hesternopothia
Feb. 29th, 2012 07:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
prettygoodwordhesternopothia (heh-ster-noh-POTH-ee-ah, at a guess) - n., a pathological yearning for the good old days.
Or as Peter Bowler puts it in the Superior Person's Book of Words, "You know -- when World War II was in full swing, your children got diphtheria, and dentists used slow drills and no anaesthetic." This appears to be a jocular 19th-century American mock-Latin coinage, but I cannot confirm the date -- the roots are Latin hesternus, yesterday + pother, mental tumult.
---L.
Or as Peter Bowler puts it in the Superior Person's Book of Words, "You know -- when World War II was in full swing, your children got diphtheria, and dentists used slow drills and no anaesthetic." This appears to be a jocular 19th-century American mock-Latin coinage, but I cannot confirm the date -- the roots are Latin hesternus, yesterday + pother, mental tumult.
---L.
no subject
Date: 2012-02-29 04:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-29 07:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-04-13 05:39 pm (UTC)Pother is (according to Merriam Webster) of origin unknown and First Known Use: 1591.
It turns out that apothecaries were derided for their misuse of Latin (called Dog Latin) and were considered shallow folks who put-on airs of being educated.
It would not surprise me if "a storehouse of yesterday" would be more accurate (not being an expert myself). And, this could still include "mental tumult" or disorder since many storehouses throughout the centuries were Definitely in disorder!!
Just a thought...