[Peace-discuss] Keywords 112918

[Szoke, Ron]

Keywords  112918

A review of some terms useful in political analysis & polemics

pulchritudinous
Definition - physically beautiful
If the meaning of this word seems counterintuitive, it's probably because the word's Latin ancestor pulcher ("beautiful") is unfamiliar, and pulchritudinous<https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pulchritudinous> sounds more disgusting than enchanting. We have been using pulchritude to refer to beauty since the 15th century. Pulchritudinous is a more recent addition to our language; its use dates to the early 18th century, and only began to be used to specifically refer to people’s beauty in the middle of the 19th.
The braided locks of the pulchritudinous fair ones, with their infinity of triple plaits, are lent to the mercies of the wind.
— The Athenæum (London, Eng.), 25 Sept. 1858
=> Cp. callipygian  (Keywords 110918) : having shapely buttocks.

omphaloskepsis
Definition - contemplation of one's navel as an aid to meditation; also: lack of will to move, exert, or change: inertia
In Greek, omphalos means “navel" and skepsis means “examination." Most of us are familiar with at least some words which the latter of these roots shares parentage with (skeptic<https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/skeptic>, skepticism<https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/skepticism>), but omphalo- words are considerably more rare. Among them are omphaloid<https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/omphaloid>, which is defined as “resembling an umbilicus<https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/umbilicus> (“navel”).
Football, tennis, and even cinemas by barbarians from the West has tended to lower the popularity of omphaloskepsis by encouraging extravert types of recreation.
— The Times of India (Mumbai, Ind.), 17 Feb. 1928

embourgeoisement
Definition - a shift to bourgeois values and practices
Embourgeoisement<https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/embourgeoisement> almost always refers to a shift by the working class, not the upper class. The word was coined during the first half of the 20th century, when scholars noticed workers adopting the outlook and behavior of the middle class. For example, the new bourgeois might have a declining interest in class consciousness and an increased interest in seeing gradual, not revolutionary, changes in society.
If this is true, we may expect to see a progressive embourgeoisement of the Soviet state; those educated and highly westernized intellectuals who once directed the fortunes of the “proletarian” republic (Trotsky, Zinoviev, Kamenev, Rakovsky, Radek, and their friends) must be submerged.
— Vincent Sheean, The China Weekly Review, 24 Mar. 1928


— Merriam-Webster
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