Word Watch 16, "Ellen"

Again, driven by my thesis topic, I decided to look into the teller of Heathcliff's story in Wuthering Heights, Nelly Dean, or Ellen.
Charlotte Bronte claims that if the reader wants to see a figure who is strong and loyal, a figure of compassion, to look to Ellen Dean. Again, this is one of those things I've looked into that may or may not have an significance in terms of authorial intent, but my result was interesting nonetheless.
According to the OED, Ellen means "strength, courage" and "strength vouchsafed, comfort, grace" and finally, in Old English, "zeal." These definitions fit Nelly Dean perfectly. She has a certain loyalty to those she serves: Cathy Earnshaw Linton (even though she disapproves of Cathy's actions), Healthcliff (even though she doesn't understand and is manipulated by him), and Cathy Linton Heathcliff. She has the strength (possibly the only one) to remain sane and steadfast throughout the entire novel when everyone around her is affected by trauma, grief, sadness, and despair; people die sad, lonely, vengeful deaths, are separated from each other, blackmailed, manipulated. Yet, she alone remains capable of keeping her wits about her through and through. Even to Heathcliff she is a comfort: she lets him see Cathy when she is ill and dying, tries to take care of him--to get him to eat and sleep--and takes pity on him as a child.
Again, whether Emily Bronte chose to name Nelly Nelly, is beyond me. And yet, somehow, whether intentionally or not, it fits perfectly. This reminds me of Harry Potter, where the wand choses the wizard, not the other way around; in this case, maybe the name chose the character, instead of the author choosing the name.

Word Watch 15, "sesquipedalian"

Today in rhetoric, we learned about Herbert Spencer, who thought that simple words were better because they required less energy to be spent in determining their meaning, unless one wants to evoke an emotional response. If an emotional response is in the interest of the speaker, then "sesquipedalian verbiage" is recommended by Mr. Spencer because words with longer syllables give the listener more time to think about them as he or she ingests them. OK.

I realize sesquipedalian verbiage isn't an entirely difficult phrase to figure out--big words, specifically "of many syllables" according to the OED. The entries for sesquipedalia are absolutely delightful. But back on track, a sesquipedal is one 6 1/2 feet tall. Is it ironic that sesquipedalian is six syllables?

What a fun word. Dr. Benkert asked us to use it in a sentence today: "Carl enjoys employing sesquipedalian verbiage; he believes one use of language is to confuse those who don't understand big words." Does this count?

Word Watch 14, "wordmonger"

So, I love The Lord of the Rings. I was looking up words on the OED, and I came across wordmonger. Immediately I thought of Wormtongue's accusing Eomer of "warmongering." I assumed this meant searching needlessly for something against which to defend his people, searching out war. Applying the definition on the OED, this makes sense as originally wordmonger meant "a person who deals in strange, pedantic, or empty words." So a warmonger would be one who deals with empty or meaningless war (even though this is a false accusation made by Wormtongue against Eomer).
Now, wordmonger has come to mean "a person skilled in the use of words." This makes sense, even though it wasn't the original meaning, in the context of Wormtongue's use of the warmongering, as well, as Eomer is a skilled warrior. Wormtongue is annoyed that Eomer notices too much of what he is doing "behind the scenes"--Eomer sees too much of what Wormtongue doesn't want anyone to see--which is the attacks of the goblins bearing the mark of Saruman, Wormtongue's master. In other words, Eomer is too skilled at being a warrior and a defender of his people, and is therefore not falsely accused of being a warmonger.

Cool.

Word Watch 13, "wuther"

I often wonder if we readers read further into a text than what the author ever intended. I know, as an English major, that this is true, but to what extent? In doing my research for my thesis, I came across an article by Steven Vine entitled "The Wuther of the Other in Wuthering Heights." Vine looked into the definition of wuther:
       "According to the OED a 'wuther' (a variant of Scots and dialect English 'whither') can mean 'an
       attack, onset; a smart blow or stroke' (the house, in this sense, is constantly under attack from the
       outside); but it can also mean 'to tremble, shake, quiver,' so that 'wuthering' names 'a quivering
       movement' or 'a tremble' that convulses from within rather than attacks from without" (340).
Vine views Heathcliff, as the other in the novel, as the source of the Heights' wuthering from the inside and the outside. Heathcliff, Vine argues, is both a part of the Earnshaw family and excluded from the Earnshaw family, and so he attacks from within the family and from without.

The argument of Heathcliff as the wuthering force in Wuthering Heights is completely legitimate. And yet, I wonder if Emily Bronte intended it to be thus. Would Wuthering Heights wuther without the force of Heathcliff, or is Heathcliff the sole reason for the onslaught of wuthering? These are among the questions I like to ask as an English major. I wish I could ask her; then again, no matter how she'd answer, the debate would either be squashed or fueled, and I like the speculation.