bonhomie

The cast of "Cheers," a TV
show, which, like a glass of
Sam's best champaigne,
bubbled with bonhomie.

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DEFINITION

bon·ho·mie n. [bon·hom·mie] or bänm·hom·mie]
Good-natured easy friendliness : warm open geniality : atmosphere of good cheer
• "Christmas bonhomie"
• "the bonhomie of a fraternity reunion"
• "an undying bonhomie radiated from her" -- Jean Stafford

ETYMOLOGY:

French: bonhomie from bonhomme "good-natured man" (from bon good + homme man) + -ie. —Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged. Merriam- Webster, 2002.

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Bonhomie IN USE

In the following article, a northern journalist returns to New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina to find "still palpable" the "Cajun bonhomie that [once] lit up Crescent City."

My most memorable evening was my last, when a group gathered at Galatoire's. It was a Saturday night, and ambling down a sparsely populated Bourbon Street to the 101-year-old restaurant did not bode well; on my last visit, the street was a shoulder-to-shoulder honky-tonk. But my spirits brightened considerably once we stepped inside. The place was packed with what were obviously regulars, who turned the long, mirror-lined dining room into an infectiously entertaining party. One of its ringleaders was our waiter, Gilbert "Louis" LaFleur. I can recall almost nothing about the food that evening, save the considerable sting of the two Sazeracs that I nursed over several hours. Instead, what's embedded in my memory are LaFleur's indomitable high spirits, a Cajun bonhomie that lit up Crescent City restaurants for more than 40 years, most of them at Galatoire's. His booming voice, as it led rousing rounds of "Happy Birthday," is my favorite mental postcard of the trip. LaFleur personified the soul of a city that was down but clearly not out, and I was grateful to him for capping my visit on a much-needed high note. Three days later, my host sent an e-mail: The day after our dinner, LaFleur suffered a heart attack and died--New Orleans finds its recipe for recovery. Despite Hurricane Katrina's swath of destruction, the spirit of bonhomie in the city's food community is still palpable.—Author: Nelson, Rick. | From: Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN) | Date: August 24, 2006.

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IN USE:

From The Chicago Tribune

The White House and congressional leadership met this morning to try and bridge the partisan gulf between them on Iraq War funding and it was soon clear that all the bipartisan bonhomie on display yesterday on the immigration reform had vanished today.

Republicans and Democrats each, not surprisingly, blamed the other side for the continued stalemate.

For the White House and Republican lawmakers, the problem was that Democrats kept insisting on timelines for drawing down U.S. troops, "surrender dates" as Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio), the House Minority Leader acidly described them. — Posted by Frank James at 1:15 pm CDT http://newsblogs.chicsgotribune.com

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IN USE

Audrey Tautou as Amélie

One film critic speaks for many in his response to the 2001 film Amélie:

"With its generous bonhomie, unexpected twists and ceaseless invention, Amélie is, in my humble opinion, not only the most accomplished film of the year but the best of the new millennium."—James Cameron-Wilson

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The Bonhomie

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A 14th CENTURY FRENCH TERM OF DERISION: "Jacques Bonbomme"

Circa 1356, French nobility begin using the term "Jacques Bonbomme" (James Goodman) as an ironically down-turned epithet for the rebellious peasantry.

May 21, 1358, hundred peasants of Beauvaisis tackle the castles of their area, raping and killing the inhabitants, burning the residences. Their revolt extends very quickly to the farming community from the Paris basin.

It was the largest of the "jacqueries" attacks in the French campaigns.

These revolts are thus named according to the name of Jacques or Jacques Bonhomme given to the peasants

Here is how The Century Dictionary accounts the term "Jacques Bonhomme":

Bonhomme (bo-nom'), Jacques. [F., 'James Goodman.'] A contemptuous sobriquet which the nobility in France gave to the people, par- ticularly the peasants.
See Jacqlerie [immediately below].

Jacquerie (zhak-e-ree’) n. French., A revolution the effects of which were to be felt at every fireside in France.
• "a new Jacquerie, in which the victory was to remain with Jacques Bonhomme." –Macaulay, Mirabeau

The French name Jacques, being extremely common, came to be used as a general term for a man, particularly a young man, of common or menial condition. — The Century Dictionary (http://www.leoyan.com/century-dictionary.com/index.html)

•
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bon·ho·mous adj. [bän häm' uhs]

Full of bonhomie : warmly genial

"bonhomous." Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged. Merriam-Webster, 2002. http://unabridged.merriam-webster.com (26 May 2007).

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Bonhomous IN USE

From The Washington Post

George Tenet: a "bonhomous boss-pleaser"

"There was hope [among New York Dems] that Bob Woodward's book 'Plan of Attack' would provide the unassailable smoking gun -- a fake-WMD skeleton in Scooter Libby's closet, or an up-close moron moment with the president vivid enough to power negative reinforcement forever on late-night TV. But Woodward mainly gives flesh and blood to all the shadows of the first term: How Secretary of State Colin Powell was cheesed off with the rush to war but went along with it anyway. How Vice President Cheney was caught in the psychodrama of unfinished business in Iraq from the first Gulf War. How CIA Director George Tenet is the kind of chunky, bonhomous boss-pleaser who shouts "It's a slam dunk!" in a meeting with the president when he knows it's what he wants to hear. A dinner party Woodward memorably describes at Cheney's house with all the neo-con cronies dumping on Powell feels like a trolls' convention in the Hall of the Mountain King, but then nobody ever thought a night at Dick and Lynne's place would be a fizzy edition of 'Dinner for Five'."

—Date: April 22, 2004 | Author: Tina Brown"Bucks Without the Buzz: Democrats' Sedate Party" From: The Washington Post

mm]George Tenet

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Bon Ami

Q. Do bonhomie and the brand name "Bon Ami" mean the same thing?

A. No. In standard American English, "bonhomie" signifies "of cheerful spirit," while "Bon Ami" signfies a well-known brandname for a powdered household cleaner sold by the Faultless Starch/Bon Ami Company of Kansas City, Missouri. Happily, both words carry happy overtones. Also, bonhomie is pronouned [ bänm·hom·mie ], whereas the English brand name Bon Ami is pronounced with a stress on the second syllable: [bon AH'·me].

With a cautionary note that we begin to border on the hazards of fine-pointed confusions when we realize that

1. In "bonhomie," English has a French-borrowed synonym meaning "good cheer":
2. In "bonhomous," English has a French-borrowed adjective meaning "full of bonhomie";
3. English has no French-borrowed word for "good fellow."
4. In "Bon Ami," English has a brand name for a powdered household cleaner.
5. In "Bon Ami," French has a word that means "good friend."
6. And while we are looking at the OED page displaying bonhomie, we might add—to no good purpose other than fun—that a word we have not thus far talked about, bonham, a word that might appear to be a French borrowing, is, in fact, an Irish borrowing that means "sucking-pig." (Who know? Some day you may have need for the word to impress a friend on a visit to an animal farm or for a six-letter word during a round of Scrabble.—B.J.)

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pastiche

Pastiche is a knowing imitation:

Or an arrangement of many-in-one:

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PRONUNCIATION

Pastiche: [ pah-steetsh' ] .

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DEFINITIONS

pastiche noun

1. a. A novel, poem, painting, etc., incorporating several different styles, or made up of parts drawn from a variety of sources.


Eiji's fantasies are..pastiches of Japanese pop culture:..gangster movies, Sega video games and manga (comic books)2002

b. A musical composition incorporating different styles; a medley.

• Set to a musical pastiche by Paul Sullivan (including rock, Japanese flute and the ‘Lone Ranger’ theme), the work suffered from Keystone Kops-like silliness. 2003

2. a. A work, esp. of literature, created in the style of someone or something else; a work that humorously exaggerates or parodies a particular style.

• In "Holy Disorders" there is a marvellous pastiche of a ghost story by M. R. James. 1990

b. The technique of incorporating distinctive elements of other works or styles in a literary composition, design, etc.

• Mr. Burne-Jones is not accused..of plagiarism, but of pastiche, which is a very different thing 1892
• London-based artist Gavin Turk uses pastiche to make visual points by recycling a variety of pop icons 2000.

OED Online.com

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IN USE

Pastiche in its sense of "incorporating distinctive elements of other works or styles into a design" (many-in-one) made an appearance in a recent Time Magazine review of the film “Shreck the Third":

The ugly green guy (voiced by Mike Myers) and his retinue are back for Take 3 of DreamWorks' fractured fairy tale, this one directed by Chris Miller. Here, the happily married Shrek, shrinking from the prospect of becoming king, goes searching for a proper heir and instead finds the feckless Artie (Justin Timberlake). A laugh-packed opening gives way to meandering plot lines and lots of moralizing, with our hero sounding as dewily p.c. as an Ogre Winfrey. It's a goofy request, but maybe filmmakers should have a better reason to do a threequel than that its predecessors earned billions. Or could it be that the buoyancy of pastiche comedy is just harder to sustain the third time around? (May 28, 2007)

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GLOSS

The definition of pastiche to which we are giving primary focus in this posting — "incorporating distinctive elements of other works or styles into a design"—applies in the context of the Shrek review in this sense: "Shrek the Third"'s (first-time) director, Chris Miller, is borrowing on the distinctive Shrek stylistic elements that were created for the first two Shrek films made by other film artists.

"Shrek the Third" was one of three films reviewed by Time. Each review comprised a single paragraph and was given its own headline—a single evaluative word beginning with the syllable un-. The full set of the three reviews were headed with this announcement to film fans:

Cheat Sheet. What you should see, what you should skip—and what you won't be able to avoid

How was each film rated? Read on:

• “Letters from Iwo Jima” won an UNMISSABLE.
• “The Wendell Baker Story” suffered an UNNECESSARY.
• And "Shreck the Third,” on its artistic merit, received a pass but, on its boxoffice potential, picked up an UNAVOIDABLE.

In terms of its "buoyancy" as a comedic pastiche (to use Time's aquatic metaphor), "Shrek the Third" took a dive.

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ETYMOLOGY:

Pastiche came to English in 1878 from the French pastiche, which derived from the Italian word pasticcio, meaning either "medley" or "pastry cake."

Online Etymology Dictionary http://www.etymonline.com

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IN USE:

Pastiche
in its sense of
"many-in-one" has become
the name of a game invented by
Kate Wilhelm, the goal of which is "to create
legal sentences using words drawn from a pile."

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And his very weblog, I am sure you have already realized, comprises a pastiche of the "many-in-one" sort. It is a gathering of direct citations from a variety of word-books, dictionaries, and web sites; precis of lengthy passages; glosses of various kinds, primarily of a word's meaning and standard usage; and illustrative images of drawings, paintings, advertisements, and photographs—in short, a compatchment of many forms in the service of one word.

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Shadenfreude

From "School of Hard Knots" by Kevin Guilfoile:

My own knowledge [of tying knots] had always been like a rice paddy—acres wide and ankle-deep. In college I was an American studies major, qualified for little upon graduation but schadenfreude at the failures of "Jeopardy!" contestants. [Clifford] Ashly [author of "The Ashley Book of Knots"] had a love for knots and dedicated his life to cataloguing every single one of them. That was how a real man lived! That was commitment. I resolved to be his apprentice.

Kevin Guilfoile. "School of Hard Knots." The Funny Pages,
II True-Life Tales. New York Times Magazine. April 22, 2007. 38.

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Schadenfreude n. Malicious enjoyment of the misfortunes of others. 1852

Also with lower-case initial letter. [German, from schaden harm + freude joy.]

Oxford English Dictionary, Second Edition, Online

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PRONUNCIATION

The word comes from the juxtaposition (collocation) of two German nouns, harm + joy. Thus, schaden + freude. So when saying the word, we enunciate it as if it were two words, with a sliver of a pause between them.

We pronounce the word [Shah'den-froi'duh] . . . with froi echoing "toy."

Shah' gets the primary stress, froi' a secondary stress. If we were shouting the word a long distance—say, mountain top to mountain top—we would hit the initial syllable Shah' a bit harder and longer than the other syllables, so that we would hear [SHA'.den-froi'.duh] or [Shaaa'.den.froi'.duh]. In close conversation, however, the two stresses would be in tighter parity—with Sha' still remaing stronger than froi': [Sha'den-froi'duh].

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GLOSS

Schadenfreude is an inclination many of us are none too eager to own up to. We're not talking here about a mere chuckle over a Will Farrow prat fall.

What we are talking about—scratch that—what I am talking about is the pleasure that long-time opponents of the second Bushie White House and of the recent Republican House and Senate feel [read enjoy] when one more malfeasant Republican or Bush lackey is exposed or enjailed (yes, enjailed is a word—as are injailed and engaoled—granted an old one, but a good one, worthy of renewal, first seen, (according to the OED) in 1631, and last seen I know not when or where, save on this page).

Twenty-four-seven cable news-programming helps schadenfreude maintain its wickedness within over time, enabling viewers to
• watch over, and over, and over again, yet another Justice Department aide resign to avoid a subpoena; or
• hear Attorney General Gonzales asseverate reliably on cue, "I don't recall"; or
• watch black-brimmed Jack Abramhoff strut from court house to car after pleading guilty to corruption of a sneak of Republican public weasels, or . . .

—"Listen;" (to quote e. e. cummings on the sly) "there's a hell of a good universe [read cable news network] next door: let's go!"

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IN USE

From the OED: shadenfreude in use:

1852 What a fearful thing is it that any language should have a word expressive of the pleasure which men feel at the calamities of others; for the existence of the word bears testimony to the existence of the thing. And yet in more than one such a word is found... In the Greek , in the German, ‘Schadenfreude’.

1895 German Emperor William— But the Schadenfreude, or malicious joy, of the French was premature.

1901 Sometimes it [sc. Queen Victoria's smile] would be coyly negative, leading the speaker on, the lips slightly opened, with a suggestion of kindly fun, even of a little innocent Schadenfreude.

1920 The particular sentiment described in German as ‘schadenfreude’ ‘pleasure over another's troubles’ (how characteristic it is that there should be no equivalent in any other language for this peculiarly Teutonic emotion!) makes but little appeal to the average Briton except where questions of age and of failing powers come into play.

1939 There appears to be a certain amount of ‘Schadenfreude’ in London..at Germany's failure to get the German-Soviet Pact ratified.

1947 W. H. AUDEN, Age of Anxiety The Schadenfreude of cooks at keyholes.

1977 Solidarity or no solidarity, Widger was not wholly without Schadenfreude at seeing his informative colleague discomfited [1] for once.

[1] See Words Worthy's posting of March 2, 2007, on discomfit.

Oxford English Dictionary, Second Edition, Online

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In no way does this writer encourage the Reader's listening to the whisperings of Shadenfreude. But if you do, dear Reader, at least you can now attach a proper name to your impropriety.

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stentorian

Stentorian blooms:
like so many trumpets

sten·to·ri·an adj. [sten-tawr-ee-uhn, -tohr-]

very loud or powerful in sound: a stentorian voice.
[Origin: 1595–1605; Stentor + -ian] sten·to·ri·an·ly, adv.

From Dictionary.com Unabridged

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stentorian

"of powerful voice," 1605,
from Stentor, legendary Gk. herald in the Trojan War, whose voice (described in the "Iliad") was as loud as 50 men.

[His name is from Gk. stenein "groan, moan." Also there is the O.E. element of þunor, "thunder."]

Fr. Online Etymology Dictionary, 2001 Douglas Harper
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IN USE, from the NYT:

After Mr.[Don] Imus's [racially and sexually demeaning] comments about the mostly black Rutgers [women's basketball] team, the hosts on two prominently black stations in New York—WQHT (97.1 FM) and WBLS (107.5)—have made references on their programs to the need to police themselves, and their callers, better.

"Itchin" Home of the
"Miss Jones Show"

Tarsha Nicole Jones, who as "Miss Jones" is host of a show on WQHT that reaches nearly 700,000 listeners a week, has taken to using "wenches" and "iches" as substitutes for harsher words, and she repremanded a caller on Monday for using a common racial slur twice.

Later the show ran a stentorian public service announcement that said, "Due to new regulations regarding the use of language, the 'Miss Jones Show' has made the appropriate adjustment."

—"Shock Radio Shrugs at Imus's Fall, And Roughs Up the Usual Victims," Jacques Steinberg, The New York Times National, Sunday, 6, 2007, 1 and 22.

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GLOSS

Besides delivering the needed denotation of "a loud, powerful voice," stentorian brings two bonus felicities.

The first is that stentorian denotes a voice—"a loud, authoritative, spoken voice, talking of important matters"—but at bottom a voice, one of many that comprise the essence of talk radio. The word's a perfect fit.

The second felicity is that the word stentorian, a bookish word, condignly meets the expectations of the publisher and its audience. Readers of the New York Times, the national newspaper of the intellectually elite, expect as a matter of course the apt use of precise words, words which often carry an academic cache, to be employed within its pages.

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empyrean

The Divine Comedy's
Empyrean,
illustrated by
Gustave Dore.

empyrean adj. [em-pi- ree'-un or em-pur'-ee-un]
1. of or relating to the sky or heavens;

• "the empyrean sphere"

2. inspiring awe;

• "well-meaning ineptitude that rises to empyreal absurdity"—M.S. Dworkin;
• "empyrean aplomb"—Hamilton Basso;

noun
1. the apparent surface of the imaginary sphere on which celestial bodies appear to be projected [syn: celestial sphere]

Synonyms for the noun empyrean: firmament, heavens, vault of heaven, welkin

—WordNet® 3.0, © 2006 by Princeton University.

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empyrean adj. & noun

From the Medieval Latin empyreus, an adaptation of the Ancient Greek, in or on the fire (pyr). Properly Empyrean Heaven, the place in the highest heaven, which in ancient cosmologies was supposed to be occupied by the element of fire (or aether in Aristotle's natural philosophy).

It was thus used as a name for the firmament, and in Christian literature, notably the Divine Comedy, for the dwelling-place of God and the blessed, and as the source of light.

The word is used both as a substantive [noun] and as an adjective. Having the same Greek origin are the scientific words empyreuma and empyreumatic, applied to the characteristic smell of burning or charring vegetable or animal matter.—Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition.

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Empyrean IN USE:

"[Kate] Blanchet, 38, this month, has graced heist movies (Bandits) and angsty art films (Coffee and Cigarettes). But she's really an emmissary from another, older world: the empyrean of classic movie glamour."—Richard Corliss. Time100, Artists & Entertainers, Time Magazine, May 14, 2007.

Kate Blanchett

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ETYMOLOGY

[from Medieval Latin empyreus, empyræus, from the Greek - fiery) + -AL]

—————————————————————————————————————FROM FROM THE OED: ADDITIONAL EXAMPLES OF empyrean IN USE:

empyrean 1682
A. adj. Of or pertaining to the sphere of fire or highest heaven. Also used figuratively.

• Above the starry sphere..finally the empyrean heaven, or heaven of heavens. 1796
• Drenched in empyrean light. From the Courts of the Empyrean dome Came forth what seemed a fiery car.1805 —WORDSWORTH, WILLIAM. Prelude IV. (1850) 98

empyrean 1667
B. noun 1. The highest heaven. In ancient cosmology the sphere of the pure element of fire: in Christian use, the abode of God and the angels. Also used figuratively.

• The empyrean, the first work of creation and the residence and throne of God. 1755
• The empyrean, or kingdom of fire. 1878

2. a. The visible heavens or firmament.

m||b. The whole extent of cosmic space.

• The vast empyrean of the sky. 1821
• The physical universe itself [becomes] a drop suspended in the infinite empyrean. 1880.

["Ascent to the|Empyrean,"/
Heronymus/Bosch. Above.]

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pace (prep.)

Annnouncement
Pace—(pah'•chay)—is Words Worthy's first featured preposition!
(Applause! ! ! !)

Stranded . . .
in the middle,
of the ocean,
on an island,
under a tree,
without my BlackBerry or Thee.
•
Preposition: a connecting word
that puts one [1]noun
into a relationship
with another [2]noun.

"The [1]temperature (of the [2]water)is dropping."

[1]Truth—pace the Attorney General's [2]testimony—is still an orphan.
_____________________________________________________

pace – preposition (pah'•chay)
with all due respect to; with the permission of:

E.g. "I do not, pace my rival, hold with the ideas of the reactionists."

[Origin: 1860–65; (style="font-style: italic;")pāce in peace, by favor (also from pāx peace, favor, pardon, grace)] —Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

•

pace prep. (pah'•chay)
With due deference to (a named person or authority); despite.

Used chiefly as a courteous or ironic apology for a difference of opinion about to be expressed.

E.g., "I do not believe, pace Peirce and Derrida, that it is signs all the way down, and that, pace Dennett, there is no distinctive human intentionality, and that, pace almost everyone, thinking is fundamentally linguistic."
—1995 Computers & Humanities 29 404/1—Oxford English Dictionary Online

•

pace prep.
By the leave of; with all deference to. Used in expressing polite disagreement.

When used in front of someone's name, it serves as an apology when contradicting him or her; such as:, "pace Dr. Smith"—Word Information. Robertson's Words for a Modern Age: A Dictionary of Latin and Greek Words used in Modern English Vocabulary (http: http://www.wordinfo.info)

•

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IN USE

[The Barak Obama candidacy is] all about the spectacular keynote speech he gave to the Democratic Convention in 2004. It's all about
the fact that he's—pace Joe Biden—a young, attractive,
eloquent and intelligent Kenyan Kansan.
—Columnist Joe Klein. Time Magazine.
_____________________________________________________
GLOSS

From the gathering of definitions of the word pace presented above, perhaps the most apt one comes from the OED, which describes pace as "an ironic apology for a difference of opinion about to be expressed." Kline seems to thank Biden his inept use of "attractive, eloquent and intelligent" because the brouhaha that followed it has cleared the verbal air in two large speech communities--White America's and Black America's--making talk within and between the communities cleansed of lingering resentments attached to certain words, chief among them "articulate." All of this has allowed Kline to use them in his essay without fear of reprisal. Kline's language is accurate and forthright. Biden's language was accurate but patronizing.

•

If you'd like to read a succinct summary of the events, read the following narrative by David Gregory, Chief White House correspondent for NBC News.

Sen. Joseph Biden has launched his bid for the White House on the issue of Iraq, but Wednesday his campaign was sidetracked over race. [Sen. Biden pictured at right]

Like everybody these days Biden declared online, but it was old media that got him in trouble: Personal comments he made about another White House hopeful, Sen. Barack Obama, recorded by a reporter for the New York Observer.

"I mean, you've got the first sort of mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that's a story-book, man," Biden said.

Biden later called Obama and then spoke to reporters during a conference call saying Obama understood what he meant.

"This is a guy who's come along in a way that's captured the imagination of the country in a way that no one else has. That was the point of everything I was saying," Biden said.

But late Wednesday, Obama released a statement seizing on Biden's use of the word "articulate."
[Sen. Obama pictured at right.]

"I didn't take Sen. Biden's comments personally, but obviously they were historically inaccurate," Obama said. "African-American presidential candidates like Jesse Jackson, Shirley Chisholm, Carol Moseley Braun and Al Sharpton gave a voice to many important issues through their campaigns, and no one would call them inarticulate."

Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson said Wednesday night, "It was a gaffe. It was not an intentional racially pejorative statement. It could be interpreted that way, but that's not what he meant."

Biden, who admits he has a tendency to bloviate, has made indelicate remarks before. Last year, speaking about Indian-Americans, he said, "You cannot go to a 7-11 or a Dunkin' Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent. It's a point. I'm not joking!"

Fearing the political damage of his comments Wednesday night, Biden released a statement saying, "I deeply regret any offense my remark in the New York Observer might have caused anyone. That was not my intent and I expressed that to Sen. Obama."—MSNBC—Jan 31, 2007 (http://www.msnbc.msn.com)

_____________________________________________________
ONE BLACK MAN'S COMMENTS
Eugene Kane of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel

Yes, Obama is articulate, perhaps one of the most articulate public officials on the scene. But as Biden learned, calling him articulate elicits groans of recognition from a nation of well- spoken black folks (like me) who think they know what's really being said:

Articulate for a black guy.

The suspicion is that the bar for "articulate" speech for black politicians has been set so low, anybody who doesn't say "ax" when he means "ask" could pass muster with some whites.

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