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.

Comments

[ja]

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....

[KC]

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)

[ae]

What is the four-syllable word for "this is why I love you"? =D

[ae]

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.)