So Much to Know
Happily, if not dorkily, I get an update from Wordsmith in my inbox everyday. Man, I love the interwebs. Without the interwebs, how long would it have been until I found this word:
proceleusmatic (pros-uh-loos-MAT-ik) adjective
Inciting, exhorting, or inspiring.
noun
A metrical foot of four short syllables.
[From Late Latin proceleusmaticus, from Greek prokeleusmatikos (calling for incitement), from keleuein (to rouse to action).]
-Anu Garg (gargATwordsmith.org)
"The ancient proceleusmatic song by which the rowers of galleys were animated may be supposed to have been of this kind."
Samuel Johnson; A Journey to the Western Island of Scotland; 1775.
How cool is it to live 30-some years, read lots (pre-Dim Son), care about words, and still discover a new one? It's not that I don't think I'll discover more everyday; it's that I love it when I do.






Another word for a proceleusmatic foot in poetry is a tetrabrach (literally, "four arms"), just so you know. (How geek is it that I know this?)
But a question that has often kept me awake at night is this: How am I as a poetry reader to determine whether a given four-syllable phrase is a tetrabrach or simply two pyrrhic feet together? What defines it? These are the things that keep me awake at night....
Posted by: ja | Monday, 15 May 2006 at 01:01 PM
That's a great word, and learning a new world is a great feeling. But I have to object to the use of a five-syllable word to describe a four-syllable thing.
(I love your blog)
Posted by: KC | Monday, 15 May 2006 at 04:13 PM
What is the four-syllable word for "this is why I love you"? =D
Posted by: ae | Monday, 15 May 2006 at 04:27 PM
Hi, KC! Great catch on the five-syllable word to describe a four-syllable thing. Ha. (Thanks for your kind words! They help me to get through the "What now?!" blocks.)
Posted by: ae | Monday, 15 May 2006 at 04:32 PM