Felon

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Dr. Goodword
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Felon

Postby Dr. Goodword » Tue Mar 18, 2014 10:50 pm

• felon •

Pronunciation: fe-lên • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun

Meaning: 1. Someone convicted of a serious crime. 2. An abscess in the soft tissue near a fingernail or toenail, sometimes called whitlow.

Notes: Another word for "a serious crime" is felony, which distinguishes serious crimes from minor infractions of the law, known as misdemeanors. This is the noun accompanying today's Good Word. The adjective, then, is felonious and the adverb, feloniously.

In Play: Four of the past eight governors of Illinois were felons, convicted of felonies while in office or after having left it. However well it applies in politics, felon is a word that finds its uses around the house: "Mom! Dad! Grounded three weeks just for wrecking the car? I'm not a felon!" The adjective is used much more often figuratively than the noun: "Pierce Arrow's jealousy of his neighbor's Maserati borders on the felonious."

Word History: Today's word comes to us directly from Old French felon "evil-doer, scoundrel, the Devil" from Medieval Latin fellon-em "evil-doer". This word seems to go back to Latin fellare "to suck", which had an obscene secondary meaning in classical Latin, well-known to readers of Martial and Catullus. I'm disinclined to go into the details of this use of the word; the reader may use his or her imagination. If this is the actual source of the word, we can trace Latin filius "son" back to the same root originally meaning "a nursing baby", as well as felix "happy". The second meaning of today's word would fit in here, too, since the most natural thing to do with an infectious finger, as all kids know, is to suck it. (Forgetting to thank Annie Avery of Asheville, NC, for recommending today's Good Word wouldn't be a felony, but it would be a very serious oversight.)
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LukeJavan8
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Re: Felon

Postby LukeJavan8 » Wed Mar 19, 2014 11:55 am

Thanks for leaving out all the details, Doc.
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Philip Hudson
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Re: Felon

Postby Philip Hudson » Wed Mar 19, 2014 3:30 pm

A wry sense of humor, Luke?

Can anyone tell me why us Rednecks call it a "bone felon" and not just a "felon"?
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Re: Felon

Postby Perry Lassiter » Thu Mar 20, 2014 4:04 pm

Never heard "bone felon." Could be equivalent of "felon to the bone."
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call_copse
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Re: Felon

Postby call_copse » Fri Mar 21, 2014 7:35 am

It's such a strange phrase I looked it up:
"A bone felon is an inflammation of delicate membrane covering the bone-the periosteum. Such an inflammation can occur around any of the bones. In most cases, felon is developed on the last joint of the finger or the thumb, though it can also appear on the other joints."

from ask.com - sounds plausible.
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Re: Bone Felon

Postby Dr. Goodword » Fri Mar 21, 2014 8:46 am

Southern pronunciation of "born felon"?
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bamaboy56
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Re: Felon

Postby bamaboy56 » Wed Apr 02, 2014 1:47 am

Never heard of a bone felon before now but must be leaning toward the second meaning of the word. Never heard of a felon being an abscess and never heard it called a whitlow either. Learn something new every day!
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