Writes Anthony Lane in "The Exhausting History of Fatigue/Having too much to do can be tiring; having nothing to do may be worse" (The New Yorker).
The book under discussion is "A History of Fatigue: From the Middle Ages to the Present." by Georges Vigarello.
Yes, of course, it was "hebetudinous" that pushed me over the line toward blogging this. Yeah, I liked the birds and the amusement of a book about fatigue being tiresome. But it was "hebetudinous" that brought me here. It means "Inclined to hebetude" — naturally — so what is "hebetude"? The OED says it's "The condition or state of being blunt or dull; dullness, bluntness, obtuseness, lethargy."
With such great and comprehensible alternatives, when would you ever use it? I like the example from William Gaddis's "Recognitions" (1955): "The robe was too big. Nevertheless, the pattern was so conservative, and the material so fine, that this seemed rather a mark of luxuriance than some deliberate hebetude on the part of the giver."
And this compliment from Ezra Pound might be helpful: "There is something in his work. It is not the hebetude of a lignified cerebrum." A lignified cerebrum. Ha ha. He wrote that in a letter. Does anyone even write letters anymore? It's hard to believe anyone ever wrote "the hebetude of a lignified cerebrum."
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Hebetudinous.
And all this time I thought it meant, "he be giving us attitude."
I’m tired of this already.
A great word to enjoy. Etymology says the word is from the 1600s, from Latin hebetudo, noun of quality from hebes "blunt, dull," figuratively "sluggish; stupid," a word of unknown origin.
Whoever originally wrote this word was too dull and sluggish to leave a note on use of it.
Just the thought of reading this book fills me with hebetude.
"All the tired horses in the sun
How'm I s'posed to get any ridin' done? Hmm."
I tried reading Vladimir Nabukov's memoir "Speak Memory". Just about every page there are two or three words that I have never seen before and will most likely never see again. When you press down for the quick Kindle definition, Kindle refers you not to the dictionary but to Wiki. I don't think such arcane words help one to communicate with greater clarity or precision although it does help to establish the persona of a cultured aristocrat who knows things that you will never understand.....I read his book just after reading Trotsky's autobiography which is partially about his life in pre-revolutionary Russia.... Trotsky also knew a lot of things. Trotsky, I'm sure, would have claimed to have a better understanding of the dynamics of history than Nabukov. Whilst in prison, Trotsky went to considerable trouble to write a lengthy book about how the Freemasons during the French Revolution fit into Marxist dialectics. I'm sure it revealed some brilliant reasoning but unfortunately his landlady used it for kindling when he had to flee his apartment to escape arrest. It's now lost forever.....I guess in the long run, Nabukov's studies of butterflies will prove to be of greater scientific value than Trotsky's efforts to make history a science.....All those Bolshie were students of the French Revolution and worried about who would be Robespierre or Napoleon. They were thus totally blindsided by Stalin. You never expect the Spanish Inquisition or Stalin.
Lane's consistently one of the NYer's better, funnier, writers.
Wiki: The name Hebe comes from the Greek word meaning "youth" or "prime of life".
Sounds like hebetude was not derived from Greek, or were they commenting on lazy, dull-witted adolescents?
After decades of late summer lethargy (and inflamed lips the last two Augusts), I finally went to an allergist last fall. Got 40 pricks on my (upper!) back, and the only allergen that pinged was ragweed. The therapy I'm trying is 2 years of daily small doses to build resistance. I usually get more done in May and June than the rest of the year combined, but it didn't happen this year. It's a struggle to mow even half the yard at a time. Mid July is when I usually give out of gas, so you'll soon see if I can still read and type.
“Sounds like hebetude was not derived from Greek, or were they commenting on lazy, dull-witted adolescents?”
The OED has the Latin root independent of the Greek. The two “hebe”s are different.
When I was in college, "zonked" meant you had smoked so much marijuana you were about ready to pass out into sweet dreamland. Not that I've ever been "zonked".
The two "hebe"s don't even sound the same in Greek and Latin. The goddess Hebe has two long Es, and would have been pronounced "Hay Bay". The Latin verb hebet ("he/she/it is dull, blunt") and its cognates have two short Es: it would have been pronounced "Heh Bet"). I doubt a bilingual ancient Roman would have thought of the one when reading the other, any more than a native English-speaker would confuse a Bait Shop with the kind of shop where you can bet on horses. Different sounds, different meanings.
Thanks for running down the different roots - somewhere in my time as psych attendant/group therapist came across "hebephrenia", and the notion that a symptom is lots of inappropriate giggling/laughter, and couldn't make it fit this other use. "A lignified cerebrum" is a keeper!!!!!
Of course the notoriously antisemitic Ezra Pound would find some excuse to use a word that has "hebe" in it.
But is the history book exhaustive?
Zonker.
The Letters of EE Cummings and Ezra Pound are full of word play. In fact, these guys were so much into word play, one of them wrote the other to say he couldn't understand it. BTW, Is this the where the Hebegebies come from?
Cummings suffered from the same defects as many poets, but I admire the man's humanity. Pound was known for helping any number of artists/writers when he had the chance befroe WW II. WHen Pound got in trouble and was imprisoned, some of those he helped returned the favor. Cummings was one. Hemingway was another.
Cummings also was anti-war. having been in WW I, he knew what it was like.
Different sounds, different meanings.
Different alphabets, too.
I thought we didn't know exactly what ancient Greek sounded like.
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