Wednesday, January 14, 2009

gravid

Okay, I do already know what this word means. But that's not without getting it wrong in the first place. I was talking with some friends at work today. One said that when she read the galley for Angels of Destruction, the new novel by Keith Donahue, she found herself having to look up about two words per page. A couple of us asked, give us an example. 'Gravid' was the one she came up with. She asked, "Do you know it?" I guessed "Stagnant?"

I guessed wrong.

'Gravid' means 'pregnant.'

So the other friend asked, does that mean that we can say, "She is gravid?"

I'm guessing it does mean that, but that it has passed out of common usage. This is the point I will now explore.

I am still not sure why 'gravid' seems to have passed out of the common parlance as regards to human pregnancy. It does have its origins in the Latin "gravis" or heavy, and so means 'heavy with child', or in the last stages of pregnancy. But the examples I see of its use have little to do with women being pregnant at this point, or at least not until their pregnancy has been rendered either biological or medical. Many other species are cited as gravid with eggs or young, but it does begin to seem like a word that's being used to make pregnancy and birth, i.e., the bearing and delivery of new life into something very scientific and amenable to study.

Oh, I can'' wait to ask some friend who is showing, "Oh, how gravid are you?" I'm sure that will meet with a polite reply.

Keith Donohue, you are on my list. I read The Stolen Child and loved the premise and the writing, but it didn't totally fulfill its potential for me. But I'm sure that I missed much of the word play. I always do. I'll have to look at the new one more consciously.

29 comments:

  1. You mean gravid isn't what one pours over turkey or brisket?
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    Detectives Beyond Borders
    "Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
    http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/

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  2. You know in our beloved Nrn Irn gravid is what you do when you're reaching for something,

    voice drops an octave

    "quick me glass is about to fall can ye gravid..."

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  3. No, Peter. Gravid is what our word vericator might call something that is covered with, well, gravi.

    Adrian, the Nrn Irn definitions will either add a whole new dimension to these musings or shut them down completely. It's too early to tell.

    Actually, I'm headed off to a birthday gathering for a friend in a bar this evening, and I can't wait to see if I can work a little Nrn Irn into the conversation. Although it's more likely to be "Quick me glass is almost empty. Can ye fill it?" Not too Irish really, but I'm pragmatic.

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  4. Another word you might like, though possibly of greater interest in areas of the U.S. other than yours, is gelid, which I have never once heard pronounced.

    Drinking and Northern Ireland -- I had lunch with Gerard Brennan (of Criem Scene NI) in Belfast. He ordered a Carlsberg.
    ==============
    Detectives Beyond Borders
    “Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home”
    http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/

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  5. Peter

    He's young. In time he will come to regret. I've tortured him quite a bit about it already.

    In Nrn Irn it would be "howl on big man, wassat pachle in yon baker, you're no stuffing Carlisberg in yer bake? Wise up, ya ganch ya, getta ya mun's drink so ah will."

    which I will say to him at my next No Alibis gig.

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  6. It's funny, but that's exactly what I said to him.

    No, I said, "Will you not have a wee dram of sherry, just?"

    Gerard seemed like a nice guy, but that was before I told the world what he drinks with lunch. Should I be afraid to show my face in Belfast again?

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  7. No--you should be afeard.

    Not another word I've read but don't know so soon! And of course now, I'm bound to ask whether someone is gelid by accident. I better just not ask anyone anything at all.

    I'm guessing from your comment, Peter, that is a weather or climate word, and hoping that the 'gel-' contains some merest glimpse of a clue, I am going to say it means something like frozen or icy. In fact,gelato! I must be getting warm. Or I should say cold.

    Speaking of 'gravid', my friend did mention that Donohue actually used it in a sentence about being gravid with thought. I shouldn't fault him without having read the actual line, but I did think, oh, come on. In what literary sentence is that not a bit too much?

    Adrian, when family and friends from home come visit you in the land of Oz, do you just sit around talking Nrn Irn for hours and hours over a baker of this and a baker of that? Because I would. I mean, you must miss it at times. (I didn't get 'pachle', though at first I thought I did.)

    I wasn't able to work in the previous phrase tonight, as for quite awhile I was having a hard time getting a drink at all.

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  8. "I am going to say it means something like frozen or icy. In fact,gelato! I must be getting warm. Or I should say cold."

    You're hot. Dead on, as a matter of fact. Or spot on, if you were British and, it transpires, bang on if you were Indian.

    Gravid is what Sir Isaac Newton was so excited about having discovered that he got drunk. He said: "I dishcovered gravid-- hic! gravity thish afternoon."
    ==============
    Detectives Beyond Borders
    "Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
    http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/

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  9. a pochle or pochle is a wee mess or something messed up.

    hence my mother's frequent "ye canna go out like tha sure you're a pochle"

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  10. Well, that's a new one for me...can i say that my belly is gravid with flab (which it is, and which I hope it'll not be at some point of time in the future)?

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  11. Thanks for the clarification, Adrian. Just curious--did she say that when you were five or when you were twenty-five? And how come Nrn Irn doesn't have any vowels?

    Sucharita, well, that's an interesting point. It seems like it should mean heavy with flab, but if it in fact means 'pregnant with flab', are you willing to go with that? And take the consequences?

    Thanks for stopping by here, by the way, I love your blog

    v word=imoonall. So for those amongst us who have decided that they can do away with the word vericator, well, it's a poorer life--that's all I'm saying.

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  12. She said it as recently as last June. I distinctly remember a "ach you're a pochle so you are, tuck thon shirt in at least."

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  13. She was the saving of you, wasn't she, you pochle? We can see where Miss Sophie gets some of her spirit at least.

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  14. Indeed Seana

    I'm in recovery after a one and a half hour war over whether Sophie was allowed to go bed wearing her fairy wings or not.

    Yeah, she won.

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  15. Fairies wings should never be clipped, so you did right, despite yourself.

    And I may know whereof I speak:
    One of my friends did some peyote not too long ago, and during her vision quest, it was revealed to her that she and another friend and I were actually all from the fairy realm, but had grown bored there and had decided to enter this one 'for entertainment'. At the time, I was not finding life so very entertaining, so was somewhat dubious of this revelation.

    But if true, Sophie may very well be one of us, just so's you know.

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  16. "One of my friends did some peyote not too long ago, and during her vision quest, it was revealed to her that she and another friend and I were actually all from the fairy realm."

    This friend had not recently read any of the Artemis Fowl books at the time, had she?
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    Detectives Beyond Borders
    "Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
    http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/

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  17. or been sitting in front of a Henry Darger print?

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  18. Uh, no and no. The associative processes of my friend's mind must remain forever a mystery to us. It's really a little bit the same effect as making a random appearance in someone else's dream. It can't be taking literally, but it's intriguing when it happens all the same. It's weird that we all represent things to each other that may have little or nothing to do with our actual lives.

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  19. Irrespective of the mind and how it functions, I recomment the Artemis fowl books.
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    Detectives Beyond Borders
    "Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
    http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/

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  20. Thanks, Peter. They are popular here, but I haven't read them yet.

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  21. They're worth reading. It's a tale I've told often, but I discovered Eoin Colfer through his story in the "Dublin Noir" anthology. I looked for more of his work and was disappointed when I found he'd written only YA novels other than the story. But I was disappointed only until I started reading the books.

    Artemis Fowl, of course, lives above ground and does battle with and against fairies, elves and various other below-ground types, or Lower Echelon People. His antagonist and sometimes ally, Holly Short, works for the Lower Echelon People Reconnaissance team, abbreviated -- you guessed it -- LEPRecon.
    ==============
    Detectives Beyond Borders
    "Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
    http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/

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  22. Isn't it odd how many of these mystery/crime writers also write kids or young adult novels? It doesn't seem to be a bad combination.

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  23. What other crime writers also write for children or YA? I know the Mystery Writers of America give awards for children's and YA novels, but I don't know of any authors other than Eoin Colfer who written for young readers and adults.

    Colfer has also written a novel called "Half Moon Investigations" aboud a 12-year-old detective, and was planning his first "adult" novel as well.
    ==============
    Detectives Beyond Borders
    "Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
    http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/

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  24. Well, I expect you've heard of this guy named McKinty for one. But there's also Rick Riordan. And even James Patterson has gotten on board with his Maximum Ride series. There are probably more, but off the top of my head, I can't think of them. Oh, wait--Carl Hiaasen is another.

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  25. Yes, I believe I've heard the name. I don't know his YA work, though.

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  26. The Lighthouse Trilogy is his. First book is The Lighthouse Land. Philip Robinson has mentioned its landscape as part of his forthcoming McKinty Country tour, which fills in the blanks a bit. Though he's been curiously silent for the last week or so it seems.

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  27. Ah, that's right. I'd seen the books mentioned, I think on Adrian's site. I'm still pretty much a blank slate on YA books other than Colfer's. I looked at one of the Rider books by Horowitz (Alec or Alex is the first name of either the author of the hero; I forget which), but I don't think it has appeal beyond its intended age group the way Eoin Colfer's books do.
    ==============
    Detectives Beyond Borders
    "Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
    http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/

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  28. And how come Nrn Irn doesn't have any vowels?

    To make orange rhyme with everything.

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  29. Perfect, Marco. And nice to have you back from wherever you've been over the weekend.

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