energumen

[prettygoodword]

energumen (en-uhr-GYOO-men) - n., a person thought to be possessed by an evil spirit; a fanatical devotee or enthusiast.


The words you can learn from reading the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica. One dictionary adds this: "specifically, one belonging to a Christian church in the first centuries and placed in a special class ministered to by exorcists and allowed limited participation in common worship," which makes me at least go "wait what now?" I'll see if I can find out more. An English word since the late 17th century, from Latin energumenus, one possessed by an evil spirit, from Late Greek energoumenos, from Ancient Greek energéō, to influence.

---L.

Comments

[full_metal_ox]

“Have you accepted Firefly into your life?” (No—and it was precisely the evangelizing zeal of a certain element of the fanbase that has put me off to this day. That, and the fact that none of the pervasive Chinese cultural ambiance of the setting seemed to extend to the casting.)

(Speaking of which: Energumen was the title of a Hugo-winning 1970’s science fiction fanzine; the full sixteen-issue run is accessible online: https://efanzines.com/Energumen/index.htm)

[prettygoodword]

The casting has always bugged me, even at the time. Didn't know about the fanzine -- coo.

[full_metal_ox]

Here’s a 1936 usage of the word to denote an exorcist’s patient: https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,883526,00.html

(If you should run into a paywall: https://archive.ph/4iYV2; https://archive.ph/kkz2e)

[dhampyresa]

Oh, fascinating! In French we have "énergumène" which I've only ever encountered to mean someone on the manic side of eccentric -- same etymology, I checked, it went "possesed" -> "frantic" -> "eccentric".

[prettygoodword]

Yup -- same source, divergent drift of meaning. It's fascinating how that happens (and is the source of many a "false friend" dreaded by language learners).