essoin and etic and etiolate and etiolated and esurience and esurient

There are just too many delicious words to breeze through the dictionary quickly, at least as it relates to writing. For example, the Collegiate only defines esurient as "hungry" or "greedy," but if you spend a minute on it, and taste the sensuous sound of it, you will never forget it. The OED says that the word is now used in a humorously "pedantic" way, possibly because of the description by Juvenal of the "Graeculus esuriens," but I think that Juvenal has dropped out of people's attention even more than esurient, and the original meaning should be restored. But to get to that meaning, we really need to study the OLD. The basic word in Latin for eat is esus, and the verb "to eat" is esito. But, there are a series of words formed off the root "esur," such as esuriens, esurienter, and esurio which bring out the "ravenous" or "starving" character of the word.

Pliny can talk of someone as being "quasi lupus esuriens"--hungry as a wolf, and Apuleius, in the Golden Ass, speaks of Cerberus, the hound of the underworld as having an esurient appetite. The word, therefore, connotes not simply the state of hunger but the longing to have the hunger taken away as well as the discomfort felt in the hungry condition. "Ravenous," "greedy," and "starving," are all synonyms. But the word should be used adjectivally, modifying a noun that follows it. It can be used figuratively, as a quotation from 1881 shows: "Untrustworthy, esurient, broken attorneys." "He was as esurient after fame as a fading rock star." Or, using esurient as a noun, one might say, "an insatiable esurient after riches." Thus I like the word combined with "desire" or "longing" or "esurient for" or "esurient after." Everyone has tons of acquaintances to whom this word applies. "His esurience for knowledge was like none that anyone had witnessed before."

Moving to Etiolate

We get a completely different picture when we enter into the intellectual space created by etiolate. Its botanical definition, which is the original one, means "to render (a plant) pale or colorless by excluding the light from it; to blanch." The word is derived from the French and means "to grow into haulm." I had to take a moment and look up haulm, but it was worth it. Haulm is (are) the stems or stalks of various cultivated plants, especially as they are left after gathering the pods or ears and as they are used for litter or straw. Thus, they are the dull, blanched and dried up stalks that have already fulfilled their purpose in life. When you think of etiolate, then, think of worthless stalks standing in the field.

Etiolate has also picked up a figurative significance, or a meaning applied to humans, and means "pale" or "colorless" or even "to make feeble." One can speak of etiolated celery, but I find it much more interesting to talk about etiolated skin or etiolated people. Reflecting on the state of females in New England in the 1840s, one writer could say, "We may etiolate them (females) in New England.." I would like to see the term develop to include any actions that lack energy. As such it might be a synonym with "wan" or "weak." You might have, if you are unfortunate, an etiolated professor or an etiolated judge to hear your case. It may become a possible synonym of superannuated, but while the latter emphasizes only something's age, the former stresses the "used up" character of something.

A Word on Etic

The Collegiate defines etic as "relating to, or involving analysis of cultural phenomena from the perspective of one who does not participate in the culture being studied (opposite of emic). Ah, I see we are in the realm of anthropology, so let's put on our pith helmet and follow the word a little more. The OED has a slightly different emphasis in its definition: "Describing a generalized, nonstructural approach to the description of language and behavior." The term, coined in 1954 by K.L. Pike, the inventor of tagmemics (we really don't want to get THAT far afield!) was first used as follows: "In ..the etic approach to the data, an author is primarily concerned with generalized statements about the data." The article in the online Wikipedia dictionary helps clarify issues: "An etic account is a description of a behavior in terms familiar to the observer, the outsider view." "An emic account of behavior is a description...in terms meaninful to the actor." Thus, it can say, "scientists interested in the local construction of meaning...will rely on emic accounts; scientists interested in facilitating comparative research...will rely on etic accounts." So, an etic account is something more comprehensive, more generalized. It is a theoretical construct that tries to incorporate local differences in a more comprehensive theory of action. Apparently Pike disagreed on the definition of the term with the founder of cultural materialism, Prof. Marvin Harris (of Columbia and U of FL), but they agreed to disagree. And, you and I will agree not to get into it here.

A Few Other Words

I conclude, then, with the mention of etymon, a word that is the "base" word, or a word in a foreign language that is the source of a particular loanword. Etymon has spawned etymology and lots of other words. A eulachon is a candlefish. And, last but not least, an essoin is a delay. I first ran into this word, I have to confess, when I was trying to work through Glanville's treatise on the common law. It was the first one written on the common law tradition (around 1190), and I recall running into the fact that parties had many opportunities for essoins as they brought their case. William Blackstone, that great codifier of the common law, even mentioned "essoin days" in his 4-volume treatise--being the day at the beginning of the court's new term where all the excuses for delay were heard. Some things never change.

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