Thursday, January 29

An Adnomination of the English Language

Adnomination is an obsolete word for punning, the internet told me today. Unfortunately, it is so obsolete I was not informed why the word is no longer used, who were its loyal followers, or from whence it first came. Faced with a fruitless search on tinternet, I often don't know where else to turn; my paltry collection of resources are no match for the vast electrical expanses of binary oblivion. I have my trusty OED sitting at home, but as it's the concise edition I fear its 1728 may fail me when what I seek has no purpose in the modern vernacular. And so, it seems, the cold impartiality of time has caused another word to fall from the favour of fickle Man. Where once it enjoyed the most jovial of company with Equivoque and Paranomasia, it now resides in the realm of anonymity with its companions Xanthippe (an ill-tempered woman) and Callipygian (having a shapely buttocks). Who decided we no longer have place for these words in our lexicon? What cruel series of events led to their demise? What are we all but words waiting for our moment of obsolescence- used by ourselves and others without another thought until we become unneccessary, nonsensical, insubstantial. My time, too, will come to join the great dated dictionary of the sky; when it does, I'll be comforted with my final, fleeting thought: that a good pun is its own reword.