http://faerye.net/post/c-is-for-carbuncle 2004-03-04T07:39:52+00:00 http://faerye.net/post/c-is-for-carbuncle#comment-1070 2004-03-04T07:39:52+00:00 2004-03-04T07:39:52+00:00 <p>Ah. The old reverse psychology. I <em>always</em> use that on gods, don&#8217;t you?</p> felicity http://faerye.net/post/c-is-for-carbuncle#comment-1069 2004-03-04T01:06:00+00:00 2004-03-04T01:06:00+00:00 <p>Supposedly copronyms were used to prevent deities from becoming jealous &#8211; as a way of saying &#8216;see, we don&#8217;t really like this kid, look what a horrible name we gave him/her; therefore you (oh deity, etc.) do not need to trot down from your cloud and blast and blight little Kopreus/Koprolla because look: with a name like that, he/she&#8217;s already blighted.&#8217; People used to think copronyms indicated that the child had been found on a dung-heap (a common place for getting rid of unwanted children), but such, apparently, is not the case. Or so at least says S. Pomeroy (&#8220;Copronyms and the exposure of infants in Egypt&#8221; <i>Atti xvii Congr. intern. pap.</i> (1984)). Frankly, it&#8217;s not the sort of thing I&#8217;d argue about &#8211; but pompous papyrologists must argue about <em>something</em>...</p> mfc http://faerye.net/post/c-is-for-carbuncle#comment-1066 2004-03-03T11:22:56+00:00 2004-03-03T11:22:56+00:00 <p>Why would they ward off evil? Are we still using the same root of &#8220;copro&#8221; here? In which case I wonder if evil dislikes strong smells, or if it has something to do with dung beetles rolling the sun across the sky. Pray tell.<br /> <br /> Excellent list, by the by. LOVE &#8220;crepitant&#8221; - I didn&#8217;t know that one before - and its associate in the dictionary, crepitate. Lovely onomatopoeic things.</p> felicity http://faerye.net/post/c-is-for-carbuncle#comment-1065 2004-03-03T05:55:15+00:00 2004-03-03T05:55:15+00:00 <ul><li>crepitant</li> <li>caterwaul</li> <li>conundrum</li> <li>clandestine</li> <li>contusion</li> <li>contumely</li> <li>conjugate</li> <li>cognizant</li> <li>cognoscente</li> <li>confabulate</li> <li>comestible</li> <li>combustible</li> <li>commensurate</li> <li>curveting</li> <li>calyx (which is really kalyx, but I shall Latinize whenever I please)</li></ul> <p>&#8216;Copacetic&#8217; is a thing of pure evil; it sounds like the name of a laxative. (Which caused me to think of the following: Continually cleaning cloacae is clearly capital (nay! copacetic), claimed a cunning coprophagist&#8230;)</p> <p>Incidentally, copronyms (e.g. Kopreus, Kopron, Kopria, Koprolla) were quite common in Greco-Roman Egypt and were, according to one scholar, apotropaic. Just so you know.</p> mfc http://faerye.net/post/c-is-for-carbuncle#comment-1062 2004-03-02T15:38:01+00:00 2004-03-02T15:38:01+00:00 <ul> <li>catastrophic</li> <li>cellar</li> <li>choleric</li> <li>chromatic</li> <li>chromium</li> <li>chronophotograph</li> <li>cinematographic</li> </ul> <p> And I&#8217;m spent. </p> wonko http://faerye.net/post/c-is-for-carbuncle#comment-1061 2004-03-02T15:37:39+00:00 2004-03-02T15:37:39+00:00 <p>Good show. I skipped a few that I thought were too specific, but I&#8217;ll add them in light of &#8220;Cro-Magnon!&#8221;<br /> <br /> cloaca<br /> cephalapod<br /> cetacean<br /> copepod</p> felicity http://faerye.net/post/c-is-for-carbuncle#comment-1060 2004-03-02T14:41:44+00:00 2004-03-02T14:41:44+00:00 cataclysmic<br /> conglomeration<br /> cytoplasmic<br /> contrabandsim<br /> cosmopolitanism<br /> copulatory<br /> Cro-Magnon<br /> cancan<br /> centurion<br /> citadel<br /> cogitative<br /> cravat<br /> circa <p> Ehh&#8230; I think I&#8217;m done.</p> GreyStork