Word Units--December 1, 2006

acous-, acou-, -acoustical, -acusis-, -acusia
(Greek: hearing, listening, of or for hearing)
acouasm
In psychiatry: a nonverbal auditory hallucination, such as a ringing or hissing in the ears; acousma; also known as tinnitus.
acoubouy
Used by military ordnance, a listening device dropped by parachute onto land and water, used to detect sounds of enemy movements and transmit them to orbiting aircraft or land stations.
acouesthesia
The sense of hearing; auditory perception.
"You can hear cow bells but you can't hear cow horns.
—Evan Esar
"We hear what we listen for.
—Anonymous
"A good listener is one who can give you his full attention without hearing a word you say. "
—Anonymous
acoumeter
An instrument used for estimating the power or extent of the sense of hearing before the introduction of audiometers. Variant spellings include these words: acouometer, acoumeter, acousmeter, acousmetric, acousmometric, acoumetry, and acoumetric.
acouophone
An obsolete term for an electric hearing aid.
acouophonia
"Auscultatory percussion" or the act of listening to sounds produced within the body; especially, the chest and abdomen, as a means of detecting evidence of disorders or pregnancy.
acousia
This is now spelled acusis.
acousma
A simple auditory hallucination, such as ringing or buzzing sounds "in the ears"; also acouasm.
acousmata
Things received (heard) on authority; a technical word for a school of philosophy.
acousmatagnosis
In psychology, an abnormal inability to understand spoken words and to recognize meaningful sounds.
acousmatamnesia
1. Failure of the memory to call up the images of sounds.2. The inability to remember certain sounds.
acousmatic
A professed hearer, a class of scholars under Pythagoras, who listened to his teachings, without inquiring into their inner truths or basis.
acoustic, acoustical, acoustically
Pertaining to the sense of hearing; adapted to aid hearing; the science of audible sounds.
acoustic agraphia
The inability to write from dictation (from what is heard).
acousticate
To deny that one has been correctly heard even when one is painfully aware that there has been no mistake, this denial being often supported by the hasty fabrication of a new utterance, similar in sound to the original, but more agreeable in sense.
"I quickly acousticated 'fatuous ass' into 'anfractuous mass,' and nobody noticed a thing."
—In a Word, edited by Jack Hitt; as quoted from Richard Tristman, professor.
acoustic hypoesthesia (hypoacusis)
Partial loss of hearing.
acoustician
A specialist in acoustics.
acousticofacial
Relating to both the eighth (auditory) and seventh (facial) cranial nerves.
acousticomotor
A motor response to sound.
acousticon
An instrument for helping the hearing impaired to hear.
acousticopalpebral
Relating to both the acoustic part of the eighth cranial nerve and the eyelids. The orbicularis oculi muscle, which closes the eyelids, is innervated by the seventh (facial) nerve.
acousticophobia, akousticophobia
An abnormal fear of hearing noises in general or specific noises or sounds. This phobia goes beyond just being startled by sudden loud noises. Some people fear specific noises, such as whistling, balloons popping, or sonic booms.
acoustics
1. The science of sound and the phenomena of hearing. 2. In physics, the science and study of sound, including its production, transmission, and effects. 3. In architecture: a. The sum of the qualities, as absence of echo or reverberation, that determine the value of a room, enclosure, or auditorium with respect to distinct hearing. b. The science of planning and building an enclosure so that sound will be perfectly transmitted within it. 4. In psychology: the part of psychology dealing with hearing. Acoustics is usually construed as a singular noun, except in the sense with reference to the science of sound qualities for buildings as in "3.a" above.
acoustimeter
A portable electronic device for measuring noise levels, especially those of traffic.
acoustoelectric effect
In electronics, the generatioin of a DC voltage in a crystal or in a metallic material, due to acoustic waves traveling along the surface of the material.
acoustoelectronics
The use of acoustic energy to create electromagnetic waves, usually with crystals or metals that react when bombarded with acoustic waves, and the processing of such waves prior to reproduction of the original sound.
acoustogram, acoustigram
The graphic tracing of the curves, delineated in frequencies per second and decibel levels, of sounds produced by motion of a joint. Applied to the knee joint, an acoustogram will show the sound of the moving semilunar cartilages, the moving contact between the articular surfaces of the femur and tibia, and the circulation of the synovia.
acousto-optics, acousto-optic, acousto-optical, acousto-optically
The science and technology of the interactions between sound waves and light waves passing through solid materials, especially as applied to the modulation and deflection of laser beams by ultrasonic waves; important in laser and holographic technologies.
acoutometer
An instrument for measuring the level of sounds.
acusis
1. The ability to perceive sounds normally; normal hearing. 2. Hearing, used in combination to denote a specified kind of hearing, as in presbyacusis, hypoacusis, etc.

acro-, acr-
(Greek: high, highest, highest point; top, tip end, outermost; extreme; extremity of the body)
acroagnosia
Lack of sensory recognition of a limb.
acroagnosis
Lack of sensory recognition of a limb (arms and/or legs); also, acragnosis.
acroanesthesia
Loss of sensation in the extremities; such as the hands, fingers, toes, and feet.
acroarthritis
Arthritis affecting the extremities (hands or feet).
acroasphyxia
1. An obsolete term for acrocyanosis. 2. Neurosis marked by asphyxia of the extremities. 3. Impaired digital circulation, possibly a mild form of Raynaud’s disease, marked by a purplish or waxy white color of the fingers, with subnormal local temperature and paresthesia. Also known as “dead fingers”, or “waxy fingers”.
acroataxia
Ataxia affecting the distal portion of the extremities; such as, hands and fingers, feet, and toes.
Ataxia is the inability to coordinate muscle activity during voluntary movement, so that smooth movements occur.
acrobat, acrobatic
A performer on the trapeze, tightrope, etc.
acroblast
A body in the spermatid from which arises the acrosome.
acrobrachycephaly
A condition resulting from fusion of the coronal suture, causing abnormal shortening of the anteroposterior diameter of the skull.
acrobryous
Growing only at the tip.
acrobystitis
Inflammation of the prepuce (foreskin).
Acrocanthosaurus
A “high-spined lizard” from Early Cretaceous Oklahoma , Utah, and Texas, USA. Named by U.S paleotologists John Willis Stovall and Wann Langston, Jr. in 1950.
acrocarpous
Bearing fruit at the end of the stalk, as some mosses.
acrocentric
A type of chromosome having the centromere near one end of the replicating chromosome, so that one arm is much longer than the other.
acrocephalia, acrocephalic, acrocephalous, acrocephaly
Denoting a head that is pointed and conelike; also known as, oxycephaly, oxycephalous.

aesth-, esth-, aesthe-, esthe-, aesthesio-, esthesio-, aesthesia-, -esthesia
(Greek: feeling, sensation, perception)
aesthacyte
A sensory cell of primitive animals such as sponges.
aesthesia, esthesia
The ability to feel sensations; perception.
aesthesic, esthesic
A reference to the mental perception of sensations.
aesthesiogenic
Producing or causing sensation.
aesthesiometer
An instrument for the purpose of determining the degree of tactile sensibility possessed by the patient.
aesthesis
The perception of the external world by the senses.
aesthesodic
Of nerves that provide a path for sensory impulses; conveying sensations from the external organs to the brain or nerve center.
aesthetasc
An olfactory receptor on the small antennae of some crustaceans; such as, Daphnia (water fleas, some species of which are commonly used as food for aquarium fish).
aesthete, esthete
1. A person who is highly sensitive to art and beauty.2. One who has an acute delight in the beauty of color, line, sound, and texture with a violent distaste for the ugly, shapeless, and discordant. 3. A person who artificially cultivates artistic sensitivity or makes a cult of art and beauty.
aesthetes, esthetes
A reference to sense organs or the plural of esthete.

alcoholo-, alcohol-, alcoho-
(Arabic > Latin: alcohol, originally an "essence or very fine powder", from Arabic al-kuhl which is from al-, "the", and kohl or kuhl, "antimony sulfide" )
alcholimetric
A reference to a device, called a alcoholometer, that measures the quantity of alcohol contained in a liquid.
alcholizer
An alcohol breath-test screening instrument; a breathalyzer with an analyzer cell used in police units worldwide to check drivers suspected of excessive drinking.
alcholometrical
A reference to the use of an alcoholometer.
alcogel
A gelatinous precipitate from a colloidal solution in alcohol.
alcohol
1. A colorless, volatile, pungent liquid; synthesized or derived from fermentation of sugars and starches, it can be burned as fuel, is used in industry and medicine, and is the intoxicating element of whiskey, wine, beer, and other fermented or distilled liquors. It is also called "ethyl alcohol". 2. Any of a series of hydroxyl compounds, the simplest of which are derived from saturated hydrocarbons, and include ethanol and methanol.
alcoholate
A tincture or other preparation containing alcohol.
alcoholature
An alcoholic tincture prepared with fresh plants.
alcoholemia, hyperalcoholemia
The presence of ethanol in the blood.
alcohol-ether
A chemical compound used in shampoos, bubble baths, body wash, liquid soaps.
alcohol fuel
A motor fuel of gasoline blended with 5-25% of amhydrous ethyl alcohol; used particularly in Europe; gasohol.
alcoholic
1. Relating to, containing, or produced by alcohol. 2. One who suffers from alcoholism. 3. One who abuses or is dependent upon alcohol.
O God! That men should put an enemy in their mouths to steal away their brains.
—Cassio, in Othello by William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
alcoholica
Spanish word for alcohol.
alcoholicity
The degree of alcoholic content.
alcoholimeter
A device, such as a form of hydrometer, that measures the quantity of alcohol contained in a liquid.
alcoholism
1. Chronic alcohol abuse, dependence, or addiction; chronic excessive drinking of alcoholic beverages resulting in impairment of health and/or social or occupational functioning, and increasing adaptation to the effects of alcohol requiring increasing doses to achieve and sustain a desired effect; specific signs and symptoms of withdrawal usually are shown when one stops such drinking. 2. "Alcohol dependence" (currently the preferred term); "alcohol addiction". The terms refer to a variety of disorders associated with the repetitive consumption of alcohol, usually over a long period of time, in amounts that the drinker is unable to handle physiologically, emotionally, or socially.
People who drink to drown their sorrow should be told that sorrow knows how to swim.
—Ann Landers

andro-, andr-, -ander, -andry
(Greek: man, men, male, masculine; also, stamen or anther as used in botany)
andragogy, andragogue
1. The methods or techniques used to teach adults. Mistakenly used to refer to adult education for both male and female learners. “Mistakenly” because andro, -andra- refers only to males. 2. Another erroneous definition is, the art and science of helping adults learn.
andranatomy
1. The dissection of the male body. 2. The physical structure of the male body.
andriatry, andriatrics
1. Medical science relating to the treatment of diseases of male genital organs and of men in general.2. The branch of medicine dealing with diseases of men; such as, those of the male genitalia.
andric
Male, like a male, male characteristics.
andrium
The male portion of a flower.
androblastoma
A rare, benign tumor of the testis that histologically resembles the fetal testis, with varying proportions of tubular and stromal elements; the tubules contain Sertoli cells, which may cause feminization.
androcentric, androcentricity
1. Dominated by or emphasizing masculine interests or points of view; as an androcentric society. 2. Having a man, or the male, as the center of importance.
The four stages of man are: infancy, childhood, adolescence, and finally obsolescence.
—Art Linkletter
androcephalous
Having a man’s head (upon an animal’s body).
androchorous, androchory, androchore
Dispersed by the agency of man.
androconium, androconial
Scales on the wings of certain male Lepidoptera (butterflies) from which the attractive scent of the male is diffused.
androcracy, androcratic
The political rule by men or males; male supremacy.
androcyte
Male sex cell, especially of an immature stage; spermatid.
philander, philanderer
1. To carry on a sexual affair, especially an extramarital affair, with a woman one cannot or does not intend to marry. 2. To engage in many love affairs, especially with a frivolous or casual attitude. 3. Philanderer actually means "a lover of men" or of "one's husband", but a mistake was made in the adoption from the Greek and a different meaning was applied (according to David Muschell.)
polyandrous, polyandry
1. A reference to a female who mates with several males; having more than one husband or having several husbands. 2. Literally having many male sexual partners. 3. In botany, having numerous stamens.
protandrous, protandry, protandric
The condition of a hermaphrodite in which the male portion develops first or which is first male, and later sex reversed to female. 2. Said of a flower in which the pollen matures before the stigma is receptive.
proterandrous, proterandry
1. In botany, having the stamens or male organs mature before the pistil or female organ. 2. In zoology, a hermaphrodite animal; or a colony of zooids, having the male organs, or individuals, sexually mature before the female.
pseudandrous, pseudandry
Use of a masculine name by a woman as a pseudonym

angio-, angi-, -angium
(Greek > Latin: [receptacle], vessel, often a blood vessel; "covered by a seed or vessel", a seed vessel; a learned borrowing from Greek meaning "vessel", "container")
adenoangiosarcoma
An angiosarcoma involving gland structures.
anangioid
Seemingly without blood vessels.
anangioplasia, anangioplastic
1. The imperfect vascularization (formation of new blood vessels) of a part due to poorly formed or unformed blood vessels.2. Imperfect vascularization of a part due to nonformation of vessels, or vessels with inadequate caliber (diameter of a hollow tubular structure).
androgametangium (antheridium [s], antheridia [pl])
1. A male reproductive structure producing gametes, occurring in ferns, mosses, fungi, and algae.2. The male sex organ of spore-producing plants; produces antherozoids; equivalent to the anther in flowers.
angialgia, angialgistic
Pain in a blood vessel.
angiasthenia
Instability or loss of tone in the vascular system.
angiectasia
Dilation of a lymphatic or blood vessel.
angiectasis, angioectatic
Abnormal, usually gross dilatation and often lengthening of a blood or lymphatic vessel.
angiectatic
1. Marked by the presence of dilated blood vessels.2. A reference to or characterized by angiectasis.
angiectid
An abnormal intradermal venous dilatation, consisting of a circumscribed conglomerate mass of venules, which causes a frequently tense and tender elevation of the skin.
angiectomy
1. The excision or resection of a vessel.2. Excision of all or part of a blood vessel; also known as, arteriectomy or a venectomy.
angiectopia, angiectopic
1. An abnormal position or course of a vessel.2. Displacement or an abnormal location of a blood vessel.
angiitis, angiitides
Inflammation of a blood or lymph vessel.
angina
1. Any of various diseases or conditions characterized by painful or cramping spasms.2. Any attack of painful spasms characterized by sensations of choking or suffocating.3. Chest pain due to an inadequate supply of oxygen to the heart muscle. The chest pain of angina is typically severe and crushing. There is a feeling just behind the breastbone (the sternum) of pressure and suffocation.4. Any spasmodic, choking, or suffocating pain.5. An old term for a sore throat.
anginal
1. Angina pectoris.2. A condition, such as severe sore throat, in which spasmodic attacks of suffocating pain occur.

arena [harena], areni-
(Latin: harena; sand, sandy place, sea-shore; place of combat [literally, "place strewn with sand"])
arena
1. An indoor or outdoor area, surrounded by seating for spectators, where shows or sports events take place.2. A group of adjoining mating territories of a species.
arenaceo
A prefix that can be attached to other words with the meaning of sandy, mixed with sand; as with arenaceo-argillaceous: of the nature of sandy clay.
arenaceous
1. Used to describe rocks or deposits that are composed of sand grains or have a sandy texture. 2. A reference to plants that grow best in sandy soil. 3. Derived from or containing sand; having the properties of sand; growing in sand; sandy.4. Resembling sand in texture, sandy, or gritty.
arenavirus
A reference to the dense granules resembling sand inside their virion.
arenicole
1. Living or growing in sand.2. Any organism that thrives in sandy areas.
arenicolite
A worm-hole made originally in sand and preserved in a sandstone rock.
arenicolous
Occurring or growing and developing in sandy areas.
arenilitic
Of or pertaining to sandstone.
arenoid
1. Like or similar to sand.2. Resembling grains of sand.

auto-, aut-
(Greek: self, same, spontaneous; directed from within)
autacoid, autacoidal
An organic substance formed by cells of an organ and carried by the circulatory system to a remote site where it affects another organ.
autaesthesy, autesthesy
Self-consciousness.
autagonistophilia
A sexual perversion in which sexual arousal and orgasm are contingent upon displaying one’s self in a live show, i.e. being observed performing on stage or on camera. The observer’s condition (if the stage or camera performance by the partner is a necessity for sexual arousal) is termed scoptophilia, [scopophilia], not voyeurism.
—Psychiatric Dictionary, 7th ed., by Robert J. Campbell]
autantonym
A word that means its opposite.
An example is the word fast, which when referring to a fast runner means a runner who runs rapidly or swiftly; but when it refers to a fast color, it means a color that doesn't run at all.
autarcesiology
The scientific study of natural immunity.
autarcesis
Natural immunity.
autarch
An absolute ruler; autocrat; a tyrant.
autarchy
1. Absolute sovereignty, despotism. 2. Self-government; an autocratic government by one person with unlimited authority over others.
autarkist
Someone who rules a nation that has a policy of economic independence.
autarky, autarkic, autarkical
1. The condition of self-sufficiency; especially, economic, as applied to a nation.2. A national policy of economic independence.
autassasinophilia
Stage-managing one’s own murder, reported as an extreme form of masochism.
autechoscope
An instrument for self-auscultation.
autecology, autoecology, autecological, autoecological
1. The ecology of an individual organism or species.2. The study of the ecology of an individual plant or species; the opposite of synecology.
autemesia
1. Idiopathic or functional vomiting.2. Vomiting that is self-induced by provoking the gag reflex.3. Vomiting induced by autosuggeston, as observed in certain mental patients.
autism
1. Mental introversion in which the attention or interest is fastened on the patient's own ego; a self-centered mental state from which reality tends to be excluded.2. A mental disorder characterized by severely abnormal developments of social interaction and verbal and nonverbal communication skills.3. A tendency to view life in terms of one's own needs and desires.
Affected individuals may adhere to inflexible, nonfunctional rituals or routine. They may become upset with even trivial changes in their environment. They often have a limited range of interests but may become preoccupied with a narrow range of subjects or activities. They appear unable to understand others' feelings and often have poor eye contact with others.
Unpredictable mood swings may occur. Many demonstrate stereotypical motor mannerisms; such as, hand or finger flapping, body rocking, or dipping. The disorder is probably caused by organically based central nervous system dysfunction, especially in the ability to process social or emotional information or language.

Word Unit--11/17/06

a-, an-
(Greek: a prefix meaning: no, absence of, without, lack of, not)
These prefixes are normally used with elements of Greek origin, a- is used before consonants and an- is used before vowels. It affects the meanings of hundreds of words.
There are too many words that use these prefix elements to list all of them on this site; however, there are some significant examples listed in this and the other groups provided.
abacterial
Free of bacteria; without bacteria.
abaptism
The absence of baptism; no baptism.
abarognosis
1. Loss of ability to appreciate the weight of objects held in the hand, or to differentiate objects of different weights.2. Loss of the sense of weight; unaware of weight.3. When the primary senses are intact, caused by a lesion of the contralateral parietal lobe.
abasia
The inability to walk due to a limitation or absence of muscular coordination; not able to walk.
abiocoen, abiocen
The sum of all the nonliving components of an environment or habitat.

a, an: Grammatical Articles
(confusion exists about usage of "a" and "an" in front of other words)
The Inconsistent Articles "a" and "an"
Everyone who has a desire to improve his/her English skills should strive to develop fluency and accuracy by having access to information that presents a better understanding of the many confusing words that exist in English.
The proper use of "a" and "an"
There is an article on the proper use of "a" and "an" in just about every usage book ever written, although apparently few native speakers of English have any difficulty with them; in fact rarely does anyone think about them in speech.
If there is any difficulty, it is to be found in writing. The basic rules are as follows: Use "a" before a consonant sound; use "an" before a vowel sound. Before a letter or an acronym or before numerals, choose "a" or "an" according to the way the letter or numeral is pronounced: an FDA directive, a United Nations' resolution, a $50.00 bill.
As we might expect, actual usage is more complex than the simple rules tend to lead us to expect. Here are some of the things that actual usage shows:
In line with the basic rule, before words with an initial consonant sound, "a" is the usual application in speech and writing.
Before "h" in an unstressed or weakly stressed syllable, "a" and "an" are both used in writing (an historic, a historic) but an is more usual in speech, whether the "h" is pronounced or not. This variation exists as a result of historical development; in unstressed and weakly stressed syllables, "h" was formerly not pronounced in many words as it is currently pronounced by many people. A few words; such as, historic and (especially in England) hotel, are in transition, and may be found with either a or an. Apparently, people may now choose the article that suits their personal pronunciation preferences with several h words.
Occasionally in modern writing and speech and regularly in the King James Version of the Bible, an is used before "h" in a stressed syllable, as in an hundred. Again, we have the same historical change: many more words were pronounced with a silent initial "h" in the past than are in the present. A few words; such as, heir, hour, and honest, generally have silent "h"; some others, like herb or humble are pronounced both ways. Use a or an according to your personal pronunciation preferences.
Before words beginning with a consonant sound but an orthographic vowel, an is sometimes used in speech and writing (an unique and such an one). This use is less frequent now than in the past.
Before words with an initial vowel sound, an is usual in speech and writing. This is in line with the basic rule.

abacus
(Hebrew > Greek > Latin > Middle English: dust)
The Abacus, a History
The source of our word abacus, the Greek word abax, is thought to come from Hebrew 'abaq, "dust", although the details of such a transmission are obscure. In postbiblical usage 'abaq meant "sand used as a writing surface". The Greek word abax has as one of its senses "a board sprinkled with sand or dust for drawing geometric diagrams." The difference in form between the Middle English word abacus and its Greek source abax is explained by the fact that Middle English actually borrowed Latin abacus, which came from the Greek genitive form (abakos) of abax.
abacus (s); abaci (pl)
1. A manual computing device consisting of a frame holding parallel rods strung with movable counters.2. In architecture, a slab on the top of the capital of a column.

abdomino-, abdomin-, abdomen-
(Latin: belly, venter [the use of "stomach" is considered incorrect for this element])
abdomen
That portion of the body which lies between the lower thorax (chest) and the pelvis; or "the region of the trunk below the diaphragm, containing the largest cavity in the body". Also called belly (popular), venter, and stomach (incorrect). Derived from abdo, abdere, "to hide", and so probably originally referred to the "hidden part of the body".
abdominal, abdominally
Pertaining to the abdomen.
A stomach ache has been defined as an abominable pain in the abdominal area.
—Anonymous
"The stomach (which is in the abdominal area) is lined with thirty-five million glands that produce about three quarts (2.85 liters) of gastric juices daily. Hydrochloric acid makes up roughly five percent of these juices and, together with other acids and various enzymes, constantly works to digest food particles."
—Neil McAleer in his The Body Almanac
abdominalgia
Pain in the abdomen; a belly ache.
abdominoanterior
With the abdomen forward [denoting a position of the fetus in utero].
abdominocentesis
Paracentesis (surgical puncture of the abdominal wall cavity for the aspiration [removal by suction] of peritoneal fluid); i.e., puncturing of the abdomen with a hollow needle or trocar, usually for the purpose of withdrawing fluid.
abdominopelvic
Relating to the abdomen and pelvis, especially the combined abdominal and pelvic cavities.
abdominoplasty
An operation ["belly tuck"] performed on the abdominal wall for esthetic purposes and self esteem; an operation performed on the abdominal wall for esthetic purposes.

-ability
(Latin: a suffix )
Just a few examples out of hundres of words presented as the noun forms of -able; forming nouns of quality from, or corresponding to, adjectives in -able; the quality in an agent that makes an action possible. The suffix -ible has related meanings.
absorbability
The state or quality of being absorbable; capability of being absorbed.
accountability
1. The state of being accountable, liable, or answerable.2. Responsibility to someone or for some activity.3. In education: a policy of holding schools and teachers accountable for students' academic progress by linking such progress with funding for salaries, maintenance, etc.
achievability
The state or condition of being achievable.
affability, affableness
The quality of being affable; readiness to converse or be addressed; especially, by inferiors or equals; courteousness, civility, openness of manner.
applicability
Relevance by virtue of being applicable to the matter at hand.

-able
(Latin: a suffix; capable of, able to, can do)
A suffix that forms adjectives. The suffix -ible has related meanings; expressing ability, capacity, fitness; capable of, fit for, able to be done, can be done, inclined to, tending to, given to.
This list is only a small sample of the thousands of -able words that exist in Englsh.
abominable
A bad omen; nasty and disgusting; vile; loathsome.
accountable
acidifiable
Capable of being converted into, or of combining so as to form, an acid.
acquaintable
Easy to be acquainted with; affable.
adorable
advisable
affable
Easy of conversation or address; civil and courteous in receiving and responding to the conversation or address of others; especially, inferiors or equals; accostable, courteous, complaisant, benign.

Ablutions or Bathing, Historical Perspectives
(Latin: abluere, to wash away)
Ablutions from the Past to the Present
In a leading public health textbook of 1908, W.T. Sedgwick noted that because personal hygiene is a means to control infectious diseases, “the absence of dirt is not merely an esthetic adornment.” He added that cleanliness is “doubtless an acquired taste.”
Sedgwick’s comment came at a time of transition, when personal hygiene wasn’t a widespread habit.
Through great periods of European and much of U.S. history, clieanliness was inconvenient, religiously restricted, or just plain out of fashion.
Living unwashed were saints, the masses, and monarchs alike.
In response to the debauchery of Roman baths, the early Christian church frequently discouraged cleanliness. “To those that are well, and especially to the young,” Saint Benedict in the sixth century commanded, “bathing shall seldom be permitted.”
Saint Francis of Assisi considered an unwashed body a stinking badge of piety. Queen Isabella of Castile boasted that she had had only two baths in her life—at birth and before her marriage.
Colonial America’s leaders deemed bathing impure, since it promoted nudity, which could only lead to promiscuity.
Laws in Pennsylvania and Virginia either banned or limited bathing. For a time in Philadelphia, anyone who bathed more than once a month faced jail.
Bathing facilities often were not available
The English of that era really couldn’t bathe even if they wanted to, notes V. W. Greene, a professor of epidemiology at the Ben Gurion Medical School in Beersheva, Israel. “There was no running water, streams were cold and polluted, heating fuel was expensive, and soap was hard to get or heavily taxed. There just weren’t facilities for personal hygiene. Cleanliness wasn’t a part of the folk culture.”
Through much of the 19th century, adds Greene, Europeans and Americans lived in wretched filth, and many died young of associated diseases.
Archaeological evidence suggests 5,000-year-old bathing facilities in Gaza. Soaplike material found in clay jars of Babylonian origin has been dated to about 2800 B.C.
Before the time of Abraham in Middle Eastern desert climes, custom dictated that hosts offer washing water to guests to clean their feet.
One of the first known bathtubs comes from Minoan Crete that was found in the palace at Knossos and is dated about 1700 B.C.
The palace plumbing system had terra-cotta pipes that were jointed and cemented together and were tapered at one end to give water a shooting action to prevent the buildup of clogging sediment. Their technology put Minoans in the hydrological vanguard.
The ancients had their hygienic practices
The ancient Egyptians didn’t develop such plumbing, but they definitely liked hygiene which was evident in their use of fresh linen and body ointments, skin condioners, and deodorants of the day.
The Greeks apparently prized cleanliness. Although they apparently didn’t use soap, Greeks anointed their bodies with oil and ashes, scrubbed with blocks of pumice or sand, and scraped themselves clean with a curved metal instrument called a “strigil”. Immersion in water and anointment with olive oil followed their ablutions.
At its peak of ablutive excess, it may have seemed that all of Rome indulged in the baths. In the fourth century A.D., the city had eleven large and magnificent public bathhouses, more than 1,350 public fountains and cisterns, and many hundreds of private baths.
Served by thirteen aqueducts, Rome’s per-capita daily water consumption averaged about 300 gallons, nearly what an American family of four uses today.
Roman baths usually opened at midday, just as sportsmen finished their games or exercises. A bather first entered the “tepidarium”, a moderately warm room for sweating and lingering.
Next came the “calidarium”, a hotter room for greater sweating, or perhaps the ultrahot "laconicum".
In these the bather doused himself with copious quantities of warm, tepid, or cold water.
Scraped off with a strigil, sponged and reanointed, the Roman concluded the process by plunging into the cool and refreshing pool of the “frigitarium”.
Rome’s obsession with bathing is said to be a factor that helped send the empire down the drain.
Early Christian leaders condemned bathing as unspiritual
“The father’s of the early church equated bodily cleanliness with the luxuries, materialism, paganism and what’s been called ‘the monstrous sensualities’ of Rome,” explains Professor Greene.
Within a few centuries, the public and private sanitation practices of Greece and Rome were forgotten; or, as Greene adds, were “deliberately repressed.”
Europe during the Middle Ages, it’s often been said, went a thousand years without a bath.
Gregory the Great, the first monk to become pope, allowed Sunday baths and even commended them, so long as they didn’t become a “time-wasting luxury.”
Guardians of culture and knowledge during the Dark Ages, Europe’s monasteries also preserved some of Rome’s hydrological technology and cleanliness habits.
Elaborate plumbing laid in 1150 served the Christchurch Monastery at Canterbury, with settling tanks to purify water, and branches that fed the kitchen, the laver, and the washouse.
Greene stated, “People always talk about the good old days, before pesticides and pollution; but in the good old days of Europe and the United States, people lived in filth, with human and animal fecal matter all around. The rivers were filthy. Clothing was infested with vermin.”
Cleanliness leads to better health
Although scholars point to advances in medical science; such as, vaccines and antibiotics, as the major factors in turning the tide against disease, the changes in personal and domestic hygiene should be given considerable credit for improvements in better health conditions.
“For one thing,” Greene explains, “pasteurization and vaccines didn’t really come along until the mortality decline was well established. That’s not to say vaccines weren’t important. But nearly 40 diseases are transmitted by feces, urine, and other secretions on contaminated hands or other objects. The greatest cause of fatal infant diarrhea came from mothers who went to the toilet, didn’t wash their hands and passed along intestinal bacteria to their babies.”
Body ordor is not caused by the human body or sweat itself. The skin has more than two million sweat glands, and the perspiration that comes from the abundant eccrine sweat glands is fundamentally clear and odorless.
Common skin flora, consisting of several kinds of benign bacteria, feed off the secretions and skin particles on the body and clothing. In the process of eating and eliminating waste, the bacteria cause the stench.
Most people rely on soap and water to get rid of the sweat that bacteria eat. Since soap contains fats, oils, and alkali; it loosens the bonds that hold dirt, oil, and bacteria to the skin and suspends them in water.
Some experts say that the way to get really clean is to soak and to wash in a bathtub and then to shower off the “floating soap and body-oil slick” that clings to the body when a person stands up in the tub.
Even in our “modern age”, too many people who should know better, do not wash their hands after using a toilet.
Cleanliness, via ablutions, is one of the most important ways to maintain good health.
abluto-, ablut-
(Latin: washing; especially as a ritual; cleansing)
From Latin ab- and luere, "to wash" which is related to lavare, "to wash".


abluent
1. Serving to cleanse.2. A cleansing agent; a detergent.
ablution
1. A cleansing of the body, especially in a religious ceremony.2. The liquid used in such a washing.
ablutionary
1. Of or pertaining to washing the body, or parts of it.2. Cleansing the body by washing; especially, ritual washing of the hands, etc.
ablutions
This may refer to the practice of removing sins, diseases or earthly defilements through the use of ritual washing, or the practice of using ritual washing as one part of a ceremony to remove sin or disease.
ablutomania
1. An obsessional preoccupation with cleanliness, washing, or bathing, often accompanied by compulsive rituals.2. An obsessive-compulsive disorder is very often seen in a condition; such as, obsessive-compulsive psychoneurosis.3. A morbid impulse to wash or to bathe, or an incessant preoccupation with thought of frequent hand-washing, or bathing; often seen as an obsessive-compulsive disorder.
-ably, a suffix;
(able manner, capably)
In an able manner, or capably; forming adverbs corresponding to adjectives in -able.
adorably
amiably
Friendly and agreeable in disposition; good-natured and likeable.
amicably
comfortably
comparably
conceivably
creditably
despicably
determinably
durably
Capable of withstanding wear or decay.
formidably
habitably
incomparably
justifiably
laudably
Deserving praise.
abort-, aborti-
(Latin: miscarry, pass away, perish by an untimely birth)
abort, aborted, aborting
1. To give birth before the fetus is viable; have a miscarriage; to fail to be completed.2. To cut short because of some failure in equipment: "To abort a flight because of radio failure."3. Originally, "to set" or "to disappear" (as the sun). Composed of ab-, "from" and oriri- "to arise"; the part of the sky, or the world, in which the sun rises; the East.
aborticide
The killing of a fetus during an abortion.
aborticide, feticide
The killing of a fetus.
abortifacient
A drug or device that causes an abortion or kills the fetus before birth.
abortion, abortional
1. Expulsion of a fetus from the womb before it is viable; however, medical personnel will also u
e this term for a miscarriage, which is involuntary, calling it a "spontaneous abortion".2. Induced termination of pregnancy before the fetus is capable of independent survival.3. Anything that fails to develop, progress, or mature; such as, a design, project, or a badly developed plan, etc.4. To miscarry, to disappear.4. Etymology: ab-, "from, away from" and oriri, "to come into being, to rise, to be born".
aboulo-, aboul-, abulo-, abul-
(Greek: irresolution, indecision, loss or defect of the ability to make decisions)
aboulia, abulia
1. Loss or impairment of the ability to perform voluntary actions or to make decisions.2. Loss of will-power, as a mental disorder.3. Reduction in speech, movement, thought, and emotional reaction; a common result of bilateral frontal lobe disease.
aboulias, abulias
Loss or impairment of the ability to make decisions or act independently.
aboulic, abulic
Relating to or suffering from aboulia/abulia.
aboulomania, abulomania
A mental disorder in which there is a loss of will-power.
abulia, abulic
1. Absence of willpower or wishpower; the term implies that the subject has a desire to do something but the desire is without power or energy.2. A disorder marked by the partial or total inability to make decisions.
paraboulia, parabulia
Perversion of volition or will in which one impulse is checked and replaced by another.

Rome

Augustus Summary
Augustus known as Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus for the period of his life prior to 27 BC, was the first and among the most important of the Roman Emperors.
Although he preserved the outward form of the Roman Republic, he ruled as an autocrat for 41 years, and his rule is the dividing line between the Republic and theRoman Empire. He ended a century of civil wars and gave Rome an era of peace, prosperity, and imperial greatness, known as the Pax Romana, or Roman peace.

Julius Caesar
Gāius Jūlius Caesar was a Roman military and political leader and one of the most influential men in world history. He played a critical role in the transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire. His conquest of Gaul extended the Roman world all the way to the Atlantic Ocean, and he was also responsible for the first Roman invasion of Britain in 55 BC. Caesar was widely considered to be one of the foremost military geniuses of his time, as well as a brilliant politician and one of the ancient world's strongest leaders.Leading his legions across the Rubicon, Caesar sparked civil war in 49 BC that left him the undisputed master of the Roman world. After assuming control of the government, he began extensive reforms of Roman society and government. He was proclaimed dictator for life, and he heavily centralized the bureaucracy of the Republic. This forced the hand of a friend of Caesar, Marcus Junius Brutus who then conspired with others to murder the dictator and restore the Republic. This dramatic assassination occurred on the Ides of March in 44 BC and led to another Roman civil war. In 42 BC, two years after his assassination, the Roman Senate officially sanctified him as one of the Roman deities.Caesar's military campaigns are known in detail from his own written Commentaries and many details of his life are recorded by later historians, such as Appian, Seutions, Plutarch, Cassius Dio and Strabo. Other information can be gleaned from other contemporary sources, such as the letters and speeches of Caesar's political rival Cicero, the poetry of Catallus and the writings of the historian Sallust.


My Questions
1. What did Caesar, Pompey and Crassus form?
They formed the First Triumvirate, which was a political union that dealt a death blow to Rome's Republican system of government.

2. The Romans governed most of what?
They governed most of the mediterranean with the exception of Egypt.

3. Who made Caesar's heir and took up the political legacy of Caesar and entered the mainstream of Roman politics?
Keith Bradley

Home Team's Questions
4. What class did the equestrian class form?
They formed the calvary, then grew to businessmen.

5. What were some of appropriate occupations?
Some appropriate occupations were tax collectors, miners, exporters, bankers, and nitrators of public contracts such as road and aquaduct buildings.

6. What are the different classes pf designators?
Senators, patricians, equestrians, plebeisans, slaves, freedmen and non-Roman citizens

7. What visually separated each class?
clothing--the emporers wore purple togas

8. From what background did hte slaves come from?
prisoners of war and sailors taken as prisoners

9. How well did the slaves fit in society?
The slaves were not well liked, they were seen only as poeple to do the work that needed to be done

10. Who were senators?
The rulers of the government

11. How were senators appointed?
went through gradual stages f power that were elected

12. What were patricians?
Patricians were privileged families in military, religious and political means

13. When was Owlus Caesar assassinated?
44 BC

14. When did the conquest of Britain begin?
43 BC

15. What is a plebian?
All free Roman citizens who are not part o fthe Patrician or Equestrian classes

16. What do they do?
Plebians are farmers, bankers, builders and artisans