Friday, April 18, 2008

Misocainia

I posted about "misocainia" on Wordcraft, a new word I found today here: http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&id=eV8SAAAAIAAJ&dq=onomatology&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=OnZFCRANFh&sig=jAi1YbOeqF1Dgq7VKcF_K2ci5JA#PPA5,M1
According to this 1908 text, it means a "deep rooted inclination to combat new ideas." Luciferous Logolepsy was the only dictionary I could find it in, and it defines it as "hatred of anything new or strange, such as new ideas." "Misocainia" only has 152 hits on Google, though it is posted on the Wordie Web site as meaning, "hatred of anything new or strange."

Interestingly, the author of the 1908 text said that "misocainia," as long as it is not manifested in a dishonorable manner, is natural. It would seem that way as people are often skeptical of new ideas, which isn't all bad. However, the author goes on to say that "misocainia" expressed in malevolent misrepresentations is "phrenitis," which is defined by Onelook as "madness" or violent and temporary derangement of mental faculties."

It's always nice to find a new word...one that even seems rarer than "epicaricacy."

3 comments:

Cat Herself said...

So, if someone suffers from severe misocainia, would they be called a misocainiac? I work with some people like that, and I have needed a good word to describe them.

Cat Herself said...

And by the way, I'm not just posting here to humor you - I like your blog so far!

Kalleh said...

Well, thanks. I have been busy, but will try to reciprocate. I like yours, too, but I haven't gotten into responding to Bloggers at this point...unless it's something from Language Log, or another well-known log, that really irritates me. I have also responded the the Chicago Tribune Blogs.