Words from class, week 3

Mullet, /ˈmələt/

What it means:  "A hairstyle, worn esp. by men, in which the hair is cut short at the front and sides, and left long at the back" (OED).

Where it comes from: The hairstyle may be old, but the word is comparatively new. According to the OED, the origin is not quite clear, but what is clear is that the word was popularized in the song "Mullet Head" by the Beastie Boys. Nice entry from 1995:

The Mullet does not discriminate, though it is rare to see one worn by a senior citizen of any stripe.

Urban Dictionary offers the following synonyms (half of which I don't get -- can anyone help out?): Ape Drape. Beaver Paddle. Bi - Level. Camero Cut. Buisness in the front, Party in the back. Canadian passport. Coupe Longveuil. El-camino. Hockey hair. Kentucky waterfall. Missouri comprimise. Mudflap. Neckwarmer. Ranchero. Shlonc (short + long). Achy-breaky-bad-mistakey. Soccer rocker. Squirrel pelt. Tennessee tophat. Yep-nope.

In case you enjoy looking at mullets, there's a "Rate My Mullet" website...




Aphasia  /əˈfeɪzɪə/

What it means: "Loss of speech, partial or total, or loss of power to understand written or spoken language, as a result of disorder of the cerebral speech centres" (OED)

Where it comes from: The word comes from Greek via Latin. In Greek, it means something like "without speech."  The first entry in the OED is from 1867 ("A musician, the subject of aphasia,...who had lost the ability to read and write as well as to speak").

Broca's aphasia (the type associated with halting speech and agrammatism) is named after the French surgeon Pierre Paul Broca, Wernicke's aphasia (the type associated with fluent speech that lacks coherence) is named after the German neurologist Karl Wernicke.

The picture shows where Broca's and Wernicke's areas are located in the brain (we will discuss this in greater detail later in the semester).

Auxiliary  /ɔːɡˈzɪlɪərɪ/

Can be used as noun or adjective.

What it means: A verbal element used to inflect another verb with regard to tense (present/past), mood, voice (active/passive), and aspect.

Where it comes from: "auxiliary" comes from the Latin word for 'help,' "auxilium."

Please note that second "i" is not silent. The pronunciaton of "auxiliary" is different from how one would pronounce the word "auxillary" (which is a word that doesn't exist).