Wisdom's Kiss (52 page)

DOWAGER (DOW•uh•ger) A
dowry
was the property that a bride brought to her marriage. A
dower,
on the other hand, was the property that a bride and groom agreed she would receive should he die first. The dower could include the dowry (in other words, the bride would get her own family's property back) and other holdings as well, including land or a title. Thus, a woman receiving a dower was a
dowager:
a widow controlling property inherited from her dead spouse. These days, however, the word
dowager
is used to describe any older, dignified woman.
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EAVESDROPPER (EVES•drop•er)
Eavesdrop
is an extinct Middle English term for the land closest to a house, the area onto which water from the eaves would drop. Someone lurking within this eavesdrop might readily overhear conversations, particularly given the quality of home construction in medieval England, and the lurker came to be known as an eavesdropper. It's a pity the original definition of eavesdrop fell out of favor, as there isn't another word for the two or three feet of soil abutting a building's foundation.
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ELDORADO (el•door•AH•doe) "The Golden One" or "Gilded One" in Spanish, El Dorado was a mythical country or city of gold sought by the Spanish conquistadors, who ended up finding the Amazon River instead. It has since come to denote an often illusory place or destination of great wealth.
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ENCEINTE (ehn-SAINT) [From Latin
incingere,
"to gird in"]
Enceinte
means both "a fortified enclosure" (or the wall itself) and "pregnant"; both senses are archaic. English has few tasteful terms for pregnancy, probably because pregnancy was considered too vulgar to discuss in polite company. (The Victorians, for example, referred to a woman's
confinement,
which sounds like she was in prison, though prison at least would have been better than the death that concluded far too many Victorian pregnancies.)
Enceinte
has the added advantage of being so obscure that most listeners probably wouldn't know it and would be too intimidated by its Frenchness to ask.
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ENSORCELLED (en•SOR•seld) [From French
sorcier,
"sorcerer"] Enchanted; the verb
ensorcel
can mean "to bewitch" and also "to fascinate."
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FORTITUDE (FOR•tih•tude) Courage in the face of adversity or pain.
Fortitude, fortress,
and
fortify
all derive from the strapping Latin
fortis,
or "strong"; a student's forte (FOR•tay), or strength, might be spelling, naptime, or gym.
Fortitude
implies emotional strength: one has courage to enter a fistfight, but fortitude to resist the taunting.
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LADY-IN-WAITING A
lady-in-waiting
was an attendant—usually well-born herself, and most definitely not a servant, thus not paid—to a princess or a queen. A lady-in-waiting might be a trustworthy relative who served as a confidante, or a noblewoman who took the position as a form of title. Depending on the country, era, and individuals involved, a lady-in-waiting might be expected to accompany her lady on her travels, to serve ceremonial functions at public events, or to perform such tasks as writing letters, sewing, dancing, or performing music.
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MELANCHOLIA (mell'un'COAL'e'a) [From Greek
melan,
"black" + khole, "bile"] Profound sadness; historically, depression. From ancient times until well into the nineteenth century, physicians believed that four fluids, or
humors
, controlled the human body. These four fluids—
phlegm
(phlegm),
sanguine
(blood),
choler
(yellow bile), and
melancholy
(black bile)—bore a corresponding mood: impassive (
phlegmatic
), optimistic (sanguine), angry (choleric), and depressed (melancholic), emotional descriptors that are still in use today—although without the leeches, vomiting, and purges that traditionally accompanied treatment of the cardinal humors. The concept that one's humors affected disposition evolved into the notion that
humor
meant "mindset" or "inclination"—"My boss was in a foul humor today"—and from there the idea that humoring someone would improve their mood. Thus the modern definition of
humor
as "amusement" or "comedy."
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