Weird Word time once again! I am always delighted when I discover a new word—and this one was new to me: ‘mollitude.’
It is a rare old word that means ‘softness or timidity; weakness of character or spirit.’
We can all think of people like that; people who have no real principles or values and who just never take a stand, who never stand up for anything.
Allow a wave of mass migration to flood into Australia?
Hundreds and thousands of them?
Well, mutters the sufferer from ‘mollitude’, if that’s what they think is alright I won’t oppose it.
In fact, the ‘mollitude’ person never really opposes much of anything.
They are, as this suggests, spineless—a bit like a limp cat curled up in front of a fire!
‘Mollitude’ is recorded from 1599 and seems to come from the earlier word ‘mollity’ (another, rare, long-forgotten, old word).
‘Mollity’ is recorded from 1562 and means ‘behaviour thought to indicate weakness or unmanliness.’
When big government and big business all stood together and ordered everyone to support the Voice to parliament referendum in 2023, sometimes a major sport (such the AFL) just did what they were told.
Didn’t stop to think.
Didn’t summon up any backbone.
Just caved in to the ‘woke’ voices around them.
Then 60% of the Australian population showed they were made of sterner stuff and refused to be bullied and said no to the Voice.
The Merriam-Webster people point out that the great novelist Vladimir Nabokov used the expression ‘sunk in mollitude’—so perhaps the word is not entirely dead after all?
Behind ‘mollitude’ is the classical Latin word mollitūdō meaning ‘softness.’
How rare is it?
Well, the Oxford tells me that it occurs fewer than 0.01 times per million words in modern written English.
But it’s a great insult word!
And we need more highly literate and intelligent insults we can throw at people—don’t we?
TO SIGN UP FOR THE FREE DAILY NEWSLETTER SCROLL FURTHER DOWN THIS PAGE >>>>>>
BOOKS:
* My latest book is called Pray Like This. To look at prayer I do what I do in these Ozword columns: I go through the most famous prayer in the world (The Lord’s Prayer, also known as the Our Father) and unpack it word by word—each chapter being a short word-study on a key word in that prayer. There is a total of 21 words studies in all. To find out more, here’s a link to the publisher’s website (where you can buy a copy if you wish): Pray Like This – matthiasmedia.com.au
* My book is Sherlock Holmes: 5-Minute Mysteries -- containing 50 new stories I have written about the great detective. You can find it on Amazon. Just go to Amazon and type in Sherlock Holmes: 5-Minute Mysteries in the search panel. Or use this link: h Amazon.com.au : Sherlock Holmes 5-Minute Mysteries Kel Richards
* My book "Defending the Gospel" is now in a second, fully revised, edition. You can find it here: Defending the Gospel – matthiasmedia.com.au
* If you're looking for my recent book "Flash Jim" you'll find it here -- Flash Jim, The astonis
hing story of the convict fraudster who wrote Australia's first dictionary by Kel Richards | 9781460759769 | Booktopia
* You can find all Kel's books currently in print here -- Booktopia Search Results for 'kel richards'. We sell books, hardback, paperback, audio, CDs.
* And also here -- Amazon.com.au : Kel Richards
* And you'll find more here -- Search: 4 results found for "Kel Richards" – matthiasmedia.com.au
* Many of Kel's out of print books can be found at ABE Books -- Kel Richards - AbeBooks explaining words explain the term
BY THE WAY...
If you'd like to see my A-Z list of Aussie slang, you'll find it here in the Australian Geographic website -- A-Z list of Aussie slang. Here’s the link: The A-Z of Aussie slang - Australian Geographic
The liveliest part of this website is usually the Q and A page -- be sure to check it out from time to time.
