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[deckardcanine]

With my tendency to read books only on the subway these days, it's unusual that I finish a book within two weeks of my acquisition of it. But that's what happened yesterday with one of my Christmas presents, namely The Superior Person's Third Book of Well-Bred Words by Peter Bowler.

A bit of background: I first read The Superior Person's Book of Words in seventh grade. The 500-entry readable dictionary was amusing enough that I read the whole thing more than once (except for the foreword, which I read only the second time) and continued to look back from time to time. I even made a point to memorize Bowler's example of an abecedarian insult, including its translation:

"Sir, you are an apogenous, bovaristic, copralalial, dasypygal, excerebrose, facinorous, gnathonic, hircine, ithyphallic, jumentous, kyphotic, labrose, mephitic, napiform, oligophrenial, papuliferous, quisuilian, rebarbative, saponaceous, thersitical, unguinous, ventripotent, wlatsome, xylocephalous, yirning zoophyte." [FTR, "zoophyte" is the only one of those words without a red underline as I type this.] Translation: "Sir, you are an impotent, conceited, obscene, hairy-buttocked, brainless, wicked, toadying, goatish, indecent, stable-smelling, hunchbacked, thick-lipped, stinking, turnip-shaped, feeble-minded, pimply, trashy, repellent, smarmy, foul-mouthed, greasy, gluttonous, loathsome, wooden-headed, whining, extremely low form of animal life.

You might say it became part of my identity. Nevertheless, neither I nor anyone else in my family was aware of a sequel until my sister found this threequel at the store.

Alas, this one wasn't half as much fun for me. I can think of several potential reasons:

1. Maybe most of the best words were covered previously.

2. My vocabulary is far larger than it was half my life ago. It's not that I know too many of the words in this book; it's that I don't have the same drive to learn impressive new words.

3. I've learned in the intervening years what little use I have for the many words I'll probably never see again. Bowler often makes suggestions for when to use them, but those situations tend to be very particular and unlikely to happen. Besides, you'd be unoriginal to follow his advice to a tee.

Actually, some of the words are pointed out specifically for the curiosity that they should even exist with their given definitions. Vulpicide, for example, refers to the killing of a fox only without the assistance of dogs.

4. My sense of humor has changed with my mores. I can accept the tongue-in-cheek snobbery that pervades the book from the very title, but Bowler's suggestions for veiled threats and insults -- possibly the most applicable in the book -- require a meaner spirit than I have today. There's also the matter of vulgarity. The central cover illustration, much in character with the rest of the book, serves my point: a primitively hairy, ugly, underclad man farting into a candle flame to demonstrate ignification. The occasional jabs at religions and theism don't appeal to me anymore, either.

There's still some redeeming value, to be sure. I appreciate the inclusion of some disambiguations and interesting trivia. Some words are downright poetic. And yes, some entries are funny, especially when sentences combine "superior" words ("Excuse me, miss; I've just burnt my fingers on my wife's zarf -- could I possibly have a vulnerary unguent?"). I even thought of a new use for one phrase: "Lust, Caution isn't bad, but what's missing is the copulative conjunction." (The last two words are a formal name for the conjunction "and.")

But it doesn't leave me hungry for more.

Comments

[nefaria.livejournal.com]

The big problem with fancy words is that people won't understand what you're saying. You might as well make up your own words if that's your intent.