Interesting words, issue eleven

Despite not posting as frequently as I initially intended, this issue of interesting words is a pretty substantial one so I think it makes up a bit for any reduced frequency.

asceticism: abstaining from (all) indulgences/"worldly pleasures" as a demonstration of self-discipline, particularly for religious reasons. Giving something up for Lent is a small form of asceticism. [The etymology of Lent is that it comes from a word meaning springtime because it occurs in the spring prior to Easter]  

anarchaeology: "the clandestine visitation of archaeological sites, a branch of urban exploration alongside draining or roof-topping.... Anarchaeologists don't damage or loot sites ― we just want a closer look before redevelopment destroy them." The etymology of this sense of the word seems to come from this article. They did some anarchaeology by non-destructively breaking into the vacant shopping mall to observe, photograph and admire the architecture. (word source: Hidden Hydrology)

Sanjidae (plural of Sanjida): a neologism created by a person named Sanjida, to describe the group of people who are also named Sanjida. It comes from the pluralization of Latin words ending in -cida (-cidae:-cida::-jidae:-jida). A common word with a similar form of pluralization is larvae, the plural of larva [Mosquito larvae grew in the stagnant puddle]. 

I suppose if I wanted to pluralize rachelvetica: rachelveticae? [Helvetica is actually Latin in etymology]. I do not know enough about Latin grammar and pluralizations to be sure that is the proper pluralization though. If anyone has studied Latin and wants to enlighten me, please do. 

In briefly researching Latin plurals and grammar, I found out that Latin traditionally does not have the letter j, but it if did, it would be pronounced like English y-, like in the languages Swedish (själv, jag, stjärna, etc) [In researching Swedish words beginning with or containing j, I came across some Swedish-English dictionaries online: Folkets lexicon and dict.cc] or German (Jahre, Junge, etc). So technically Sanjidae would be pronounced Sanyidae, if following Latin pronunciation rules (though the name is actually prounounced with the j as in jelly, which is represented by IPA symbol d͡ʒ). 

I also wanted to figure out how rachelveticae would be pronounced, since I thought the c might change sounds from how it is pronounced in the singular rachelvetica (like a k as in kilogram, represented straightforwardly by IPA symbol k). This resource says that c becomes soft (like it does in English for cereal or cistern) before -ae, and its soft pronunciation in Latin is like ch- as in chain. The Latin diphthong of ae is pronounced like English -ay as in way or even Rachel (IPA symbol eɪ).

So ultimately, rachelveticae would be pronounced like /ˈɹeɪt͡ʃəlvɛtɪt͡ʃeɪ/, based on my limited knowledge of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For those who are even less familiar with IPA, I would describe the pronunciation as rachelvetichay. Again, this is for the plural form; the singular form seems rather intuitive to pronounce. As there is only one rachelvetica to my knowledge (which is me, and yes I'm very proud of myself for coming up with this as a username), there aren't really any occasions to use the plural form of rachelveticae.  

Back to Sanjidae though: I only know one Sanjida out of however many other Sanjidae there are.

acabar de: a Spanish phrase that means "to have just finished/done something." It is typically conjugated in the present tense and used with another verb in the infinitive to describe what was finished: acabar de + infinitive. It can also be used in the imperfect tense, similar to how the imperfect is used when describing actions that interrupt other actions [Estaba escribiendo cuando un ruido me interrumpió. I was writing when a noise interrupted me.]. As for acabar de, present tense: Acabo de comer el almuerzo. I just finished eating lunch. Imperfect: Acabábamos de llegar en España y estábamos cansados después del vuelo. We had just arrived in Spain and we were tired after the flight. 

There are similar phrases using acabar that mean slightly different things: 

acabar con [more idiomatic; to finish or put an end to, to destroy, to ruin. It is used with a noun]: Acabaron con la boda cuando se emborracharon y se cayeron en el pastel. They (pl.) ruined the wedding when they got drunk and fell in the cake.* 

*There are different terms for cake in Spanish; I learned pastel just for cakes in general, which is aparrently the common usage in Mexican, Salvadoran, Guatemalan and Honduran Spanish. 

acabar por [to finally have done something; used in the preterite.]: Acabé por ir a la oficina de correos y comprar estampillas. I finally went to the post office and bought stamps. [regionalism for postage stamps: sello in Spain]. One resource I saw seemed to indicate that when used in the imperfect, it describes ending up doing something, although other things seem to show that preterite and imperfect are interchangeable and could mean either.^ Acabábamos por comprar unas plantas. We ended up buying some plants.

^it makes more sense in my mind that the imperfect would describe ending up doing something, as that seems vaguely more descriptive in nature whereas to finally have done something seems more hinged upon the act of doing it: I (finally) [preterite verb]. But it's possible they may be fully interchangeable?

acabarse [reflexive, typically used in the preterite/past tense to describe things running out or things/events ending]: La comida se acabó anoche en el restaurante. The food ran out last night in the restaurant. El dinero de Jeff Bezos nunca se acabará; tiene demasiado riqueza. Jeff Bezos' money will never run out; he is too wealthy [more literal translation is 'he has too much wealth'].

millihelen: the amount of beauty required to launch a single ship. As beauty is subjective, perhaps there is no definitive consensus on how much beauty a millihelen is. There is a Wikipedia page though. I think it would be a highly individual thing. I shared this word with David Ramos so it's on his list as well.

If we want to get really pedantic about it, I would specify that the ship has to be launched by someone else due to a given person's beauty (and not for non-beauty reasons), but there are no restrictions on the size of the ship. It would not apply to someone launching a ship due to their own beauty. I personally would also say that it does not apply in the theoretical sense: a ship actually has to be launched due to a person's beauty, not just someone thinking another person is beautiful enough to launch a ship for. 

So if someone launched a toy sailboat (or even a paper origami boat) due to another person's beauty*, I would consider that a situation where millihelen would apply, even though perhaps toy sailboats and paper origami boats are on the small end of what can be considered a ship. 

*The scenarios I came up with where someone might do this are things like delivering a note (carried on the boat) about that other person's beauty, or as some form of engagement proposal, but with the caveat that I think it's a bad idea to propose to someone only because of their physical beauty, although it's reasonable that physical beauty could be part of the motivation. Although I guess there are some (shallow) people who don't care about their partner's personality and would be content with proposing to and marrying someone only due to their physical beauty [see: trophy wife, or trophy husband]. Couldn't be me! 

On this note, physical beauty is not necessarily the only form of beauty; a person could have a beautiful personality which could also fall under the term beauty. I have not decided whether millihelen applies only to physical beauty or if it can apply to any/all forms of beauty. I will not go too much further with this tangent except that while I personally don't think physical beauty by itself is a good reason to get married, what is seen as a legitimate/acceptable basis for marriage varies by culture and even individual people or subcultures within a given culture. e.g.; in some [sub]cultures, arranged marriages are more common/acceptable.      

Of course, I had to look up what qualifies as a ship, and evidently in the stricter nautical sense of the word, it refers to a "water-borne vessel generally larger than a boat" or more archaically, a "sailing vessel with three or more square-rigged masts." From there, I went to the definition of boat, which is described as a craft used for various purposes in or on the water, though ship is listed as an acceptable synonym for boat. So I think it is up to the reader whether they want to consider toy sailboats and paper origami boats to be ships. If so, launching them due to a person's beauty would allow the word millihelen to be used.

That's the end of the words for today, but stick around for a postscript.

Acababa de escribir un post muy largo de las palabras interesantes hoy. [I ended up writing a very long post about interesting words today.]

Additional commentary on some IPA-related stuff: it would be very interesting to me to know IPA well enough so that I could compile an IPA appendix of some words/pronunciations in my idiolect. For example, Wiktionary's IPA appendix for English pronunciation shows the second vowel sound in the word roses and spotted to be IPA symbol ɪ, which is the same sound shown for the vowel in words like bit and city. However, I think I pronounce roses and spotted with a sound that is more like IPA symbol e, or at least slightly in between ɪ and e. This interactive IPA chart with sounds shows that e is a close-mid vowel whereas ɪ is a near-close vowel, which is between a close vowel and a close-mid vowel. What any of that means is... a little beyond my current minimal expertise in this area.