Execrable Error

The word execrable is one of those fancy Latinate terms people turn to when they want to express strong disapproval without resorting to profanity.   I'm sure I've done it myself, although a quick search of this blog turns up no occurrences.  It seems particularly associated with terrible performances of one sort or another.  Googling for execrable turns up, in the first few pages, examples of terrible guitar solos, terrible football teams, terrible movies, and terrible poetry.  Unless I'm the only one who jumped to this conclusion, here's the part that may surprise you: execrable doesn't have anything to do with excrement.

I'd always assumed execrate was related somehow to excrete, but the other day I came across the word and thought to myself, "How does that work, exactly?  It's bad because it's able to be excreted?"  When I looked it up in the online version of the American Heritage Dictionary, I found that execrable is derived from "Middle English, from Latin execrabilis, from execrari, exsecrari, 'to execrate'; see execrate", and that execrate originally meant 'to curse'.  You could have knocked me over with a feather.  All these years I'd thought execrable was a euphemism like defecate or micturate when in fact it's been a vaguely theological term all along.  Live and learn.

This has happened to me before.  A few years ago, it occured to me that hermetic (as in hermetically sealed) must be related etymologically to the word hermit—because something that's been hermetically sealed is isolated like a hermit, right?  Nope.  It was only recently that I discovered the word hermetic comes from the name of the Greek god Hermes, apparently because of his association with alchemy, while the word hermit derives ultmately from the Greek word for 'solitary' (and it has the adjectival forms hermitic or hermitical).  Oops.  I also spent about fifteen minutes a few months back believing that Sanskrit must come from the Indo-European roots san meaning 'holy' and skrit meaning 'writing'.  Wrong again—Sanskrit comes from roots meaning 'together' and 'make'.  I clearly need to stop jumping to conclusions.

So, in summary: hermetic has nothing to do with hermits, and execrable has nothing to do with poop.  Please make a note of it.

[Now playing: "Girls & Boys" by Blur]

Comments

[Tim May]

Hermes the Greek god isn't directly associated with alchemy, AFAIK. It's Hermes Trismegistus (who according to Wikipedia was originally "a syncretic conflation of Hermes with the Egyptian god of wisdom Thoth", but was regarded as a historical figure by the alchemists etc.) from whom our modern uses of "hermetic" derive.

What about "hermeneutic" - is that related to either "hermetic" or "hermitic"?

[eric morse]

I've always assumed the same about execrable. Interesting. Thanks for the straight poop.

Full disclosure:
Tim's mention of "hermeneutic" got me trying to work the word "hermenshermits" into this reply, but it's just too silly, so I gave up.

[language hat]

What about "hermeneutic" - is that related to either "hermetic" or "hermitic"?

Probably not. The OED says (in an entry from the 1890s) that it's from "hermēneus interpreter, considered to be a derivative of Hermēs Hermes in his character of tutelary deity of speech, writing, and traffic," but all other dictionaries end the etymological chain with the word for 'interpreter,' so the Hermes thing is apparently considered one of those folk etymologies the Greeks were so fond of. Hermes is, however, half of "hermaphrodite."

[The Tensor]

I'll bet I can guess which half, if you take my meaning. Wink-wink, nudge-nudge.

[ACW]

I'm intrigued by the alternate spelling exsecrari. First, do you really mean final -i? Latin infinitives usually end in -re. But more importantly: does this word for "curse" really break down as "to cut away"? That looks like the "cut" root in there.

[speedwell]

Does "exsecrare" mean "to cut off?" Yes. Yes, it positively does. "Cut out," "cut away," "forcibly remove," "violently reject," and "disassociate from."

It may be purely a racial memory from my Roman ancestors, but I'm more sure of that than I am of many another thing.

[Chris Anthony]

Speedwell, sadly, it doesn't; you're thinking of exsecare, "to cut out, cut away", from ex "out of" + secare "to cut".

Exsecrari is a deponent verb (passive voice, active meaning) which means "to curse". It's formed from ex "out of" + secrare, which itself is not extant; however, it's clearly the inseparable particle se- "apart" + crare "to create". I'm not sure of the linguistic evolution involved, but I think we can guess that secrare (or perhaps secrari, if it has its descendant's deponent form) means something like "to make apart, to segregate", whence it's not too much of a leap to exsecrari "to abominate, curse".

[Chris Anthony]

Ack. Sorry about that missed bold closer; I just wanted to emphasize speedwell's name...

(One of these days I'll learn to use Preview. TypePad has ruined me...)