Coolth
I once saw an air conditioner thermostat that offered two options. You could turn the dial one way for "warmth," and the other for "coolth." Has anyone else ever heard this word, or was it a new...
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The word doesn't exist in any dictionary I've ever seen, but I've heard it used from time-to-time. As a matter of fact, there's a Sting/Police song called "I Burn For You" in which the opening lines...
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Yeth, let'th! ;-)Kind regardsDavid W SolomonsMy website:http://www.dwsolo.com
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Illth is another word along these lines. It's in the OED as a coinage from the 19th century meaning the opposite of health.
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Speaking of illth, where the hell did we get "wellness" from?!MWO lists 1654, but I cannot recall ever hearing this abomination before 1992 or so.
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My understanding of the term is that it was coined (or, apparently, retrieved from antiquity?) in order to signify the belief, held strongly by public-health advocates & other do-gooder types,...
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What a lovely word! I'm going to adopt that posthaste.Had been using "Dilbertspeak" and "technobabble" mainly. Occasionally "bureaucratlish" and "wonkspeak". But I do prefer this "wonkbonics" of yours.
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Objection! while wonkbonics is a lovely word, it could only be applied to current usage of "wellness" by those who haven't really examined the arguments in favour. It's not mere sociobabble. In...
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While I wouldn't be at all surprised if some copywriter invented the term independently for that A/C, "coolth" is a real word that dates back to at least the 16th century.
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Just checked the word `valetudinarianism` out, as I had some idea that it had to do with `wellness`. To my surprise, a valetudinarian is someone of a weak and sickly constitution, yet the root is the...
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The Latin "valetudinarius" also means "in ill health", which meaning seems to have been imported wholesale into English. It does seem odd, but perhaps it originally meant one whose primary concern was...
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For the record, I think "wellness" is both a useful & progressive concept AND a vivid example of wonkbonics in action. The two ain't mutually exclusive, in my opinion --
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oh... OK, CL. (makes me sound disturbingly like Cartman's Mum)I've misunderstood the purpose of wonkbonics and rescind both my edict and objection. Was going to use it regardless tho'.
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For the record, I cannot find "wellness" listed in my Merriam Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary, Second Edition (1953). I presume it's of relatively recent vintage.
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I can confirm the 70s as the period of the current incarnation of wellness. I can definitely say that I first heard it in either 1979 or 1980 because I remember encountering it on a job that I had in...
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The OED cites "wellness" from 1654, although it notes "Rather a nonce-wd. than of settled status like illness." It cites a half-dozen usages running from the mid-1600s to 1905; the revisions haven't...
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I find it incredible that that's the exact same year as for "illth" above!----- POST-EDIT -----Let me tweak that: it is the exact same year as for the EXACT SAME WORD (wellness) above! Imagine...
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And I should have said "The OED *also* cites...", not meaning to disregard your MWO cite above.
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but, you've got to admit: "wellness" is the highest form of wonkwanking.(up here in the province of canada where in which i live, we actually have a "department of wellness")i say again, "WHAT THE...
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