Tuesday, April 15, 2008

365* New Words a Year [Merriam Webster] (Workman Publishing) 2/19/8: oppugn AND 4/11/8: repugn

oppugn v 1: to fight against 2: to call in question
repugn v : to contend against : oppose
Less than two months apart, we have the words repugn and oppugn, two transitive verbs that mean roughly the same thing. The Did You Know parts of both calendar pages tell us they share the same Latin root as repugnant, pugnacious, pungent, and impugn. So why a calendar page for both words? Why is it important to reinforce this idea of opposition, to iterate this concept? I have no idea. Usually the M-W folks just list fun related words on the back and give us the slight variations. But I guess the randomizer gave these words and they weren't caught. From what I'm reading in the DYK sections, it looks like oppugn allows for fighting physically (example given is "the dictatorship will oppugn all who appose it") or verbal fighting ("oppugn an argument"). Repugn is probably more on the lines of oppose. Rating 6/10
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A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words, and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said to-day. — 'Ah, so you shall be sure to be misunderstood.' — Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood. --Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Self-Reliance"