FW: Eunoia

[Frank Abate]

Sort of in reply to the following, I must share with you all the first name
of the baseball player who has all five vowels in his name:

Aurelio Rodriguez, former 3rd baseman for the Detroit Tigers (in some of the
glory years of the 70s, for Tiger fans)

Frank Abate

-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU]On Behalf
Of A. Maberry
Sent: Friday, January 04, 2002 11:51 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Eunoia


On Fri, 4 Jan 2002, Paul McFedries wrote:

> The back-cover copy claims not only that "eunoia" means "beautiful
> thinking," but that it's the shortest word that uses all five vowels.
> However, I can't find it anywhere, even in the OED. Is it a real word?

It's a legitimate Greek word per Liddell-Scott's Greek English lexicon,
but it means: "I. good will, favour, kindness, deeds of kindness. II. gift
or
present in token of good will" not "beautiful thinking". In what is
probably a *very* gross simplification, I think Gk. "eu" = "good"; Gk.
"kallos/a/on" = "beautiful". I don't find any reference to *kallinoia in
the older Liddell and Scott.

allen
maberry at u.washington.edu