Languagey odds and ends

Earlier English had a fair number of words with short vowel in the context [f_____k]; cf. (38). Except for the well-known taboo word (not listed in (38)), none of these have survived as independent words, presumably in large measure because they sounded too similar to the tabooed word. Dates given in parentheses refer to the last attestation of given items.

(38)

fuk (a sail) (1529)
fac 'factotum' (1841)
feck 'effect, efficiency' (1887) (now only 'Scots Engl.' feckless)
fack/feck (one of the stomachs of a ruminant) (1887)
feck(s)/fack(s) '(in) faith, (in) fact' (1891)

— Hans Hock, Principles of Historical Lingustics (1991). Striking, the lengths to which even such a recent scholar will go to avoid a taboo word.

ΕΧΠΛΗΚΗΘ ΛΗΒΕΡ XV
ΑΜΑΛ
ΦΕΛΗΚΗΘΕΡ ΔΩ ΓΡΑ
ΒΕΡΤΟC
ΚΗΑC ΑΜΕΝ ΦΗΝΗΘ
ΜΕ ΦΕ ΚΗΘ
ΦΗΝΙC ΙCΘΑ ΓΑΟΔΙ
ΟΜ ΜΑΓΝΟΜ Ε

— From Chartres MS 152, St Augustine De Trinitate, 10th-century: a Latin explicit in Greek characters. Transliterated: Ekhplēkēth Lēber XV / Amal / Phelēkēther Dō Gra / Bertos / Kēas Amen Phēnēth / Me Phe Kēth / Phēnis Istha Gaodi / Om Magnom E. In Latin: Explicit [note that Latin 'x' has been wrongly written with a chi] Liber XV Feliciter D[e]o Gracias Amen Finit / Amalbertus Me Fecit / Finis Ista Gaudium Magnum E[st].

Talking of bad Latin, a recent Hollywood blockbuster has been advertised with a poster of its leading lady, her arm bearing the tattooed words 'TENEO VESTRI VOX'. This is ungrammatical and meaningless. And so assorted internetizens plug away in vain. I couldn't help but wonder if the phrase was chosen specially for its meaninglessness: as I put it to Steve, 'Get them talking and arguing—they'll never stop, because it doesn't mean anything to begin with.' A bizarre method of viral marketing?

(Two new Continental words, both usable in English. French abracadabrant, 'preposterous', and German Urdummheit, 'primordial stupidity'.)

Neologism, in revolutionary times, is not an infirmity of caprice, seeking (to use the proverb of Cervantes), 'for better bread than is made of wheat', but is a mere necessity of the unresting intellect.

— Thomas de Quincey, 'Language', date uncertain.

nigri manus ossea Mauri
et cui per mediam nolis occurrere noctem,
clivosae veheris dum per monumenta Latinae

The bony hand of a blackamoor
Whom you'd not want to meet in the middle of the night
As you drove past the monuments on the hilly Latin Way

— Juvenal. The ancestor of our 'Wouldn't want to meet him in a dark alley'?