concinnous

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Dr. Goodword
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concinnous

Postby Dr. Goodword » Tue Apr 08, 2014 10:45 pm

• concinnous •

Pronunciation: kên-sin-ês • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Adjective

Meaning: Harmonious, elegant, neatly arranged, without loose ends.

Notes: Today's Good Word comes equipped with an adverb, concinnously, and a noun, concinnity, so you should be able to express the concept in any situation. It is used most often in speaking of music or scientific theories, which are concinnous if they explain a lot and leave few questions or loose ends.

In Play: A tidy theory with few loose ends reflects concinnity: "Mark Downs thinks that the conspiracy theory of life is the only perfectly concinnous one, the one that explains absolutely everything." However, we bump into concinnity elsewhere: "Rusty Horne thinks the compositions of Antônio Carlos Jobim are the most concinnous music of its time."

Word History: Today's Good Word is a light makeover of Latin concinnus "skillfully put together, well-adjusted", which went on to produce the verb concinnare "to put together, in order", and the noun concinnitas, origin of the English noun concinnity. The dictionaries say that the root of this word is "of uncertain origin", which is the etymologists' way of saying that they have absolutely no idea where it comes from. I don't, either, except that the prefix con-, of course, means "(together) with". The root is simply a mystery. (Today we can thank Ralph Mowrey for a very concinnous word that has long stumped the word history guys.)
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call_copse
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Re: concinnous

Postby call_copse » Wed Apr 09, 2014 6:26 am

I like this word - I had not heard it. I shall attempt to find the occasion to swing it into play, though this will be tricky - if I used it to my wife for instance she may well upbraid me for pretentiousness (perhaps deservedly).

My mental association will be with Chekov's gun. I enjoy literary works that follow concinnous principles, though sometimes untidier and more sprawling works can satisfy just as much if not more.
Iain

Perry Lassiter
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Re: concinnous

Postby Perry Lassiter » Thu Apr 10, 2014 1:19 pm

My two all time favorites are certainly not concinnous: Brothers K and East of Eden.
pl

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call_copse
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Re: concinnous

Postby call_copse » Fri Apr 11, 2014 7:22 am

Hmm, obviously I've read (and much enjoyed) East of Eden but Brothers K is a new one on me. Anything that references Dostoyevsky's classic can only be good though IMO so maybe I should check it out, though it sounds like baseball is involved.
Iain

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Re: concinnous

Postby Perry Lassiter » Fri Apr 11, 2014 10:07 am

No baseball. 19th century Russia. The translation I read was beautifully done. One chapter is the Grand Inquisitor scene, but the entire book is rich - and long.
pl

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call_copse
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Re: concinnous

Postby call_copse » Wed Apr 16, 2014 6:13 am

Ahh, I thought you were referring to David James Duncan's subsequent derivative work:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Brothers_K
Iain


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