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Ezra Pound discussion list of the University of Maine <[log in to unmask]>
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Gregory {Greg} Downing <[log in to unmask]>
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Sun, 25 Jan 1998 17:27:53 -0500
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Ezra Pound discussion list of the University of Maine <[log in to unmask]>
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At 01:31 PM 1/25/98, you (sylvester pollet <[log in to unmask]>) wrote:
>        Pigritude I might be able to use sometime--that's a good one.
>
 
Yes, it was on my mind because I won a contest on a wordplay list and was
punished by having to put forward an really obscure word for which other
people are challenged to make up fanciful but alluring definitions, as a
kind of competition. "Fictionary." Anyway, I used "pigritude" because I got
it from Latin (piger = idle, lazy, slothful, etc.; the noun is pigritudo),
thought it might make a cute alternative to the probably germanic
"laziness," calculated that remembering and employing it now and then might
save me a dented nose once in a while. Since I've never seen it in a book, I
figured it was obscure enough. It *is* in the OED, but all three usage cites
are from that mid-17C high-water mark of anglophone latinity -- and two of
the three usage cites are from glossaries, which at that period are
notorious for putting Latin- or Greek-based English words in their pages
that no one or virtually no one ever used, on the off chance someone might
start using them.
 
Pigritude's day has come, though. Hey, language -- as they say -- is part of
a cultural envoironment, and my motto is "Pigritude: Now More Than Ever."
 
All best to the nonpigritudinous poundians,
 
Greg Downing/NYU, at [log in to unmask] or [log in to unmask]

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