November 13, 2017

Monday morning words: disagreeability, fungate, springel, disafford.

On the Oxford English Dictionary's "recently published" list today (which doesn't seem to mean these words are newly recognized, but that the entries on the words have been redone).

Disagreeability obviously means the condition of being disagreeable, but it also used to refer to the thing that is disagreeable. For example: "Difficulties and disagreeabilities in carrying on a week's intercourse" from (1790 F. Burney Diary Oct. V. 163). I hope you see the difference (and that "intercourse" meant commerce or social communication back then).

Fungate sounds like the doorway to amusement, but you need to see the "g" is stuck to the "n." It is, unfunly, "A salt or ester of an acid... extracted from fungi." (And "unfunly" isn't recognized in the OED as word, nor is "funly" or "unfun.")

Springel. I want springels on my ice cream? No, but surprisingly close. It's an obsolete word for a particular type of sprinkler — a sprinkler for holy water. Sometimes old words are new in the OED. I think they're trying to help us read old books, like "Minor Poems Vernon MS" (c1390): "Siþen he wole wiþ springel-stikke Ȝiuen holy water a-bouten þikke."

Disafford is obsolete and rare. "To prevent from obtaining; to deny, withhold." Maybe you can think of a better sentence than "Let not my being a Lancastrian bred Without mine own Election, disafford Me right, or make my Cause disfigured" (1609).

18 comments:

Noel Harrison said...

"Fungate" sounds like a scandal involving a politician who had too much fun.

Leslie Graves said...

Harvey Weinstein's disagreeability did not disafford him from numerous opportunities to distribute his fungate all over the place.

dreams said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
dreams said...

"Harvey Weinstein's disagreeability did not disafford him from numerous opportunities to distribute his fungate all over the place."

To distribute or Springel?

Ann Althouse said...

"Harvey Weinstein's disagreeability did not disafford him from numerous opportunities to distribute his fungate all over the place."

Harvey Weinstein's disagreeability did not disafford him from numerous opportunities to springel his fungate all over the place.

George M. Spencer said...

I need a haruspex to understand this blog.

Ralph L said...

I'm sure I read, or at least started, a Fanny Burney novel, but I can't remember which one, so it must not have been very good.


tim maguire said...

I will support the recognition of unfunily, provided it is spelled unfunnily.

tcrosse said...

Disafford ?
No, 's a Chevy.

Bob Boyd said...

@tcrosse
Great minds think alike.

Kate said...

"Since he would, with springel-stick, give holy water about him thick."

Ann Althouse said...

Thanks, Kate!

Ann Althouse said...

"unfunnily"

Fun and funniness are 2 different things.

Ann Althouse said...

Compare:

It's not fun.

It's not funny.

Some fun things aren't funny, and some funny things are not fun.

You can be a fun guy without being a funny guy.

Let's have fun, but don't try anything funny.

Quaestor said...

"Siþen he wole wiþ springel-stikke Ȝiuen holy water a-bouten þikke."

Two obsolete letters in use, þ (thorn) and Ȝ (yogh). Thorn is a holdover from the Norse futhark runes and was originally an ideogram. The letter takes it shape from a thorn on a stem, like a rose, and is sounded just like our modern diphthong th. Yogh is not an invention of H.P. Lovecraft, but is also from the Norse and is a guttural similar to the ch in Scots words like loch.

tcrosse said...

Are fungates fungible ?

Baceseras said...

”recently published” . . . (which doesn’t seem to mean these words are newly recognized, but that the entries on the words have been redone)

Yes, and it’s fun to stumble across voguish words that haven’t been updated yet. “Disinvite” still retains its first-edition Obs{olete] status, no recorded sightings in the wild since:

1665 J. SERGEANT Sure-footing in Christianity 27 Which would..disinvite to a pursuit.

jaed said...

"Disaffordance" is a technical term in user interface design. Not "disafford", but I find myself wondering why not. Certainly "afford" is used in UI design as the verb form of "affordance".