Session 45

Hellos the fellow gyaanis.
I am the backs... the one last times. Ok I'll shed this lack of propriety, atleast on this blog.
In this session we learn words that revolve around the idea of "fullness" - the way you are full of complaints (against me for posting late), full of compliance and servility (when I speak), full of noise (all of you, not me) etc.
So here goes...

1. Compliance
Root sequor - to follow
Those who follow rather than lead are usually in a menial, subordinate or inferior position. Like the way I'm calling the shots at the moment, and you all are just nodding your heads in agreement.
Eg. waiters, clerks, servants, due to the nature of their jobs act in an excessively courteous, obliging and subservient manner.
obsequies - the funeral rites or ceremony
subsequent - one that follows another
sequel - similar to subsequent, the slight difference is upto you to figure out
sequence - ab yeh bhi samjhaoon kya?

2. Complaints
Root queror - to complain
Anyone full of complaints, constantly nagging, harping, fretful, petulant, whining, never satisified is aptly called querulous.
I think I know such a person... are you wondering whether it's one among you?

3. Snobbery
I'm sure you have dealt with snobs somewhere in your life.
Root cilium means eyelid, super means above.
Above the eyelid is the eyebrow. Now the obnoxious people in question raise their eyebrow in contempt, disdain, and sneering arrogance at ordinary mortals like you (not me, I haven't found myself in the path of a lorry, I'm immortal).
Such contemptuous, sneering, haughty, disdainful, overbearing conceited people are called supercilious

4. Empty vessels make most noise
Root strepo means to make a noise.
Anyone who is unruly, boisterous, resistant to authority, unmanageable, in a noisy, troublesome manner is obstreperous.
Some of our politicians, for example, the most recent incident I can recall is the BJP staging a tamasha outside the Parliament with utensils. The VHP, RSS, Shiv Sena are other examples.
...wondering...
Why do all the examples coming to mind are from politics?

5. Money power... VISA power
Root pecus means cattle.
NL informs us that at one time in history, a person's wealth was measured by bank balances or stocks and shares but by stocks of domestic animals, which was a lot more logical, since you get milk and leather and meat from cattle - true wealth, while all you get from the stock market is a headache.
Someone who had lots of pecus, then, was rich. And someone without it was broke.
So we call someone who is habitually without funds, who seems generally to be full of a complete lack of money impecunious.
With due respect to Mr Shaleen Sharma, I think he most fits the definition than anyone else I know... ha ha.
pecuniary - pertaining to money, as in, a pecuniary consideration, pecuniary affairs etc.

6. Horses for courses
French word cheval means horse.
In medieval times only gentlemen and knights rode on horse, common people walked.
Traditionally (not, as NL understands, actually) knights were courteous to women, attentive to female desires, and self-sacrificing when their own interests came in conflict with those of the fair sex.
Thus, the word chivalrous.

Cheval comes from Latin caballus, an inferior horse. Caballus is found in English, with the spelling caval-
a) cavalcade - a procession of persons on horseback, as in a parade. In the age of BMWs and Mercs, we have a cavalcade of cars as in a VIP procession.
b) cavalier - a mounted soldier.
It also desrcibes actions and attitudes that are haughty, unmindful of others' feelings, too offhand, often associated with people in power.
Eg. cavalier manner... After the cavalier treatment received, I never wished to return.
After her cavalier refusal, I'll never invite her to another party, implying that the refusal was curt, offhand, and not exactly courteous.
c) cavalry - the mounted, or 'horsed' part of an army

Another root for horse, if you recollect, is equus (I took up that one too... No, I don't have a thing for horses)
equestrian(ne) - horse(wo)man
equine - horselike

7. No harm done
Root noceo means to injure.
Someone who need cause you no fear, so harmless is that person, so unable to interfere, so unlikely to get you into trouble is called innocuous. I think SuperGyaani HM qualifies as one... wotsay?
noxious - harmful, poisonous; unwholesome. Eg. noxious fumes

8. Alcoholic
Root bibo means to drink.
One who is generally found at the bar, who liked to get tipsy, who has an overfondness for drinks is called, usually humorously (good you told us that Mr NL) bibulous.
imbibe - imbibe learning respect, drink in, absorb.
bib - upper part of an apron, or an apronlike napkin tied around a child's neck. It prevents what is drunk (or eaten) from spilling over.

9. Like death itself
Root cado means to fall. One's final fall is death.
Someone who looks like a dead man- is pale, gaunt, thin, haggard, with sunken eyes and wasted limbs is called cadaverous.
cadaver - a corpse, esp. one used for surgical dissection, like the one in Munnabhai MBBS jisko dekhke apna Munnabhai faint ho jaata hai.
decadent - de- (down) + cado (fall) - "falling down", as in descend, climb down, decline etc.
Something in a decadent state is deteriorating, becomes corrupt or demoralized. Decadence is a state of decay. These words refer not to actual phsyical decay, but to moral or spiritual decay.
For eg. Roman decadence - defines the gradual decline in the ancient Roman republican values of family, farming, virtus, and dignitas.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_decadence

10. Pain and misery
Root doleo means to suffer or grieve - one who is morunful or sad, whose melancholy comes from physical pain mental distress is called dolorous.
dolour - poetic syn. of grief
doleful - causing grief: a doleful loss
condole - con- (together) + doleo (greive) - grieve together... you get the drift.
Offer condolences etc.

A final review of etmyology

Prefix/Root/Suffix : Meaning
. sequor : to follow
. queror : to complain
. cilium : eyelid
. super : above
. strepo : to make a noise
. pecus : cattle
. im-(in-) : -ve prefix
. cheval : horse
. caballus (caval-) : inferior horse
. equus : horse
. bibo : to drink
. cado : to fall
. de- : down
. con- : with, together

That pretty much rounds up Project NL. A small exercise shall follow in the next session.
Yes yes yes yes yes...