• troglodyte •
Pronunciation: trahg-lê-dait • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: 1. A person who lives in a cave or building carved into a hillside; 2. A pongid (gorilla, orangutan, or chimpanzee); 3. A reclusive, anachronistic person who resists change
Notes: This curious word has a limited immediate family, only the adjective troglodytic [trahg-lê-di-tik]. However, the first constituent, troglo-, may be combined with other Greek constituents to create new words like troglophile "an animal that enjoys dark caves"—but why not "cave-lover"? And, if troglophile is a possible word, why not troglophobe for someone who fears them?
In Play: First, people do dig out cozy homes in hillsides and live in them. (see this illustration from France):
However, you probably never thought of chimpanzees as troglodytes; yet, their scientific name is pan troglodytes—perhaps from the days when we thought they lived in caves. But today the word is used most widely in the third sense: "Nothing brings the troglodytes out of the woodwork like the smell of change." I suppose your attitude toward change will determine whether you identify with the troglodytes or the change-makers.
Word History: Let us see if we can root out the origin of today's Good Word. It was kidnapped pretty much as is from Greek troglodytes "an animal that crawls into holes" (mice, foxes, snakes) then, later "caveman". In Greek the word was a compound from trogle "gnawed hole" (from trogein "to gnaw") + dytes "one who enters." ("Cave" in Greek was spelunx, from which we derive spelunker.) But troglodytes to the Greeks were Caucasian or Middle Eastern peoples who carved their homes in rocks or lived in decorated caves. Aristotle, however, referred to these peoples as midgets who fought wars with cranes, and Aristotle's opinion has always carried a lot of weight.
Troglodyte
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- Grand Panjandrum
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Troglodyte
Last edited by sluggo on Mon Dec 31, 2007 2:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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- Great Grand Panjandrum
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We of the AlphaAgora know that our good friend and fellow denizen, Bailey, is not a troglodyte, as he is a rather Uncommon chimpanzee, and most definitely not a wolf in chimp's clothing.
Regards//Larry
"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee
"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee
I'm not wild about cramped tight quarters [is there a pun in there?]and not much for radical changes just for change sake. Yet reportedly it is the Orangutans [that] are skeptical Of changes in their cages, And the zookeeper is very fond of rum.
mark it's-all-happenin'-at-the-zoo Bailey
mark it's-all-happenin'-at-the-zoo Bailey
Today is the first day of the rest of your life, Make the most of it...
kb
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- Grand Panjandrum
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Bailey, thanks to your witticism here this song's been running through my head for two days now. Not in any way a complaint, this was a favourite, but I keep reflecting on how Paul Simon pronounces the word skeptical, with that peculiarly aggressive affectation seemingly limited to the era --I think of it as Dylanic-- that comes out "skyep-ti-cal" or even "skyep-tyi-cyal" (see also pronunciation of elliptical connections on "Richard Cory").I'm not wild about cramped tight quarters [is there a pun in there?]and not much for radical changes just for change sake. Yet reportedly it is the Orangutans [that] are skeptical Of changes in their cages...
Anyone else notice this? If so can we give it a name?
If not, should we give me a name?
[ps to Gailr] this is all from memory, I seem to have no actual S&G recordings, thus putting Sounds of Snowplows on hold for the momentito[/ps]
Stop! Murder us not, tonsured rumpots! Knife no one, fink!
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- Grand Panjandrum
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Nope, same numba of syllables, it's all in the delivery, the accent, the stress, the emphasis, the intonation, the thingamabob. And it's peculiar not to that place but to that era, no longer used by Simon or anybody else.He had to increase the number of syllables to fit the meter of the rhyme. Or maybe it's because he was a Naw Yawkah
Stop! Murder us not, tonsured rumpots! Knife no one, fink!
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