What amazing part of the theme will I miss today? ...
If you have a minute, go back and check out Colum's comment on yesterday's post. He points out a lovely feature of the puzzle that I - in my jet-laggy haste - did not appreciate.
OK, onward. First off - news flash! - book clubs can be useful. Back in the early Nineties I was in a book club that read "A Thousand ACRES," and now, some 30 years later, I am able to use that information in a puzzle. Funny how the world goes 'round, isn't it?"
So anyway, today Mr. Hawksley MANDUCATES us all in the meanings of some obscure words. He gives the second definition (according to the Collins English Dictionary) of TYPOMANIA (Obsession with being published ... NOT a flurry of transcription errors). The first being the more straightforward "an obsession with typography"). ARCTOPHILE (Lover of teddy bears ... NOT a devotee of polar regions) seems to have come into the language only in the 1970s, and you'd be excused for thinking it meant a devotee of polar regions, because the word "arctic" is from the same Greek root.
PANTOPHOBIA (Fear of everything ... NOT a fear of trousers), of course, was popularized by Lucille Van Pelt, in her publicized psychoanalysis of her younger brother Linus.
MANDUCATES (Chews ... NOT elaborates condescendingly to a female) appears to have come through Latin via Greek, whereas "masticates" only shows Latin origins. Although surely it came from somewhere before that...
Finally, METROLOGY (Science of measurement ... NOT the study of urban areas) makes use of the same Greek root that "meter" does. Makes sense once you know it.
We love words here, and this is right up our alley.
- Horace
Fun theme! I liked that each word had a different ending. I thought they'd all be "-mania" at first, and had to wrap my mind around "-phile." MANDUCATES is absurd, and a lovely mistaken definition. I'm going to use it that way anyway.
ReplyDeleteYes, excellent theme. On "Charlie Brown Christmas," PANTOPHOBIA is used with Lucy in the booth and Charlie Brown as the patient. I prefer the strip version with Linus, mentioned by Horace above.
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