• logorrhea •
Pronunciation: lah-gê-ree-ê or lo-gê-ree-ê • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Noun, mass (no plural)
Meaning: Excessively wordy, incoherent speech, a storm of gibberish, possibly the result of mental instability.
Notes: Although today's Good Word means about the same as 'excessive wordiness', its rhyme with diarrhea adds a pejorative vividness that the phrase does not have. In fact, the phrase 'verbal diarrhea' is often used when today's Good Word would be more discrete and impressive. Remember to double the R in this and all other words with this ending that refer to a great flow. Outside the US you are allowed to spell today's word logorrhoea. You have your choice of adjectives: logorrheal or logorrhetic.
In Play: When wordiness just isn't quite enough, today's Good Word is what you need: "When Tryon Makepeace saw his daughter's new eyebrow rings with matching lip rings, he went from silence to sputtering logorrhea in fewer than five seconds." Notice the pejorative implication here: Tryon was not uttering flattering niceties. Radio and TV run on logorrhea: "Lacie McBride seems to enjoy the ceaseless logorrhea of the political talk shows on radio and TV."
Word History: Today's Good Word is a compound made up of Greek logos "word, idea" + rhe-in "to flow, run." Logos goes back to a Proto-Indo-European root log-/leg- that is also behind the roots of lexical (lex = leg-s-), as well as legislate and legal. The semantic connection apparently comes from an era when the word of the king was the law. Rhein comes from a root that originally had an initial S, sreu-, which picked up a T in the Germanic languages producing German Strom and English stream. (Today we thank Chris Berry for the regular stream of excellent Good Words he suggests to us.)
LOGORRHEA
- Dr. Goodword
- Site Admin
- Posts: 7475
- Joined: Wed Feb 02, 2005 9:28 am
- Location: Lewisburg, PA
- Contact:
LOGORRHEA
• The Good Dr. Goodword
I don't know the who or the context, but here is the when.logos
1587, "second person of the Christian Trinity," from Gk. logos "word, speech, discourse," also "reason," from PIE base *leg- "to collect" (with derivatives meaning "to speak," on notion of "to pick out words"); used by Neo-Platonists in various metaphysical and theological senses and picked up by N.T. writers. Other Eng. formations from logos include logolatry "worship of words, unreasonable regard for words or verbal truth" (1810 in Coleridge); logomachy "fighting about words" (1569); logomania (1870); logophobia (1923); and logorrhea (1902).
"Time is nature's way of keeping everything from happening all at once. Lately it hasn't been working."
Anonymous
Anonymous
This one reminds me - My mother used to say "diarrhea of the mouth" when she wanted us kids to shut up.
Suzanne D. Williams, Author
http://www.feelgoodromance.com
http://www.feelgoodromance.com
- Dr. Goodword
- Site Admin
- Posts: 7475
- Joined: Wed Feb 02, 2005 9:28 am
- Location: Lewisburg, PA
- Contact:
Double Rs
I've just been asked why the Rs are doubled in these words and I have no idea. Do any of you?
• The Good Dr. Goodword
-
- Great Grand Panjandrum
- Posts: 2578
- Joined: Tue Feb 15, 2005 3:56 pm
- Location: Crownsville, MD
The full phrase I always heard was "Constipation of thought, diarrhea of the mouth." I've know my share of those who suffered from this affliction, although I think they inflicted more suffering on me than on themselves.This one reminds me - My mother used to say "diarrhea of the mouth" when she wanted us kids to shut up.
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
medical term
Superficial research suggests the word's 1902 use was medical applied to a psychotic disorder.
A century later is it too much to suggest it has been updated to "blogorrhea"?
A century later is it too much to suggest it has been updated to "blogorrhea"?
Doug Smith
Re: Double Rs
for extra points in scrabble, plus it looks weirder with just one "r".I've just been asked why the Rs are doubled in these words and I have no idea. Do any of you?
mark roll-dem-'rrrr's' Bailey
Today is the first day of the rest of your life, Make the most of it...
kb
- Dr. Goodword
- Site Admin
- Posts: 7475
- Joined: Wed Feb 02, 2005 9:28 am
- Location: Lewisburg, PA
- Contact:
Double Rs
It might have been just for looks: that is how rime became rhyme, just to look more Greek and worthy of being used in the same sentence as rhythm.
But why the Rs are doubled, I've never heard or read.
But why the Rs are doubled, I've never heard or read.
• The Good Dr. Goodword
Re: Double Rs
Initially, I'd say this is a quirk of Greek compound words.It might have been just for looks: that is how rime became rhyme, just to look more Greek and worthy of being used in the same sentence as rhythm.
But why the Rs are doubled, I've never heard or read.
Return to “Good Word Discussion”
Who is online
Users browsing this forum: Ahrefs [Bot] and 19 guests