Wanda’s Words – Ineq vs Iniq, Nobility, and Fun Names to Collect
February 9, 2018 – Some great words this week – I’m not sure they’re particularly useful in everyday life but they’re fabulous anyway! In honor of a published essay by the best niece ever, the first word is “hegemony”.
Hegemony is “preponderant influence or authority over others; domination; the social, cultural, ideological, or economic influence exerted by a dominant group.” As in “The countries battled for hegemony in Asia.” Pronounced hi-ˈje-mə-nē , -ˈge- ; ˈhe-jə-ˌmō-nē. Which means you can say “hi”- not like hi, hello but with a short i sound like in ick or you can say the first syllable “he” like in she and he – and for the second syllable you can say a soft or hard g with a eee sound or the ick i sound, then for the last two syllables you can say “many” or “mony” like Billy Idol sang in Mony, Mony. It’s a wonder anyone ever says this word at all with all the alternate pronunciations. Maybe it’s just used in writing!
How about a pair of words that look like the same word? Those would be inequity and iniquity. The first is easy to figure out since it has “equity” in it. Inequity means injustice, unfairness or an instance of injustice or unfairness. Iniquity is similar but meaner. Iniquity means gross injustice, wickedness, a wicked act or thing, a sin. Like I said, it’s meaner!
A couple of fun, rarely used, old words: poltroon and ducal. A poltroon is a spiritless coward. You can shout that over the hedge when your neighbor’s dog has befouled your lawn. Call your neighbor a poltroon. Ducal is an adjective that means of or relating to a duke or dukedom. Don’t talk about Dukes and Earls much? Well, if you did it would sound like this: “Explore the estate’s historic orangery and garden before heading inside to learn about the ducal summer residence.”
If you’re curious about where a duke falls in the ranks of British noble peerage the ranks look something like this, from lowest to highest: baron, viscount, earl, marquess, and duke. For your information, you pronounce viscount as vi-count with a long i. Marquess is alternately spelled marquis. If you spell it the first way, you say mar-kwess. If you spell it the second way you say, mar-kee. For your pleasure, m’lord!
The last word for this week is aptonym. It can also be spelled aptronym. I like the first one better because it focuses on “apt.” The definition of aptonym is a name that is aptly suited to its owner or a proper name that aptly describes the occupation or character of the person, especially by coincidence. Cool, huh? As in, Dr. Byrd taught ornithology in the biology department at my college for 50 years (he did, really!). John Beard always had a beard. Or our friend, Dr. Gary Carver, who is a retired solid-state physicist but sells his wood carvings at art shows (carverscarvings.com)! Or his colleague, Don Wood, who make pens made of – you guessed it – wood! Perhaps you know of some of these aptonyms. They’re kind of fun to collect and consider. I suppose we should all be happy we’re not burdened with the last names of Klutz, Failure or Disaster!
