Sesquipedalian

Sesquipedalian (pronounced ses-kwi-pi-dey-lee-uhn or ses-kwi-pi-deyl-yuhn)

(1) A person given to using long words.

(2) Of a word containing many syllables or one considered long and ponderous.

1605-1615: From the Latin sēsquipedālis & sesquipedalia (of a person or some object a foot and a half long), the construct being sesqui (half as much again) + pedālis (of the foot) from pēs (foot) from the primitive Indo-European ped- (foot).  Sequipedalian is a noun & adjective, sesquipedal is an adjective, sesquipedality  is an adverb and sesquipedalianism & sesquipedalism are nouns.

Bust of the Roman lyric poet Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus, 65-8 BC), Villa Borghese Park, Rome.

There's nothing to suggest the use in English as a noun was ever widespread but it attained a certain popularity as an adjective in the 1650s, deployed by critics who approved not at all of writers over-fond of long (and often obscure) words.  Enjoying the irony, condemning sesquipedalianism was an early example of the admirable work of the "plain English" movement which still has some work to do among lawyers and the universities where tautology and tortured phrasing seems still to impress many.  The sense of the "sesquipedalian word" was coined as the sesquipedalia verba (literally "words a foot-and-a-half long") in Horace's Ars Poetica (thought published circa 8 BC) as a funny way of pointing out the use of many or long words when fewer or shorter will do as well.  Horace unexpectedly included some literary theory and criticism in an earlier work devoted mostly to other matters but returned to exploring the literary theme further in Ars Poetica, written in the form of an epistle.  Sometimes referred to as Epistles 2.3, it’s thought to be his final poem and as a work, it endured well, ranking with Aristotle's (384–322 BC) De Poetica (Poetics, circa 335 BC) in its influence on literary theory and criticism.  Milton (1608-1674) would later commend both works in his treatise Of Education (1644).

Horace’s gift of sesquipedalian was enough for most but there were in the twentieth century those who rose to the challenge, coining hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia (the fear of long words) to add to the ever growing list of phobias although it was one of the many formed more in linguistic fun than in response to any great volume of clinical instances.  It was from the earlier jocular construction hippopotomonstrosesquipedalian which built on sesquipedalian with the addition of monstr (from the Latin monstrum (“monstrous being” or something huge or terrifying)) and hippopotamus (chosen presumably both to lengthen of the word and reinforce the fear (the big hippopotamus amphibious (the modern word Hippopotamine meaning “something very large”) actually a dangerous creature annually killing over 500 people whereas lions take only a couple of dozen (although in Greek mythology, Hippô (Ἱππώ or Ἵππωτος) meant "horse" and potámi & potam-os (ποτάμι) meant "river" & "like a swift current") +‎ -phobia (fear of a specific thing; hate, dislike, or repression of a specific thing), from the New Latin, from the Classical Latin, from the Ancient Greek -φοβία (-phobía); it was used to form nouns meaning fear of a specific thing (the idea of a hatred came later)).  Even that could be improved (or at least enlarged) and hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia soon emerged as an alternative spelling though presumably it wasn’t adopted by those suffering the neglected (and almost undocumented) mizzpellifobia.

The logophilic Lord Black of Crossharbour (left), taking his seat in the House of Lords, London, 2002.

Anyway, like many of its ilk, the 15-syllable concoction was relegated to the corner of lexicographical curiosities while sesquipedalophobia remains the recognized name for the condition.  Fears and phobias are part of the human condition and the mind is able to develop them towards just about anything or concept.  That sesquipedalophobia is a rare condition does not mean it’s not real because an instance of symptoms doesn’t need to be widespread to be defined; they need only to be specific to at least a single case for the diagnostic criteria to be created.  However, while a phobia can manifest as an aversion, for sesquipedalophobia to be diagnosed the condition must be both enduring and impose on an individual some clinically significant consequences which adversely affect their normal social functioning.  One can dislike the use of long words and (often commendably) avoid the practice but that’s just a preference and a technique of expression, not a phobia.  Perhaps surprisingly, although logophobia & verbophobia are listed as a “fear of words” there is no record of a phobia for “fear of words of unknown meaning”.  Anyone who fears they may suffer this as yet undiagnosed disorder should probably avoid reading the works of Conrad Black (Lord Black of Crossharbour, b 1944), noted for a fondness for the obscure or archaic (though not necessarily the long so it may be safe for sesquipedalophobics to browse).

So those who suffer somewhere on the sesquipedalophobia spectrum are those who tend to experience heightened anxiety when confronted with long words and the extent of the duration and intensity of that anxiety indicates the position on the spectrum (the revision to the fifth edition of the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5-TR (2022) notes a specific phobia (classified as an anxiety disorder) as an intense, persistent, irrational fear of a specific object, situation, or activity, or person, the fear usually proportionally greater than the actual danger or threat).  Most specific phobias are induced by a causal event or trigger recorded by parts of the brain (amygdala and hippocampus) as dangerous or deadly, the body reacting in sympathy especially if the same thing is perceived as bound repeatedly to happen.  In theory, a patient with the most severe case of sesquipedalophobia could suffer a temporary paralysis or even a seizure although both are unlikely, feelings of anxiety or even panic more probable.  It’s thought the condition is learned behavior, induced by an unpleasant episode, often in childhood and the recommended treatment regime is cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) which focuses on a gradual exposure to long words rather than an exploration of the initial causative event, something which may create additional trauma for no benefit; nor are symptom-masking drugs recommended, these considered a last resort and the DSM also notes a gradual exposure during CBT can assist the patient to recognize their fear is excessive or unreasonable.  Interestingly, sesquipedalophobia seems very much a condition suffered by native English speakers and there seems no evidence those with an early exposure to long words (such as Welsh (Cymraeg or y Gymraeg)) and German (Deutsch)) are afflicted disproportionately, presumably an indication of the significance of events in childhood which may cause the syndrome to appear.

Gruntle

Gruntle (pronounced gruhn-tl)

Happy or contented; satisfied (informal; non-standard).

1500s: A frequentative of grunt.  Grunt was from the Middle English grunten, from the Old English grunnettan (to grunt (and a probably imitative frequentative of grunian (to grunt)), from the Proto-West Germanic grunnattjan, from the Proto-Germanic grunnatjaną (to grunt), frequentative of the Proto-Germanic grunnōną (to grunt), from the primitive Indo-European ghrun- (to shout).  It was cognate with the Old High German grunnizon, the German grunzen (to grunt), the Old French grogner & the Latin grunnire (to grunt) and the Danish grynte (to grunt) and the noun senses are all instances of zero derivation from the verb.

The noun emerged in the 1550s, from the verb.  The name for the fish (now used for any fish of the perciform family Haemulidae dates from 1713 and was so-called because of the noise they made when taken from the water while “grunter” (a pig) was first noted in the 1640s).  The meaning "infantry soldier or enlisted Marine" became US military slang during Vietnam War in the 1960s (and was first noted in print in 1969) although it had been applied to various low-level (and not necessarily manual) workers since early in the twentieth century, the phrase “grunt work” dating from 1977.  Grunt in the sense of horsepower dates from the early 1960s, the first use in print of “grunt machine” noted in 1973.  The dessert of steamed berries and dough (usually blueberries) described as grunt is from North America and exists usually as “blueberry grunt”; “raspberry grunt etc” (although the use takes no account of blackberries, mulberries, and raspberries not actually being berries whereas bananas, pumpkins, avocados & cucumbers are).

Lindsay Lohan looking gruntled.

The more familiar forms are disgruntle (verb), disgruntled (verb & adjective), disgruntling (verb & (occasional) adjective) and disgruntlement (noun) and all reference the sense of “to put into a state of sulky dissatisfaction; make discontented”.  Disgruntle dates from circa 1682, the construct being dis- + gruntle.  The dis prefix was from the Middle English dis-, from the Old French des from the Latin dis, from the proto-Italic dwis, from the primitive Indo-European dwís and cognate with the Ancient Greek δίς (dís) and the Sanskrit द्विस् (dvis).  It was applied variously as an intensifier of words with negative valence and to render the senses “incorrect”, “to fail (to)”, “not” & “against”.  In Modern English, the rules applying to the dis prefix vary and when attached to a verbal root, prefixes often change the first vowel (whether initial or preceded by a consonant/consonant cluster) of that verb. These phonological changes took place in Latin and usually do not apply to words created (as in Modern Latin) from Latin components since the language was classified as “dead”.  The combination of prefix and following vowel did not always yield the same change and these changes in vowels are not necessarily particular to being prefixed with dis (ie other prefixes sometimes cause the same vowel change (con; ex)).

Lindsay Lohan looking disgruntled.

The verb disgruntle, dating from circa 1682, means "to put into a state of sulky dissatisfaction".  Because the prefix dis- usually means "to do the opposite of", it’s not unreasonable to assume there must first have been the word “gruntle” meaning “happy or contented; satisfied” but there are cases where the prefix operates as an intensifier (in this case in the sense of “utterly” or “completely”) and this was the path of disgruntle, an extension of gruntle which in English use meant "to grumble" and, grumbling being a noted characteristic of the English, it had some history of use, the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) listing a 1589 sermon by Robert Bruce of Kinnaird (1554–1631) in which he uttered ''It becomes us not to have our hearts here gruntling upon this earth”.  Use however faded while disgruntled flourished and although the original OED (1884) noting it was “now chiefly US), a view unaltered by 1933 when the Shorter OED (SOED) was published.  Since then however it’s been revived elsewhere and is now a common form throughout the English-speaking world; given the nature of the human condition, most expect it to endure.

The unexpected re-appearance of gruntle in the twentieth century in the sense of “happy or contented; satisfied” (ie an antonym both of the original meaning and of disgruntle) was thus not a revival of something obsolete but a jocular back-formation from disgruntle, most sources indicating the first known instance in print being from 1926 but the most celebrated example comes from PG Wodehouse (1881–1975) who in The Code of the Woosters (1938) penned: “He spoke with a certain what-is-it in his voice, and I could see that, if not actually disgruntled, he was far from being gruntled.”  Long a linguistic joke, some now take gruntled seriously but for the OED to acknowledge that, we may have to wait decades although the editors were quick to verify couth as a late nineteenth century back-formation from uncouth.

The precedent of back-formation has inspired many and other suggestions have included whelmed (from overwhelmed (underwhelmed another more recent coining)), fused (from confused), plexed (from perplexed), fuddling (from befuddling), settling (from unsettling), molish (from demolish), concerting (from disconcerting), wildered (from bewildered), stitious (from superstitious), shevled (from dishevled), gusting (from disgusting), tracted (from distracted) & juvenate (from rejuvenate).  Combobulate (from discombobulate) seems often also longed for but progress there has begun for in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, one can recombobulate.

Spiced Blueberry Grunt by Carolyn Beth Weil

Seemingly an unpromising name for a pudding, Grunts get their quirky name from the fruit which is topped with dumplings and cooked on the stove in a covered skillet, a method which can produce a grunting sound as things steam.  The molasses adds sweetness and depth of flavor.

Ingredients (filling)

4 cups fresh blueberries (from four ½-pint containers)
½ cup (packed) golden brown sugar
¼ cup mild-flavored (light) molasses
¼ cup water
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 teaspoons finely grated lemon peel
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
¼ teaspoon ground cloves

Ingredients (Dumplings)

1 ½ cups all purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
¾ teaspoon fine sea salt
3 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch cubes
¾ cup whole milk
Whipped cream and/or vanilla ice cream for topping

Step 1 (prepare filling)

Mix all ingredients in 12-inch-diameter skillet. Bring to boil over medium-high heat, stirring until sugar dissolves. Reduce heat to medium; simmer until berries soften and mixture thickens slightly, about 10 minutes.

Step 2 (prepare dumplings)

Whisk flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in medium bowl to blend. Add butter and rub in with fingertips until mixture resembles fine meal. Add milk; stir just until blended and sticky dough forms.

Step 3 (cooking & serving)

Drop batter by tablespoonfuls onto simmering berry mixture, placing close together. Reduce heat to medium-low; cover skillet and simmer until dumplings are firm and tester inserted into dumplings comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Scoop warm dessert into bowls and top with whipped cream and/or ice cream.

Ashplant

Ashplant (pronounced ash-plahnt (U) or ash-plant (non-U))

(1) A walking stick made from an ash sapling (mostly Irish)

(2) An ash sapling.

(3) A stick kept for administering corporal punishment, a cane.

(4) The construct was ash +‎ plant

Ash was from the pre-900 Middle English asshe, from the Old English æsc.  It was cognate with the Frisian esk, the Middle Low German & Middle Dutch asch, the Old Saxon & Old High German asc (the German Esche, with an altered vowel from the adjective derivative eschen (the Middle High German eschîn) and the Old Norse askr (akin to the Latin ornus, the Welsh onnen, the Russian yáseń, the Polish jesion, the Czech jasan, the Lithuanian úosis, the Armenian hatshi, the Albanian ah (beech), from the unattested primitive Indo-European ōs & os (ash (tree).  The rare plural axen was from the Middle English axen & axnen, from the Old English axan & asċan (ashes) (the plural of the Old English axe & æsċe (ash)).  Ash in the sense of (residue after burning; remains) was from the circa 950 Middle English aisshe & asshe, from the Old English asce& æsċe, from the Proto-West Germanic askā, from the Proto-Germanic askǭ (related to the Frisian esk, the West Frisian jiske, the Dutch asch & as, the Old Norse & Old High German aska (source of the modern German Asche), the Low German Asch, the Danish aske, the Swedish aska and the Norwegian ask), from the primitive Indo-European hehs.  The Gothic azgo, although apparently from the unattested Germanic askōn-, remain mysterious.  The European forms were akin to the Latin ārēre (to be dry) (related to the modern “arid”) & āra (altar), the Oscan aasaí (on the altar), the Tocharian ās- (to get dry; to dry out), the Sanskrit ā́sa- (ashes), the Hittite hassi (on the hearth), from the unattested primitive Indo-European root as- (to burn, glow).  Plant was from the Middle English plante, from the Old English plante (young tree or shrub, herb newly planted), from the Latin planta (sprout, shoot, cutting).  The extended sense of "vegetable life, vegetation " was from the Old French plante.  Plant was a doublet of clan, borrowed from Celtic languages.  The verb was from the Middle English planten, from the Old English plantian (to plant), from the Latin plantāre (later influenced by the Old French planter).  It was related to the Dutch planten (to plant), the German pflanzen (to plant), the Swedish plantera (to plant) and the Icelandic planta (to plant).

An Irish ashplant.

Except in Ireland and within the Irish diaspora, ashplant is an unfamiliar word and rarely heard except among the Joycians because it’s so memorably a part of James Joyce’s (1882-1941) Ulysses (1922).  In Ulysses, the ashplant is of course a walking stick fashioned from an ash sapling but Joyce uses it to symbolize the holder’s divinity by linking him to the natural and supernatural.  A simple growth from the a tree uprooted from the soil, it’s used both to provide a balance to that ground and as a kind of wand used in religious and quasi-religious rituals; certainly, it’s owner believes it vested with magical powers.  Beyond that, the Joycians have made much of it as an allegorical device but in this, opinions vary, one Joycian often able to find a meaning hidden to others.

The ashplant is probably best remembered for its place in the brothel scene in “Circe” where it’s part of the “dance of death” after which it’s used to smash a chandelier in an act of rebellion against God.  Joyce uses the ashplant also in the literary and historical allusion with which the work is peppered.  In “Proteus” it becomes a Roman "augur's rod of ash" (a curved stick with powers of divination delivered by interpreting the will of the gods by observing the flight of birds) while in the brothel scene it transforms into Nothung, Siegfried's magical sword from the Norse myths familiar from Richard Wagner's (1813–1883) Ring cycle (Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung) (1869-1876)).  Permeating the entire text is the idea of the ashplant representing the cross carried by Christ but, more practically, the author notes it’s handy to have to protect one against the attacks of wild dogs.

Micturate

Micturate (pronounced mik-chuh-reyt)

(1) The desire to urinate (classical meaning).

(2) The act of passing urine; urination (modern use).

1835–1845: From the Latin micturīre (to have the urge to urinate), from mictūrus, from meiō (urinate), from the primitive Indo-European hemeygh (to urinate), the construct being mict(us), the past participle of mingere (to urinate) + -ur- (the desiderative suffix) + -ī- (inserted as a thematic vowel) + -re (the infinitive ending) + -ate (a word-forming element used in forming nouns from Latin words ending in -ātus, -āta, & -ātum (such as estate, primate & senate).  Those that came to English via French often began with -at, but an -e was added in the fifteenth century or later to indicate the long vowel.  It can also mark adjectives formed from Latin perfect passive participle suffixes of first conjugation verbs -ātus, -āta, & -ātum (such as desolate, moderate & separate).  Again, often they were adopted in Middle English with an –at suffix, the -e appended after circa 1400; a doublet of –ee).  Micturate is a verb, micturitional & micturient are adjectives, micturition is a noun and the derived intermicturition (being between acts of urination).

In Latin, micturate originally meant “a desire to urinate” but it’s now more often used to mean “the act of urination”, the medical profession seeming to like it, presumably because the somewhat obscure “micturate” and “micturition” better demonstrate superior learning than the well-known “urinate” and “urination”.  That’s probably true and at the other end of linguistic respectability there are other alternatives.  Rightly fearing the worst for his own case during the Nuremberg Trial (1945-1946), Hermann Göring (1893–1946; leading Nazi 1922-1945, Reichsmarschall of Germany, 1940-1945) decried an attempt by another defendant to offer arguments in mitigation by saying it was dishonorable “…just to want to piss out the front and shit out the back for a while longer”.

However, though Modern English borrowed micturate from Latin in the mid nineteenth century, the root of the word existed in Old English as (from which the Early Middle English gained miȝen), which then meant “to urinate” (both the Old and Middle English forms appearing in folk-tales recording how lakes and rivers came about from arose from the micturition of a giant or fairy.  So there’s a long history of parallel meanings (to want to go & to go) but urination seems to cover the latter well enough that no synonym seems necessary (and the reichsmarschall’s lead is there to follow if something earthier is needed) so if would be useful if English reserved micturate for the former.  Surely that distinction would be handy especially for the doctors?

Vertical integration: Lindsay Lohan demonstrates the possibility of combining micuration, urination and the assuaging of esurience, Mean Girls (2004).

Rumble

Rumble (pronounced ruhm-buhl)

(1) To make a deep, heavy, somewhat muffled, continuous sound, as thunder.

(2) To move or travel with such a sound:

(3) In slang, a street fight between or among gangs.

(4) As rumble seat (sometimes called dickie seat), a rear part of a carriage or car containing seating accommodation for servants, or space for baggage; known colloquially as the mother-in-law seat (an now also used by pram manufacturers to describe a clip-on seat suitable for lighter infants).

(5) The action of a tumbling box (used to polish stones).

(6) As rumble strip, in road-building, a pattern of variation in a road's surface designed to alert inattentive drivers to potential danger by causing a tactile vibration and audible rumbling if they veer from their lane.

(7) In slang, to find out about (someone or something); to discover the secret plans of another (mostly UK informal).

1325-1375: From Middle English verbs rumblen, romblen & rummelyn, frequentative form of romen (make a deep, heavy, continuous sound (also "move with a rolling, thundering sound" & "create disorder and confusion")), equivalent to rome +‎ -le.  It was cognate with the Dutch rommelen (to rumble), the Low German rummeln (to rumble), the German rumpeln (to be noisy) and the Danish rumle (to rumble) and the Old Norse rymja (to roar or shout), all of imitative origin.  The noun form emerged in the late fourteenth century, description of the rear of a carriage dates from 1808, replacing the earlier rumbler (1801), finally formalized as the rumble seat in 1828, a design extended to automobiles, the last of which was produced in 1949.  The slang noun meaning "gang fight" is from 1946.  Rumbled & rumbling are verbs (used without object), rumbler is a noun, rumbling is an adjective and rumblingly an adverb.

The Velvet Underground and Nico

Link Wray’s (1929-2005) 1958 instrumental recording Rumble is mentioned as a seminal influence by many who were later influential in some of the most notable forks of post-war popular music including punk, heavy-metal, death-metal, glam-rock, art-rock, proto-punk, psychedelic-rock, avant-pop and the various strains of experimental and the gothic.  Wray’s release of Rumble as a single also gained a unique distinction in that it remains the only instrumental piece ever banned from radio in the United States, the authorities apparently finding its power chords just too menacing for youth to resist.

Lou Reed (1942-2013) said he spent days listening to Rumble before joining with John Cale (b 1942) in New York in 1964 to form The Velvet Underground.  Their debut album, The Velvet Underground & Nico, included German-born model Nico (1938-1988) and was, like their subsequent releases, a critical and commercial failure but within twenty years, the view had changed, their work now regarded among the most important and influential of the era.  The Velvet Underground’s output built on the proto heavy-metal motifs from Rumble with experimental performances and was noted especially for its controversial lyrical content including drug abuse, prostitution, sado-masochism and sexual deviancy.  However, despite this and the often nihilistic tone, in the decade since Rumble, the counter-culture had changed not just pop music but also America; The Velvet Underground was never banned from radio.

Rumble seat in 1937 Packard Twelve Series 1507 2/4-passenger coupé.  The most expensive of Packard's 1937 lineup, the Twelve was powered by a 473 cubic-inch (7.7 litre) 67^o V12 rated at 175 horsepower at 3,200 RPM.  It was best year for the Packard Twelve, sales reaching 1,300 units.

The rumble seat was also known as a dicky (also as dickie & dickey) seat in the UK while the colloquial “mother-in-law seat” was at least trans-Atlantic and probably global.  It was an upholstered bench seat mounted at the rear of a coach, carriage or early motorcar and as the car industry evolved and coachwork became more elaborate, increasingly they folded into the body.  The size varied but generally they were designed to accommodate one or two adults although the photographic evidence suggests they could be used also to seat half-a-dozen or more children.  Why it was called a dicky seat is unknown (the word dates from 1801 and most speculation is in some way related to the English class system) but when fitted on horse-drawn carriages it was always understood to mean "a boot (box or receptacle covered with leather at either end of a coach, the use based on the footwear) with a seat above it for servants".  On European phaetons, a similar fixture was the “spider”, a small single seat or bench for the use of a groom or footman, the name based on the spindly supports which called to mind an arachnid’s legs.  The spider name would later be re-purposed on a similar basis to describe open vehicles and use persists to this day, the Italians and others sometimes preferring spyder.  They were sometimes also called jump-seats, the idea being they were used by servants or slaves who were required to “jump off” at their master’s command and the term “jump seat” was later used for the folding seats in long-wheelbase limousines although many coach-builders preferred “occasional seats”.

Rumble seat in 1949 Triumph 2000 Roadster.  The unusual (and doubtless welcome) split-screen was a post-war innovation, the idea recalling the twin-screen phaetons of the inter-war years. 

The US use of “rumble seat” comes from the horse & buggy age so obviously predates any rumble from an engine’s exhaust system and it’s thought the idea of the rumble was literally the noise and vibration experienced by those compelled to sit above a live axle with 40 inch wooden rims with no suspension.  When such an arrangement is pulled along rough, rutted roads by several galloping horses, even a short journey could be a jarring experience.  The rumble seat actually didn’t appear on many early cars and became a thing again only as the machines grew larger.  Those in a rumble seat were exposed to the elements which could be most pleasant but not always and they enjoyed only the slightest protection afforded by the regular passenger compartment’s top.  Ford actually offered the option of a folding top with side curtains for the rumble seats on the Model A (1927-1931) but few were purchased, a similar fate suffered by those produced by third party suppliers.  US production of cars with rumble seats ended in 1939 and the last made in England was the Triumph 1800/2000 Roadster (1946-1949) but pram manufacturers have of late adopted the name to describe a seat which can be clipped onto the frame.  Their distinction between a toddler seat and a rumble seat is that the former comes with the stroller and is slightly bigger, rated to hold 50 lbs (23 KG), while the former can hold up to 35 (16).

Pandemic & Epidemic

Pandemic (pronounced pan-dem-ik)

(1) Of a disease, prevalent throughout an entire country, continent, or the whole world; epidemic over a large area (in modern use, now usually restricted to diseases spread over several continents, reaching epidemic level in at least two.

(2) In figurative use, general; universal.

1660-1670: From the Late Latin pandēmus (affecting all the people, public, general) from the Ancient Greek pandēmos (general) and the Ancient Greek πᾶν (pân) (all; equivalent to English pan-) + δῆμος (dêmos) (the people); the suffix –os was the adjectival form.  The suffix –ic is from the Middle English -ik, from the Old French -ique, from the Latin -icus, from the primitive Indo-European –kos.  The form existed in the Ancient Greek as -ικός (ikós), in the Sanskritas as श (śa) & क (ka) and in the Old Church Slavonic as -ъкъ (-ŭkŭ); a doublet of -y.  The suffix –ic is often added to words of Greek or Latin origin, but may be used regardless of source.  In modern English, there is sometimes the creation of redundant forms such as veganic (from vegan).  Related words include the nouns pandemia & pandemicity and the adjective interpandemic.

Epidemic (pronounced ep-i-dem-ik)

(1) Of a disease and affecting many persons at the same time, and spreading from person to person in a locality where the disease is not permanently prevalent.

(2) Extremely prevalent; widespread; a rapid spread or increase in the occurrence of something.

1595-1605: From the French épidémique, from épidémie, from the Latin epidemia, from the Ancient Greek ἐπιδήμιος (epidḗmios), from ἐπί (epí) (upon) + δῆμος (dêmos) (people) the Ancient Greek epidēmía translates literally as “among the people” but is often cited as “staying in one place”.  The early alternative forms epidemy and epidemick are long obsolete and related forms include the noun epidemicity, the adjectives interepidemic & preepidemic and the adverb epidemically.

Noted Pandemics

HIV/AIDS Pandemic (2005-2012)

Death Toll: 36 million; Cause: HIV/AIDS

First identified in Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1976, HIV/AIDS is a global pandemic with some 35 million people living with HIV, the vast majority in Sub-Saharan Africa, where 5% of the population (circa 21 million) is infected.  The AIDS death toll is thought to be understated because (1) dubious validity of statistical record-keeping in some countries (there are places where many deaths are not accompanied by a death certificate) and (2) a cultural reluctance among families to have AIDS recorded as the cause because of the association with homosexuality and IV drug use, hence the 1980s spike in recorded deaths from pneumonia.     

Flu Pandemic (1968)

Death Toll: 1 million; Cause: Influenza

A category 2 Flu also known as “Hong Kong Flu,” it was caused by the H3N2 strain of the Influenza A virus, an offshoot of H2N2.  It took only days to reach Singapore and Vietnam, and, within three months, had spread to The Philippines, India, Australia, Europe, and the US.  Although wide-spread, it had a low mortality rate under 1%.  Worst affected was Hong Kong where 500,000 died, some 15% of the population.

Lindsay Lohan thanking the Dubai Police for their helpfulness during COVID-19 pandemic, Dubai, April 2020.  Note the proxemics.

Asian Flu (1956-1958)

Death Toll: 2 million; Cause: Influenza

A pandemic of Influenza A of the H2N2 subtype, it originated in China, spreading from the province of Guizhou to Singapore, Hong Kong, and the United States.  Estimates for the death toll vary but the World Health Organization (WHO) lists 2 million deaths, 69,800 of them in the US.

Flu pandemic (1918-1919)

Death Toll: 20-50 million; Cause: Influenza

The best known pandemic, it infected over a third of the world’s population, killing between 20–50 million.  The mortality rate was a high 10-20% and unusually, where influenza had previously killed mostly juveniles, the elderly or already weakened patients, the 1918 pandemic disproportionally killed robust and healthy young adults, leaving children and those with weaker immune systems still alive.  The movement of vast numbers of people around the world at the end of WWI assisted the spread.

Sixth Cholera pandemic (1910-1911)

Death Toll: 800,000+; Cause: Cholera

Like its previous five incarnations, the Sixth Cholera Pandemic originated in India where it killed over 800,000, before spreading to the Middle East, North Africa, Eastern Europe and Russia.  It was the source of the last American outbreak of Cholera although effective public health measures there restricted the death toll to eleven.  Cholera, a classic Medieval disease, remains endemic in India.

Flu pandemic (1889-1890)

Death Toll: 1 million; Cause: Influenza

Know at the time as Asiatic or Russian Flu and though once to be a strain of the Influenza A H2N2, it was an outbreak of H3N8.   The first cases were observed in May 1889 in three distant locations, Bukhara in Central Asia (Turkestan), Athabasca in north-western Canada, and Greenland. The rapid growth in urban populations provided vectors for the spread and although the first true pandemic in the era of bacteriology, while much was learned from it, it claimed over a million lives.

Lindsay Lohan thanking the Dubai Police for their helpfulness during COVID-19 pandemic, Dubai, April 2020.

Third Cholera pandemic (1852–1860)

Death Toll: 1 million; Cause: Cholera

Probably the most deadly of the seven cholera pandemics, it was the third major outbreak in the 19th century.  Like the first and second, the third originated in India, before spreading with extraordinary rapidity through Asia, Europe, North America and Africa.  A physician in England, where over 20,000 died, discovered contaminated water was the means of transmission.

Lindsay Lohan mugshot facemasks available through Redbibble.

The Black Death (1346-1353)

Death Toll: 75 – 200 million; Cause: Bubonic Plague

The Plague ravaged Europe, Africa, and Asia, with a death toll of 75-200 million, killing up to half the population of some European countries.  Thought to have originated in Asia, Plague was most likely spread by fleas living on the rats of merchant ships and in some countries, populations didn’t recover until the nineteenth century.  Now unknown in most parts of the world, outbreaks still happen in various places.

Plague of Justianian (541-542)

Death Toll: 25 million; Cause: Bubonic Plague

Thought to have killed perhaps half the population of Europe, the Plague of Justinian afflicted the Byzantine Empire and Mediterranean port cities.  The first verified and well-documented incident of the Bubonic Plague, it reduced the population of the Eastern Mediterranean by a quarter and devastated Constantinople, where, at the height of the pandemic, 5,000 a day were dying.

Lindsay Lohan thanking the Dubai Police for their helpfulness during COVID-19 pandemic, Dubai, April 2020.

Antonine Plague (165 AD)

Death Toll: 5 million; Cause: Unknown

Also known as the Plague of Galen, the Antonine Plague affected Asia Minor (modern Turkey), Egypt, Greece, and Italy and is thought to have been either Smallpox or Measles, though the true cause is unknown. The disease was brought to Rome by soldiers returning from Mesopotamia.  The pandemic significantly weakened the Roman army.

Ensorcell

Ensorcell (pronounced en-sawr-suhl)

(1) To bewitch; to cast a spell.

(2) Figuratively, (ie not involving witchcraft proper), a  woman's ability to captivate or enchant another (historically a man or men).

1535–1545: From the French ensorceller, from the Middle French ensorceler (to bewitch), a dissimilated variant of the Old French ensorcerer, the construct of which was en- (from Old French en-, a prefixation of Latin in (in, into)) + the verb from sorcier (sorcerer; wizard).  The ultimate root of sorcier was the Latin sors (fate, lot; oracular response; destiny, fate or fortune of an individual), from the primitive Indo-European ser- (to bind).  The alternative spelling is ensorcel.  Ensorcell & ensorcelling  are verbs, ensorcelled is a verb & adjective and ensorcellment is a noun; the noun plural is ensorcellments.  In English, the French verb ensorceler has been used as a noun.  

Despite the pedigree of the words from which it comes reaching back to antiquity. the verb ensorcell (to cast a spell or bewitch) didn’t appear in English until the sixteenth century and then only briefly, use not revived until the nineteenth century when the explorer Sir Richard Burton (1821-1890) included it in The Tale of the Ensorcelled Prince, a translation of a title of one of the Arabian Nights Tales (1885).  Ensorcell had appeared in Henry Torrens’ (1806-1852) earlier (partial translation) The Book of The Thousand Nights and One Nights (1838) which Burton had read and admired.  Prior to this, the only known instance in English was in George Puttenham's (1529-1590) Arte of English Poesie (1589), which was reprinted in the early nineteenth century and Torrens may have picked it up from there.  Thanks to the efforts of Burton, Torrens and others, in the imagination of the West, the art of ensorcellment became much associated with the women of the East, one of the themes Edward Said (1935-2003) would explore in his still controversial Orientalism (1979).

Victims

“She came forward swaying from side to side and coquettishly moving and indeed she ravished wits and hearts and ensorcelled all eyes with her glances.”  (The Tale of the Ensorcelled Prince in Arabian Nights stories (1885) by "Scheherazade", translated by Sir Richard Burton).

Ensorcell is one of those words in English which may have proved useful had it ever come into general use but it remained rare and now inhabits the niche of translations of exotic texts or tales of witchcraft and sorcery.  For most purposes the many alternatives are preferable:  hypnotize, fascinate, enthrall, stupefy, tickle, bewitch, captivate, please, delight, beguile, cajole, wow, enrapture, attract, mesmerize, enamor, gratify, charm, entice & thrill.  However, the word can be used to discuss men who are victims of beguiling women and there have been many:

Men who have been victims of ensorcellment, clockwise from top left: Bill Clinton (b 1946; US president 1993-2001) with Monica Lewinsky (b 1973); Barnaby Joyce (b 1967; thrice (between local difficulties) deputy prime minister of Australia 2016-2022) with Vikki Campion (b 1985), Welsh actor Richard Burton (1925–1984) with Elizabeth Taylor (1932–2011) (depicted here by Grant Bowler (b 1968) with Lindsay Lohan (b 1986) on-set in Cleopatera (1963) (Liz & Dick, 2012); & Daryl Maguire (b 1959, MLA (Liberal) for Wagga Wagga 1999-2018) with Gladys Berejiklian (b 1970; Premier (Liberal) of New South Wales 2017-2021).

Bill Clinton was one of the best & brightest minds ever to become POTUS but he was way too simple for Washington DC.  Anyone from New York could have told him there are low-risk ways to have affairs but if you have a fling with with a Jewish girl from Beverly Hills it's going to cost you something sometime.  So he's a victim but has only himself to blame, having already been ensorcelled by crooked Hillary Clinton (b 1947; US secretary of state 2009-2013).

Barnaby Joyce was a happily married man with four daughters until ensorcelled by his media advisor (a profession which appears to regard ensorcellment as a calling given their history with other National Party politicians).  Still, the adulterous couple later married and their two children were able to attend the wedding so all's well that end's well.

The other Richard Burton was the Welsh actor ensorcelled by fellow thespian Elizabeth Taylor.  As his turbulent life would suggest he wasn't one to learn from his mistakes because she managed twice to ensorcell him, their first marriage (1964-1974) enduring a little over ten years, the second (1975-1976) a bare ten months.  It was Dr Johnson (Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)) who said “A second marriage is a triumph of hope over experience.” and Burton doubtless knew of the quote so he too has only himself to blame.  When he died at 58 after decades of heavy drinking, it was said of him his body was like that of Randolph Churchill (1911-1968) who expired at 57: "Everything was just worn-out."

Gladys Berejiklian's ensorcellment of Daryl Maguire didn't end well with the former premier resigning after being found by the NSW Independent Commission against Corruption (ICAC) to have acted corruptly for, inter alia, an act of Billigung.  In the court of public opinion she did rather better, the consensus being something between "she was too good for him" and "what on earth was she doing with him?"  On-line and in print, there was much sympathy for her from other ensorcelers, anxious to assure her she wasn't alone and "every woman has had a Daryl"  Nobody seemed to express any sympathy for Mr Maguire so clearly the verdict was to "blame the victim".