Now, where was I? Oh yeah...

As a wannabe wordsmith (as you may have noticed) I tend to see humour in words, the more obscure the word, the better I like it. Now, my biggest failing is in wanting to know not only the meaning of a new word, but it's parentage. You know, where it came from, what it's pedigree is and why it resembles (if only in my own twisted head) other, often unrelated words.

I'm sick like that.

In my mail today is my Word of the Day email - I know, how sick is it to actively seek new knowledge, every day? So, anyway, my word of the day is

contumacious \kahn-too-MAY-shuss\ adjective

: stubbornly disobedient : rebellious

Example sentence:
The judge reprimanded the defendant for his contumacious conduct and threatened to have him removed from court if there was another outburst.

"Contumacious" is one of those words more likely to show up on a vocabulary list or a standardized test than in everyday speech. Legal contexts are another area where you might encounter this fancy word for "rebellious" or "insubordinate." (The link between "contumacious" and the law goes back to Latin, in fact. The Latin adjective "contumax" means "rebellious," or, in specific cases, "showing contempt of court.")

"Contumacious" is related to "contumely," meaning "harsh language or treatment arising from haughtiness and contempt."
Both "contumacious" and "contumely" are thought to ultimately come from the Latin verb "tumere," meaning "to swell" or "to be proud."

Now, call me sick, but when I saw contumacious , I immediately thought/saw in my head the word tumescent. And, in my own head, I seem to link THAT word with the word "penis". And where does the word "tumescent" come from?

Tumescent
tu-mes-cent
Pronunciation: -s&nt
Function: adjective
Etymology: Latin tumescent-, tumescens, present participle of tumescere to swell up, inchoative of tumere to swell
: somewhat swollen

So, if I take that to it's obvious natural conclusion, someone who speaks in a contumacious way, has an oral sex fixation. Or are they just making a big dick of themselves... you can see where the phrase "sounding like a dickhead" came from, can't you? And then there is turgid, ain't gonna touch tumid, either.....

Just something else to chew over really, isn't it...

I definitley gotta improve the calibre of the books I read.

~~ Assassins do it from behind. ~~

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