pandemonium

Thank you for everyone who took the time to show me a bit of affection.

I came upon an interesting piece of information just now as I was in the process of inventing a rather unpleasant-sounding word "narcoleprosy." And after I thought it up, I decided to check the etymologies for narcolepsy and leprosy because I'm crazy like that. Actually it's more like pathetic like that, but screw you, I don't care.

Anyway, here's the etymologies that I uncovered:

Narcolepsy - from the Greek words narke (numbness, stupor) and lepsis (an attack, seizure)

Leper - derived from the Proto Indo-European base word lep-, meaning "to peel, to scale"

So you can make whatever decision you will about what constitutes "narcoleprosy" but that's not what I found out that was interesting. This is an entry I found while doing my research:

Leprosy - "First used in 1535 by The Coverdale Bible, where it renders the Hebrew word cara'ath which apparently was a comprehensive term for skin disease"

What I found interesting was that apparently before this time, it sounds like the word being used was a more general word for skin disease in general, not specifically leprosy. And it makes me wonder whether the people mentioned in the New Testemant of the Bible that Jesus supposedly healed were in fact really lepers, then. I mean, even if we accept that Jesus did exist as the Son of God and did actually perform these miracles and whatnot, what if it turns out that the people that he healed weren't actually lepers? What if it turned out it was just, like, an allergic reaction to some moldy bread or something? How embarressing would that be?

In other news, the lyrics to The Postal Service's Brand New Colony are beautiful. I just downloaded the song and it's actually quite beautiful despite still sounding like it's music is being made by a Mario game from the old NES.

Today's Words of the Day are my two most very favorite words in the English language:

sesquipedalian - given to the use of long words or long and ponderous; polysyllabic from Latin sesqui (and a half) + ped (a foot). So technically, it means a word that's a foot and a half long, which I think is a pretty awesome meaning. And how cool is it to know a six-syllable word that means "someone who uses big words." By knowing the word, you're automatically a sesquipedalian yourself!
and
gloaming - twilight; dusk
derived from the Old English word glom (twilight), related to glowan (to glow), hence "glow of sunrise or sunset"

All right kids, I hope you've learned something tonight. From this, that is.
I'll see you beautiful people soon, and until then, remember if dysfunction is a function, then I must be some kind of genius.
~ Rob