Preprandial Conversations with a Quidnunc and a Ragabash

Another week and another look at some unusual, interesting and rarely used words. We are certainly racing through the alphabet and we have already arrived at the letter “p”. We could look at postprandial, meaning after a meal. We may, for example, say we took a postprandial stroll by the meandering river. This, of course is opposed to taking a preprandial stroll, meaning before a meal. Or we may prefer to consider posthumous, occurring after death. You may have heard of someone receiving a posthumous award after their death, or you can have a posthumous book, published after the writer’s death. It is also possible to speak of a posthumous child, being a child born after the death of its father. There again we could look at plethora, meaning a large quantity or abundance. However, if you are looking for something even more obscure how about panurgic, an adjective meaning skilled and adept at all kinds of work, ready and able to do anything! I think that has to be my favourite word beginning with “p”.

Onto “q” and, obviously, not quite such a wide selection to choose from. As we all know, in English, generally the letter q is followed by the letter u. However there are a few exceptions, although these tend to be loan words, words that are borrowed from another language such as qabalah, a Jewish form of mysticism or qadi, a Muslim judge.  For those that follow the q followed by u rule how about qualtagh. This may be the first individual a person meets after leaving his or her home; and can also refer to a “first footer”, that is the first person to enter one’s home in the New Year. This unusual word is from a form of Gaelic known as Manx, which is spoken on the Isle of Man. Unfortunately, this language is rarely spoken today, although I am pleased to advise that there is an effort to revive its use. I couldn’t move on from the “q” words, without taking a peek at quidnunc – an inquisitive and gossipy person, a real busybody! This word dates back to the early 1700’s and is derived from the Latin quid nunc, which literally means what now?

I recently stumbled across a word that was previously unknown to me, riziform, meaning shaped like a grain of rice. If there are any dentists out there, it may be a term you are familiar with as I believe it is sometimes used to describe a person’s tooth!  To complete this week’s blog I thought you may be interested in a few unusual insulting terms! How about ragabash, meaning an idle and worthless fellow.  You may prefer runagate, meaning a deserter, a defector, a fugitive or renegade.  On the other hand we have rampallian, a scoundrel and a rascal – a mean wretch!  Of course none of these terms would refer to anyone reading this blog. Enough said.

 

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