Hello Students.
Professor: Here.
Recently, I was speaking with my brother about the etymology of some interesting words and I remembered how interesting words and their origins can be. I was reading Hamlet again this weekend and came across the famous lines:
Lord Polonius: What do you read, my lord?
Hamlet: Words, words, words.
Lord Polonius: What is the matter, my lord?
Hamlet: Between who?
Lord Polonius: I mean, the matter that you read, my lord.
(Hamlet II, ii, 191-195)
"Words,words words" When you think about it, that's all we really have.
So...with that in mind I thought I would start a new feature on the
blog: WORDS WE SHOULD KNOW.
Today's word is: INVEIGLE.
Know it already? Good for you.
Inveigle is defined as "to win over by coaxing, flattery, or artful talk"
I don't mean to inveigle you my dear; I just find you to be the apotheosis of beauty and intelligence.
Watching her inveigle the crowd with her silver tongue was inspiring.
It comes from the Middle English envegle, alteration of Old French aveugler, to blind, from aveugle, blind, from Vulgar Latin aboculus: Latin ab-, away from + Latin oculus, eye.
So there you have it. Your assignment is to use it three times every day this week!
Dismissed!!!
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3 comments:
Huh, and here I always thought "inveigle" was Yiddish for "throw a bagel on someone". Now I know better. Thanks, Professor!
(btw, in re: the recent poll -- I thought Comma Splice was one of your enemies...?!?!)
Hmmnnn...that's the beauty of language, eh? Throwing a bagel in one language could be a loving glance in another.
And...yes, Comma,Splice is one of my old enemies...one of the Splice Girz. Ohhhhh...I hate those girls! Comma used to be known as "The Plage". Here power was to copy others powers and not give them any credit for them. During one battle, she held on to my Comma Splice ability for too long and gained the ability and lost all of her "plaging" abilities. So, she changed her name. Last I heard, she was in league with the evil empire run by Malcolm Leonard Attica (MLA) to try and change her back.
"that's the beauty of language, eh? Throwing a bagel in one language could be a loving glance in another."
I thought the beauty of language was that a penis in one language could be a piece of jewelry in another.
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Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
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