Wake-Up Word

I don't often have this experience, but I had it early this morning: waking up in the middle of the night with the memory of a weird word I once learned--and somehow still remember.

Now, we've all learned "big" words in our lives, haven't we? Strange ones we came across that we just want to remember? A couple of hours ago, I came across one I rarely see--but always enjoy. It was in Faulkner's final novel, The Reivers, and the word was callipygian. Here's what Merriam-Webster says:

cal·li·pyg·i·an adjective \¦ka-lə-¦pi-j(ē-)ən\

also cal·li·py·gous \¦ka-lə-¦pī-gəs\  

:  having shapely buttocks

Origin of CALLIPYGIAN

callipygian from Greek kallipygos callipygian (from kalli- calli- + -pygos, from pygē buttocks) + English -ian; callipygous from Greek kallipygos

First Known Use: circa 1800

I actually once used this word a number of years ago in a book review in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, and my editor was kind of excited, I'd say, to learn it.

There's a related word, too: steatopygia: an excessive development of fat on the buttocks.

Nuff said.

I've had very few opportunities to use these -pygia words--though, rarely, I've found ways to sneak them into a conversation. Being a little naughty: my goal since early childhood.

Anyway, the word that came into my head early, early this morning did not have anything to do with butts--except, of course, in a somewhat indirect way.

The word was deipnosophist, and--as with callipygian--I have no memory of how and when I learned it--though my custom is to write down strange words when I encounter them. Some I tell myself to learn, and, occasionally, I obey myself.

I'm fairly sure I have never spoken or written deipnosophist, but it is a word that wouldn't be all that hard to employ. Oh ... here's what Merriam-Webster say:

deip·nos·o·phist noun \dīpˈnäsəfə̇st\

plural -s

:  a person skilled in table talk

Origin of DEIPNOSOPHIST

from the Deipnosophists, a work depicting a banquet where long discussions take place, written by Athenaeus fl a.d. 200 Graeco-Egyptian writer, from Greek Deipnosophistai, literally, culinary experts, plural of deipnosophistēs, from deipnon meal (probably of non-Indo-European origin) + sophistēs wise man, sophist

Now, I am not much of a deipnosophist, though I do, as Hamlet says of Yorick (the skull guy), occasionally, have "flashes of merriment that [are] wont to set the table on a roar" (5.1). But, really, dirty talk at the table shouldn't qualify, should it?

I've known some true deipnosophists in my day, my father among them. And friend David Anderson from Hiram College days still can dazzle me at table.

But these are not the kind of people we are likely to see many more of--not in our day when the TV is on, the smart-phones are glowing, etc. When families don't eat together very often--or at all. Even in many restaurants there are TV sets blaring away, with "experts" of various sorts bloviating about this and that.

Bloviate! That's another good one!

blo·vi·ate intransitive verb \ˈblō-vē-ˌāt\  

blo·vi·at·ed; blo·vi·at·ing; blo·vi·ates

:  to speak or write verbosely and pompously

< … the “lynch mob mentality” (in the words of a defense lawyer) created by bloviating cable news pundits on the left and the right. — Jeffrey Rosen, New York Times Book Review, 16 Sept. 2007>

Origin of BLOVIATE

probably irregular from blow + -i- + -ate

First Known Use: 1845