Um...
I've been thinking about Sunday's posting and would like to note that "mongerer" isn't an impossible construction: there are quite a few words in English that end in "-erer". These words fall into one of four categories:
1) a form of a word that ends in "-ery" (or "-ry", which amounts to the same thing), such as "laundry/launder/launderer" or "adultery/adulterer":
2) the comparative form of a word that ends in "-er", such as "bitterer" and "tenderer", or "-ere", such as "serer" and "austerer";
3) a form of a word that just happens to already end in "-er" when that ending is not the verb-into-noun "one who" suffix, such as "murder/murderer" or "cater/caterer";
4) a form of a word that ends in "-eer", such as comparative adjective "queerer" or verb-into-noun "sneerer".
"Mongerer", however, fits into none of these categories and is still wrong.
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One of the words in the third category is "philanderer", which is extremely interesting because the literal meaning is, or ought to be, the opposite of its meaning in English. A philanderer is a man who cheats on a woman; the usual synonym is "womanizer" (although the OED lists as one meaning "a male flirt", which is adorable). "Philanderer" is an example of the third case above: we tacked "-er" meaning "one who" onto an existing word that just happened to end in "-er"--Philander, a classical reference to any (male) lover. But "philander" literally means "a lover of men", originally in a platonic sense (as it is in "philanthropist", which has an identical root); it seems to have taken on its historical meaning due to the strange mistranslation as "a (non-platonically) loving man". "Philander" in a sexual sense ought to refer to a woman (or a gay man) who's a little too into the gents, but instead it means a man who's a little too into the ladies.
1) a form of a word that ends in "-ery" (or "-ry", which amounts to the same thing), such as "laundry/launder/launderer" or "adultery/adulterer":
2) the comparative form of a word that ends in "-er", such as "bitterer" and "tenderer", or "-ere", such as "serer" and "austerer";
3) a form of a word that just happens to already end in "-er" when that ending is not the verb-into-noun "one who" suffix, such as "murder/murderer" or "cater/caterer";
4) a form of a word that ends in "-eer", such as comparative adjective "queerer" or verb-into-noun "sneerer".
"Mongerer", however, fits into none of these categories and is still wrong.
+
One of the words in the third category is "philanderer", which is extremely interesting because the literal meaning is, or ought to be, the opposite of its meaning in English. A philanderer is a man who cheats on a woman; the usual synonym is "womanizer" (although the OED lists as one meaning "a male flirt", which is adorable). "Philanderer" is an example of the third case above: we tacked "-er" meaning "one who" onto an existing word that just happened to end in "-er"--Philander, a classical reference to any (male) lover. But "philander" literally means "a lover of men", originally in a platonic sense (as it is in "philanthropist", which has an identical root); it seems to have taken on its historical meaning due to the strange mistranslation as "a (non-platonically) loving man". "Philander" in a sexual sense ought to refer to a woman (or a gay man) who's a little too into the gents, but instead it means a man who's a little too into the ladies.
posted by pyramus | 6:31 PM
1 Comments:
You know, you're totally right about "philanderer"! Gee, I thought I'd never be able to be a "philanderer," but now I know that I'm the actual epitome of the word!
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