Aiden's Words of the Week

My first word is "echolalia." I ran into this word while reading F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby and just thought it sounded cool. Fitzgerald uses it as the indiscernible echo of background voices heard in a large crowd, but the OED online defines it as:

1. a. Pathol. The meaningless repetition of words and phrases. 1. b. Educational Psychol. The repetition of words and phrases by a child that is learning to speak.

2. A depreciatory term for a succession of sounds in poetry which subordinates sense to sound.

Georges Seurat (French, 1859-1891). The Echo (study for Bathing Places, Asnières), 1883. Conté crayon on paper. 12 5/16 x 9 7/16 in. (31.2 x 24 cm). Bequest of Edith Malvina K. Wetmore.

© Yale University Art Gallery

"echolalia, n.". OED Online. September 2013. Oxford University Press. 7 December 2013 <http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/59335?redirectedFrom=echolalia>.

My second word is “somnambulatory.” I also ran into this word while reading The Great Gatsby, but, unlike “echolalia,” I could not find the word as it exists in the OED online, nor on dictionary.com., which made me more interested in the word. As it exists, the word is being used as an adjective. However, there is a different form of the word as “somnambulate,” which is used as a verb and means: to walk during sleep; trans., to walk along (a place) while asleep. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald is using the adjectival form to modify the noun “abstraction,” so as to describe a person absorbed in a kind of daydreaming.

"somn-, comb. form". OED Online. September 2013. Oxford University Press. 7 December 2013 <http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/184510?redirectedFrom=somnambulate>.

My last word is “ferule.” I ran into this word while reading Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior. I chose it because I had never heard of it before, and, in many ways, I’m glad, because it is a piece of rod or cane that teachers used to strike poor students, usually across the hand. It’s used in both the noun and verb form; the verb just meaning to strike with a ferule. Ironically, ferule is pronounced almost identically to the word feral: meaning wild or savage, and I thought that one could create some interesting word play between ferule and feral children if they were so inclined. When looking for the definition of ferule, I was surprised that the OED online didn’t have what I thought was an adequate definition, but dictionary.com did. I’ve posted the link below:

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/ferule?s=t