Three Little Words

My late mother once told me to never admit that you don’t know the meaning of a word during any given conversation, especially work-related, but also just in general. Her advice was to nod sagely, hope that works, and look it up later. A few days ago, just in casual conversation mind you, a friend of mine used the word mieskite, referring to the group I like to call “the posse,” which consists of a variety of types and genders that make up a circle of ever-changing brunch, beach, potluck and movie/theater companions who live within a 25 mile radius, or so, of NYC. Failing to heed my mother’s advice, my response was “huh?” and I asked for a spelling. Not to usurp Wikipedea’s power of description but what it comes down to as applied in this particular usage is “butt-ugly.” Well, harrumph! Oddly enough, within 24 hours of hearing this word for the first time I saw it again in a book I’m reading called Mental by Eddie Sarfaty who applied it to a shelter-cat he was adopting and he didn’t even use italics which, to me, meant it was a common word and I wondered how it had heretofore escaped my attention. If you care, Mr. Sarfaty’s adoption was a failure but, hey, that’s his story; not mine.

A couple of years ago I stumbled across a wonderful new word (to me), schadenfreude which, although German in origin, was creeping into fairly common usage in the U.S. and was infinitely appropriate to some of the emotional reactions I was feeling about some fairly rotten stuff that was going on. Right now it’s even more appropriate as Republicans get their comeuppance and druggish athletes make headlines but I must admit that I get a sneaky, and dare I say righteous, pleasure from their discomfort. From Wikipedea: “a pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others.” It’s like booing the villain at the end of a melodrama as he gets ridden out of town on a rail. Serves you right, you uppity evil person!

Your third word for the day, my children, is callipygian. At least I had heard or seen this word in some context or other before and now I remember why, having just looked it up. Despite what you might conjecture about the context of its usage (in my particular case) it’s not something one would normally say at the gym or any particular sporting event. I actually read it in an abbreviated review of the newly renovated Greek/Roman sculpture rotunda at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Here’s the definition, read it and weep: “pertaining to or having finely developed buttocks.” Although I’m a big time word maven, sometimes I must come down on the side of common sense. If someone has a nice ass, for goodness sakes, just say so!