{"id":26861,"date":"2016-11-05T08:05:20","date_gmt":"2016-11-05T15:05:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/franklycurious.com\/wp\/?p=26861"},"modified":"2016-11-05T23:27:02","modified_gmt":"2016-11-06T06:27:02","slug":"caducity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/franklycurious.com\/wp\/2016\/11\/05\/caducity\/","title":{"rendered":"Odd Words: Caducity"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Caducity\"It’s been over two weeks, but finally I am getting around to page 36 of The New York Times Everyday Reader’s Dictionary of Misunderstood, Misused, and Mispronounced Words: Revised Edition<\/em><\/a>. There are a lot of strange and useless words on this page. But I’ve picked a good word that seems like I should have known it: caducity.<\/p>\n

Caducity Is Not a Musical Word<\/h2>\n

This page had a number of words I knew from music. And I learned something. The word “cadence” means both “the beat or measure of any rhythmical motion” and<\/em> “a sequence of chords showing the end of a section or phrase.” Now, I knew both those words, but I was never certain if they were exactly the same word or if they were spelled differently. I know “cadence” well because I studied music theory. But the first definition is one I know only because I was in marching band in high school.<\/p>\n

Another cool music word is “cadenza.” Now you might think this is related to “cadence,” but it isn’t. A cadenza is “an elaborate ostentatious passage for a solo instrument in a concerto, aria, etc.” They are often improvised or written by the performer. In my experience, they are dreadful. They are there for the purpose of showing off. Think: the classical music equivalent to a rock drum solo.<\/p>\n

Other Words<\/h3>\n

There were a number of property words. For example, “cadastral,” which is “of or pertaining to property boundaries.” There were a couple more related words. But then there was “cairn” which is “a heap of stones serving as a landmark. There were many others that I didn’t know that had nothing to do with property, of course. For example: calathiform. How I got this far not having a word to describe something shaped like a cup, I can’t say. No, wait! I can! I just say, “Shaped like a cup.”<\/p>\n

All right, here we go: caducity.<\/p>\n

Ca·du·ci·ty<\/strong>  noun<\/em>  \\ke-‘dü-sə-tē\\<\/p>\n

1. senility.<\/p>\n

2. the quality of being transitory; impermanence.<\/p>\n

Date: mid 18th century.<\/p>\n

Origin: from French, caducit\u00e9<\/em>, which means (Maybe?) “deciduous nature.” But it comes from the Latin word caducus<\/em>, which is an adjective meaning “that falls” or “has fallen.” It was especially used in reference to warriors, as in, “He has fallen in battle.”<\/p>\n

Example: This is also seen in <\/em>The Pope’s Body, where Paravicini Bagliani inscribes the death of the pope within a dialectic of caducity and glorification.<\/em> —Jo\u00eblle Rollo-Koster, in Death in Medieval Europe: Death Scripted and Death Choreographed<\/a><\/em>.<\/div>\n

Image cropped from Senility<\/a> by Kamil Porembi\u0144ski<\/a>. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0<\/a>.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s been over two weeks, but finally I am getting around to page 36 of The New York Times Everyday Reader’s Dictionary of Misunderstood, Misused, and Mispronounced Words: Revised Edition. There are a lot of strange and useless words on … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26863,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[86],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-odd-words"],"yoast_head":"\nCaducity (Odd Words) - The Fallen of War Becomes Senility<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Our odd word today is caducity. It means senility. But it has an interesting history. 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