Words of the Past

1. Adamite -- a man who dresses as Adam did before the Fall.
2. Adam's ale -- water.
3. Adam's disease -- Puritan preacher's term for "curiosity."
4. adulterine -- a child born of an adultress.
5. agonyclite -- a 7th century heretic who refused to kneel but prayed standing; one that refuses to bow to authority.
6. anachorism -- something out of place in reference to a land.
7. andromanic -- lusting after men.
8. Aphrodite's milk -- term given to wine by Aristophanes because it increased lasciviousness.
9. apricate -- to bask in the sun; to sunbathe.
10. artigamous -- newly wed.
11. athanic -- not subject to death.
12. bathykolpian -- having deep cleavage between the breasts; big-breasted.
13. bathykolpic -- deep-bosomed.
14. beasts of venery -- the hart, the hind, the hare, the bear and the wolf.
15. bucranic -- bullheaded.
16. callipygian -- having an attractive backside.
18. carry-castle -- name used by Elizabethan writers for an elephant.
19. cat-Latin -- incoherent or idle talk; bad writing.
20. celibataire -- bachelor.
21. climacterian -- one who is fond of a climax.
22. comediographer -- a writer of comedies.
23. cow-handed -- awkward.
24. cupidity -- inordinate desire; covetousness; sensuality; lust; unlawful or unreasonable longing.
25. curtain-lecture -- reproof given by a wife to her husband in bed.
26. Eve's scork -- the larynx.
27. eviration -- obsolete term for "castration"; loss or deprivation of masculine traits combined with the assumption of feminine traits; a delusion in a male that he has changed into a woman.
28. Evite -- a woman who dresses like Eve did before the Fall; a woman wearing little clothing.
29. five wits -- common wit, imagination, fantasy, estimation and memory.
30. fleshquake -- tremor of the body; a word formed by Ben Jonson in imitation of "earthquake".
31. nelipot -- one that goes barefoot.
32. parthenon -- a maiden's room.
33. pauliped -- small-footed; one that has little feet.
34. peridine -- a rover; a pirate.
35. peripole -- a streetwalker.
36. plebicole -- one that seeks the favor of the common man.
37. pronoia -- foresight; foreseeing.
38. ptochocracy -- government by the poor.
39. Sotadic Zone -- Richard Burton's term for an area of the world where male homosexuality was actively practiced.
40. thelymachy -- a war of women.
41. thelyphantic -- manifestly effeminate.
42. thrion -- fig leaf.
43. tyrophagous -- cheese-eating.
44. Utopian bride -- a woman which presents herself naked to her future spouse in a manner similar to a ceremony described in Thomas More's Utopia.

This Is Embarrassing

In her comment to a Rod Dreher article on "sexting," blogger Erin Manning mentioned how her daughter used the term "Utopian bride" to comment on how ridiculous she (the daughter) considered "sexting" to be and then went on to comment about how 80% of her daughter's peers would not get that reference.

Quick confession: Though I am familiar with Thomas More and his book Utopia, I have never read enough of the book to be familiar with that reference either. In fact, I had to look it up. And I suspect many of my peers -- who are, of course, a lot older than Ms. Manning's daughter -- would not get that reference either.

That just goes to show what I get for depending so much on Masterplots.