Words and permiscible and permiscive and permissive and pervagate and perlection and perlegate

Only a few more words beginning with "per" coccupy my attention here. I think I have written enough to encourage readers to see that the addition of "per" before any verb or noun is potentially useful to describe the thoroughness of one's attention to the matter. In addition, we can play on words with the use of "pre" and "pro" and "per" and possibly "preter" and other "pre"fixes.

Permiscible

The word sounds so good to pronounce. Its gentle hiss is almost as attractive as the double "ff" in "effloresce." Permiscible means something that is "capable of being thoroughly mixed." The only (uncreative) usage attested in the OED is from chemistry and relates to mixing of substances. But why not extend permiscible by creating the word permiscive and then play on its homonym permissive? We all know that a permissive parent is one with few rules. Why not invent permiscive to describe a person (maybe a parent) who mixes up all the things that come his or her way, the emotional baggage of the student/child, his or her physical needs, desires, age, longings, etc. and then makes a decision on behalf of the student/child? That is, maybe it is far more important in our age to be a permiscive rather than a permissive parent. No gales of laughter will follow, but maybe someone (or you) will stop and consider how we use language.

Permirific

We see the word "miracle" in this word. Something permirific is something very wonderful or marvellous. An "annus mirabilis" is a "miracle year," a year of exploration or learning or love that is permanently seared into the consciounesss. As a Classics colleague used to say to me, "Ah my annus mirabilis was 47-48." My response should have been, "Fred, that is simply permirific." I like the word permirific because it combines the meaning of two words in English (the technical name for such a word is a "portmaneau word"--named after the suitcase), neither of which relates to the root of the word. I mean that it combines perfect and terrific. Something that is "perfectly terrific" is something that is wonderful and marvellous or, as we now know, permirific. "She received the permirific news with barely concealed delight."

Permansive/Permansion

These words have nothing to do with big houses, but are derived from the Latin verb meaning to remain or stay, possibly indefinitely. The most popular English word(s) underlying these two, obviously, is permanent and its pals. Permansion is synonymous with permanence but because the accent is on the penult ("man"), the idea communicated is the "staying" rather than the "per" part of the word. Permansion, then, is "abiding" or "continuance."

With my abiding interest in the theology, and the foibles of the Calvinist/Reformed tradition, my attention was piqued by one of the usages in the OED. From 1659 is the sentence, "This interpretation supposeth that ...Hades signfieth not death itself...but the state and condition of the dead, or their permansion in death." In other words, certain kinds of theologians would differentiate between "death" and "remaining (permansion) in death."

The former would be a state of nonexistence where all consciousness would have ended and no bliss or suffering experienced, while the latter ("remaining in death") would suggest a permanent state of dying, as it were, of death as a condition in which the person was fully conscious of the eternal flames licking at his/her exposed limbs or was continually aware of the waves of the lake of fire lapping over the body. Nice thought, isn't it? I just wish that now, in 2004, I would have had the insight or courage or something thirty years ago to ask my professors to describe patiently the fate of the lost/wicked to me. I would have loved to have had the insight to ask the question, "Professor, how do you think that the lost/wicked experience the continual pain of the judgment of God after death? Is it like a sharp jabbing pain, an arrow as it were piercing the heart? Or a dull pain, sort of like an interminable ache?" The imagination could run with questions.

Next to permansion, permansive is dull indeed. The OED defines it as follows: "Applied to a tense in certain languages which is used to denote a more or less permanent state." Ah, yes, the permansive state. Doesn't it remind you of your Akkadian lessons in which the professor said, "The other Semitic languages possess a verb with two aspects (telic and atelic, commonly called perfect and imperfect), to which Akkadian adds a permansive"? The more I think through words, the more I think I must eventually give attention to the various words used to describe grammar in ancient languages. There are probably 40 or more cases or tenses that someone has found in some ancient language; why not subject these distinct categories to some investigation? Not here, however.

Perlection/Perlegate

We are now rushing on to the end. Perlegate means to "read through" while perlection is a noun describing "the action of reading through." Instead of saying, "I need to peruse" or "I need to read through" the texts, why not use perlegate? "I need time to perlegate my essays." Scriptural perlections would then suggest a throrough and careful reading of the Bible. Should there be any other kind?

Pervagate

Only a word is necessary on this word. It means to "wander through" and can be used in the sense of "pervagating the neighborhood" or to "lose oneself, to pervagate in the wonders of nature." I think this word does not necessarily carry the connotation of "thorough" wandering, whatever that might mean. It suggests, rather, the act of wandering, perhaps the freedom of the act or the lack of goal involved in the wandering. "Pervagating the town to look for attractive antiques is a favorite activity of mine."