That’s the Word for It – Ebullient

An ebullient person is someone who is bubbling with excitement. This adjective originates from the Latin bullire, which means to bubble out. Ebullient also has an archaic meaning which refers to the roiling of a boiling liquid.

Here are some examples of the word found in literature:

“To the Kathakali Man these stories are his children and his childhood. He has grown up within them. They are the house he was raised in, the meadows he played in. They are his windows and his way of seeing. So when he tells a story, he handles it as he would a child of his own. He teases it. He punishes it. He sends it up like a bubble. He wrestles it to the ground and lets it go again. He laughs at it because he loves it. He can fly you across whole worlds in minutes, he can stop for hours to examine a wilting leaf. Or play with a sleeping monkey’s tail. He can turn effortlessly from the carnage of war into the felicity of a woman washing her hair in a mountain stream. From the crafty ebullience of a rakshasa with a new idea into a gossipy Malayali with a scandal to spread. From the sensuousness of a woman with a baby at her breast into the seductive mischief of Krishna’s smile. He can reveal the nugget of sorrow that happiness contains. The hidden fish of shame in a sea of glory.”
― Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things

 

“Time and again I, too, have felt so full of luminous torrents that I could burst – burst with forms much more beautiful than those which are put up in frames and sold for a stinking fortune. And I, too, said nothing, showed nothing; I didn’t open my mouth, I didn’t repaint my half of the world. I was ashamed. I was afraid, and I swallowed my shame and my fear. I said to myself: You are mad! What’s the meaning of these waves, these floods, these outbursts? Where is the ebullient, infinite woman who, immersed as she was in her naiveté, kept in the dark about herself, led into self-disdain by the great arm of parental-conjugal phallocentrism, hasn’t been ashamed of her strength?”
Hélène Cixous, The Laugh of the Medusa

That’s the Word for It- Onomastic

Onomastics refers to the broad science of naming be it toponomastics (the study of place names) or anthroponomastics (the study of personal names). Onomasticians aid in data mining and study the process of naming of persons and places in myth, literature and film too.

There are names of places that are lived in and not and names for streets, roads and water bodies. Cities are named after kings or politicians, planets are named after mythical characters, and people are named after their parents. Naming conventions differ from country to country- sometimes the family name appears first as in Chinese or the place name appears first as it does in some Keralite names. Naming can be a personal business; in many cultures around the world naming ceremonies exist. Naming can also be a political exercise especially when the names of cities are changed.

I dug around to find how this word has been used and it isn’t used much at all unless you are talking linguistics. Except here in this article which describes Charles Dickens’s prowess when it comes to naming his characters.

“Allow me to introduce Mr Plornishmaroontigoonter. Lord Podsnap, Count Smorltork, and Sir Clupkins Clogwog. Not to mention the dowager Lady Snuphanuph. As for Serjeant Buzfuz, Miss Snevellicci, Mrs. Wrymug, and the Porkenhams… who the dickens are all these people? Why do they have such weird names?

They are the best of names, they are the worst of names, from an age of onomastic wisdom and hypocoristic foolishness, an epoch of… well you get the picture. You may recognize this raggle-taggle cast of minor characters, in all their rich variety, as stemming from the fevered imaginings of one Charles Dickens.”

 

That’s the Word for It – Quid Pro Quo

Quid pro quo is a Latin phrase and is most similar to the phrases ‘give and take’ and ‘tit for tat’. Initially, in the 1500s, the phrase implied substitution such as the substitution of one medicine for the other (the phrase has originally been used in late medieval pharmaceutical compilations). By the late 1600s,  the meaning of the phrase extended itself to personal gain or reciprocity. Today the phrase lends itself to legalese and business exchanges. In his book Think and Grow Rich, Andrew Carnegie has explained that quid pro quo is the law of the marketplace.
The phrase also has its negative connotations. In legalese, quid pro quo is used in reference to sexual harassment when favors are requested in return for a promotion, etc.
Here are some instances of the use of the phrase in literature:

“A pun on the Latin expression quid pro quo, meaning an equal exchange (this for that), and the British word quid, meaning a pound sterling.”

— Ambrose Bierce, The Unabridged Devil’s Dictionary

“To use our individual good or bad luck as a litmus test to determine whether or not God exists constructs an illogical dichotomy that reduces our capacity for true compassion. It implies a pious quid pro quo that defies history, reality, ethics, and reason. It fails to acknowledge that the other half of rising–the very half that makes rising necessary–is having first been nailed to the cross.”
― Cheryl Strayed, Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar

 

 

That’s the Word for It- Ineffable