hours, were, 19 Degrees in the Spring, 24 in the Summer." Indeed, this is a rather narrow experience of life, but the book was, after all, entitled a Description of South Carolina. One can refer to the process of becoming "warm" through iniebriation as incalescence: "No sooner do the Inebriation and Incalescence go off, but a Sinking of the Spirits, a Coldness and Dullness takes Place." Let's put the verb to use: "I must first incalesce before I will be of any help to anyone."

A Detour

But we can wander afield by quoting Thomas Browne: "Making no more thereof, then Seneca commandeth..that is, a sober incalescence and regulated aestuation from wine. Aestuation? that sounds like something that we should examine more closely. The OED refers to the word as "obsolete," but focusing on aestuation for only a minute will convince us of its contemporary vitality. Aestuation is "feverish disturbance, boiling up, ebullition." Oops, another word emerges, but first let's think about aestuation. Derived from the Latin meaning "to boil up," aestuation bears a greater resemblance to ignescence than it does to incalescence. From 1684: "The fires and aestuations of it [Etna] are excellently describ'd by Virgil." But we ought to recapture the figurative meaning of the term. From Francis Bacon (1605): "Men in ambition..are in a perpetual Estuation to exalt their place." I would use the term to capture the perpetual and unquenchable fires of ambition, fires that burn and stimulate a young person to action but, if they are not tamed and redirected, tend to consume the middle-aged and older person with envy, regret and shattered disappointment. We might also refer to the aestuations of the passions or lusts.

But we must detour further because of the definition of aestuation as ebullition. Ebullition is alive and very healthy today, and is almost onomatopoetic. When we say the word, we can almost hear and see the water bubbling in the pot. Ebullition, then, is the "process of boiling, or keeping a liquid at the boiling point by the application of heat." Someone who is ebullient is "bubbly," though we tend to think of this characteristic as benigh or even beneficial for someone, while ebullition historically has stressed an agitated state of mind or medical condition. From a 1647 astrological book: "[Mars] being the cause of a Feaver...shewes ebolition or a boyling of the humours." A pharmaceutical guide from 1710 said: "Scorbutick Ale..restraineth the Ebullition..of the Vaporous Blood." Already by 1753, however, Chambers in his Cyclopedia could say that "Ebullition of the Blood..in medicine a term used by some of the old writers."

Ebullition also has a wide field of figurative use to describe the temperament or the passions. Whenever you use the word "passions" in the early Modern period, you have a Christian preacher ready to pounce. Alluding to the Apostle Paul, from 1638: "The ebullitions of those lusts that war in our members." But more often the word has a secular connotation. We have "ebullitions of genius" or "ebullitions of jealousy" or even an "ebullition of popular feeling." One might say that when the state of Oregon approved the initiative petition in a constitutional Amendment early in the 20th century by a 95%-5% vote, it did so through an ebullition of popular sentiment--a popular sentiment that has considerably hamstrung the state in economic matters in the 1990s and 2000s.

Conclusion

The sun still brightly shines, and is beckoning me outside. Now, with my new-found warmth, I will go out.

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