I love the way it's a completely unfamiliar word, but it means nothing more than the obvious thing anyone would guess. And yet, when would you ever need to use "beardom"?
1842 E. B. Barrett in Athenæum 13 Aug. 729/3 Johnson was Dryden's critical bear, a rough bear, and with points of noble beardom.
1930 Illustr. London News 8 Nov. 832/3 Not just a bear, but the quintessence of beardom.
2005 J. Brennan Forester 38 We have bunnyocity. It is like beardom, but for bunnies.
I don't think "beardom" should count as a word. You could put "-dom" on all sorts of things, as the entry for "-dom" illustrates, with the examples "curdom," "appledom and peardom," "blizzardom," "good-sailordom," "Manchesterdom," "theatredom," "topsy-turveydom," "officialdom," and "old fogeydom."
And that's today's news from OEDdom. I hope you liked beardom. It's better than boredom.
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Wait, a beardom is not a place ruled by bears? Disappointing!
Beardomizational, of or relating to the process of inducting something into the state of being a bear.
Not to be confused with Bear Week in Provincetown?
Beardom: When a grizzly falls asleep at a departmental diversity meeting.
Is beardom also a subgenre of furrydom?
I played Scrabble regularly with some guys in college in the 60s. We next got together at my place in the late 70s, and naturally pulled out the Scrabble game, but in the meantime, I had acquired a Shorter OED as my house dictionary. It was like shooting ducks in a barrel.
So what is the word for the state of being a beard?
I was pleased some years ago to discover "avuncular": like an uncle.
Huh? Is there some special way an uncle acts? No similar word for an aunt? I think the naive meaning is: loving, concerned about your future, but not exactly like a parent. For the more cynical, is there a hint of Dutch uncle? Nepotism means helping a nephew, from when a Pope or Bishop would say: "I'd like to introduce you to my nephew," and people had to stifle a laugh.
"Uxorious" means loving one's wife a bit too much. Obviously shades into hen-pecked and nastier things. No equivalent for husband, maritus?
You could put "-dom" on all sorts of things,
i WANT to hear More, about
Girl-dom
Ponytail-dom
Treadmill-dom
And, Most of ALL! Swish-dom !!!
Beardom sounds like a word describing books like Bear, or any of these were-bear romance novels. And may God have mercy on your soul if you read any of them.
Beardom: a sexual practice characterized by a dominant partner dressed in a bear suit, or a dominant partner who is an actual Ursine-American.
beardom could be cuter than boardom.
I thought the B in LGBTQ+?< was for Bear. Oops, my bad.
On that theme, you could break the word into beard-om: the manly guise of the closeted fellow.
I see that Wince has noticed already!
Mountain Goatdom
WILD ANIMUS, Written by Rich Shapero, Read by Peter Coyote
Synopsis:
After graduating from college, Sam Altman finds himself subject to an urge he doesn't understand, an urge drawing him away from civilization. Altman's unleashed - and increasingly unhinged - imagination takes him first to Seattle and then farther north, to the remote Alaskan wilderness. Sam has fallen deeply in love with the mysterious and powerful Lindy, a young woman who will do anything to help him realize his quest, no matter how dangerous. Alone with a driving need to uncover his innermost self, Sam gradually transforms himself into a ram - prey to a pack of strangely familiar wolves. The mad pursuit leads from the wilds to civilization and back again. And when Sam and Lindy return to the perilous mountain together, the truth behind his imagined transformation emerges.
In heraldry, beardom symbolizes a fierce protectiveness, like a pissed off mama bear.
Here's one I just came across.....
"A full guide to relicing a stratocaster"
relicing - I'm pretty sure it is domain specific, and there's a big fat hint included in the quote.
Give up??
It would be easier to understand if I re-wrote the word with a hyphen.
Relic-ing. Which is a lot like taking a shotgun to your brand new jeans!!
Things that are typical or illustrative of beardom are described as beardomatic. Things that are predictably or recurrently so are called beardomaticisms, while people who make such things their occupation are beardomaticists. The movement to do away with beardom and all its works is antibeardomaticalism. I myself take no sides in the matter, and wish this message only to be read non-antibeardomaticalistically.
Beardom is a word for the perspective of women on men, as exemplified by the instructive folk tale of "Goldilocks". It happens that the issue of fitness for purpose -- not unimportant, nor omitted from the tale -- has overwhelmed the lessons of gender differences and perspective. And oddly the question of fitness taken away from the tale is about a middle ground, neither too hot or too cold; too hard or too soft; too this or too that. Actually the fitness lesson is about matching the most childlike of the bears to the protagonist, not the "middle-est" of bears.
But the point of the story is that Goldilocks is seeking shelter and nuture and protection and comfort. The only resource she has, is in the control of creatures much LARGER that she, much hairier, much fiercer, much more impulsive and possessive and louder and jealous and prone to complaint. And do bears have a toilet, or just carelessly poop in the woods? OBVIOUSLY "Beardom" is the domain, and behavior and unpleasant traits, of men, as seen by women. The women see themselves as outsiders, interlopers. And depending on the teller of the tale the encounter must end either with the woman destroyed (eaten up) by bears, or fleeing for her life into the wilderness. Women, and big hairy fierce loud messy bears, can never find a compromise middle ground position, and attempts to try wind up with breakage, or loss, or oblivion.
Beardom. I can see why the word has fallen out of favor in our culture.
I'm with RigelDog. Reminds a little of Shardik by Richard Adams where people capture a giant bear and decide it's a god. I liked that throughout the book, Shardik is nothing but a bear. I really liked the book back when I was in college but that was over 40 years ago and I don't know if I'd still agree with my earlier self.
Bears in the Bible:
Elisha went up from there to Bethel, and while he was going up on the way, some small boys came out of the city and jeered at him, saying, “Go up, you baldhead! Go up, you baldhead!” And he turned around, and when he saw them, he cursed them in the name of the Lord. And two she-bears came out of the woods and tore forty-two of the boys. From there he went on to Mount Carmel, and from there he returned to Samaria.
2 Kings 2:23-25
"I hope you liked beardom. It's better than boredom."
Now I aspire to beardom. Next time I'm bored, I'll ask myself, 'what would a bear do'?
(Answer, scratch my back against a tree, lumber through the woods, and snuffle up some berries. Maybe chase someone whose friend owns a pair of good running shoes.)
Ursinism
gives new meaning to con-dom
I play Scrabble against my Kindle, and it cheats like F. Joe Biden. I can't put an 'un' or a 're' or a 'dis' in front of a previously played word, but it somehow finds a way. An 'a' at the beginning of any verb is one of its cheats; and I've think I've seen the 'dom' at the end, too.
It uses proper nouns, too, but I can't; mother-f@#$er.
I always liked 2 Kings 2:23-25
Whenever people would say things like:
If there IS an all powerful, and all loving GOD; WHY do Bad things happen to Good People?
I would think: PROBABLY, because those "Good People", were making baldy jokes
So is an ursonist a guy who sets bears on fire?
"Tell the boys to bear down, Jim."
Shardik by Richard Adams
That was a sad book, poor Shardik.
Narr, you may recall that that week in Provincetown after which all the COVID cases emerged was "Bear Week." Bears being, in this case, middle-aged, chubby-ish, hairy gay men.
who-knew: I have read Shardik many times (most recently a couple of months back -- books get recycled in this house), and I am not convinced that the bear was "only a bear." You will remember that there had been many "incarnations" of Shardik in the past; also that the current Shardik dies in the act of slaying the child-slave-trader Genshed, after coming alive out of the Streels of Urtah (which means that God intends his death for some sacred purpose). The book has its difficulties -- there are all these deities, which belong to the kingdom of Bekla, and other deities in other countries, but also a God who is none of these and above all of them -- but IMO it makes its bear-as-god case pretty well.
Beardumb: Playing against Aaron Rodgers too many times.
I was pleased some years ago to discover "avuncular": like an uncle.... No similar word for an aunt?
William Safire wrote about this in 1982 in his "On Language" column. "Tantular" was suggested, but Safire called it spidery.
Althouse, I tried the link you gave. Took me to the library and told me it was restricted to students, staff and professors...
One of the funnier episodes in the Aubrey-Maturin series is their trek through the south of France, pretending to be a traveling entertainer and his performing bear, picking up a few sous from villagers and children along the way. I should reread those--I did the first book again a few years ago.
O'Brien had a sly and dry humour that reminds me a bit of Norm Macdonald's.
Good one, Bob Boyd!
I am also reminded of Marcello's account of operas in 18thc. Europe, and who needed to be paid: "The supernumeraries, the bear." Always with the bear!
2 bears, 1 cave
Duh.
If the stock market drops for a year or two in a row, we could definitely call it a beardom.
Actually I'd go with bear cave. We are in a bear cave!
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