emacity

[Victor Steinbok]

OED WOTD last night was "emacity". Of the three quotes, two are from
dictionaries.

> Fondness for buying.
> 1656 T. Blount Glossographia, Emacity, a desire to be always buying.
> 1676 E. Coles Eng. Dict., Emacity, a desire of being alway buying.
> 1806 F. Prevost & F. W. Blagdon Flowers of Lit. 347 The disease of
> emacity, or itch for buying bargains.

I can't antedate the first two, but I got a couple of interesting
extensions forward (1840s-50s). Bailey's 1675 Universal Etymological
English Dictionary offers the same definition as the other two.
http://goo.gl/HXu8U

Henry David Thoreau: Journal. September 2, 1851 (Moose-lipped words --
full paragraph)
> Old Cato says well, "Patremfamilias vendacem, non emacem, esse
> oportet." These Latin terminations express better than any English
> that I know the greediness, as it were, and tenacity of purpose with
> which the husbandman and householder is required to be a seller and
> not a buyer, -- with mastiff-like tenacity, -- these lipped words,
> which, like the lips of moose and browsing creatures, gather in the
> herbage and twigs with a certain greed. This termination cious adds
> force to a word, like the lips of browsing creatures, which greedily
> collect what the jaw holds; as in the word "tenacious" the first half
> represents the kind of jaw which holds, the last the lips which
> collect. It can only be pronounced by a certain opening and protruding
> of the lips; so "avaricious." These words express the sense of their
> simple roots with the addition, as it were, of a certain lip
> greediness. Hence "capacious" and "capacity," "emacity." When these
> expressive words are used, the hearer gets something to chew upon. To
> be a seller with the tenacity and firmness and steadiness of the jaws
> which hold and the greediness of the lips which collect. The audacious
> man not only dares, but he greedily collects more danger to dare. The
> avaricious man not only desires and satisfies his desire, but he
> collects ever new browse in anticipation of his ever-springing
> desires. What is luscious is especially enjoyed by the lips. The
> mastiff-mouthed are tenacious. To be a seller with mastiff-mouthed
> tenacity of purpose, with moose-lipped greediness, -- ability to
> browse! To be edacious and voracious is to be not nibbling and
> swallowing merely, but eating and swallowing while the lips are
> greedily collecting more food.

Note that 1) "emacem" appears in the Cato quotation, and 2) the word is
listed without any explanation, apparently indicating that it was in use
-- or, given that this is in Thoreau's Journal, perhaps indicating a
source closely familiar to the author.

The Quarterly Review. Volume 87 (173). June 1850
[Review of] Œuvres de Condorcet complétées sur les MSS. originaux :
enrichies d'un grand nombre de Lettres inédites de Voltaire, de Turgot,
&c. : précédées de l' Eloge de Condorcet par M. F. Arago : publiées par
A. Condorcet O'Connor, Lieutenant-Général, et M. F. Arago, Secrétaire
perpétual de l' Académie des Sciences; Paris, 1847-1849. p. 9-10
> You hear and read eternal vituperation of the Royal Academy in
> Trafalgar Square; but, whatever may be the defects in its
> construction, we could wish to see certain great features of its
> practical system imitated by bodies which assume to be of statelier
> importance, and, unlike it, reserve their chairs for Cavoyes. The
> R.A.s work each at home in his own studio; once a-year they allow each
> other and all the world to see what they have been doing, and the
> Exhibition is opened with a dinner, to which they invite such grandees
> as have acquired a reputation for what our antique friend Sir Thomas
> Urquhart calls 'an emacity' in the department of modern master-pieces,
> or for being likely, in case of any parliamentary cavilling, to
> indicate a just recollection of the turtle and the fraternal hour.

Note the reference to Sir Thomas Urquhart, which will become important
later. Aside from Thoreau, which is, in itself, interesting, there are
other interesting citations. Prevost & Blagdon (the OED 1806 citation)
appear to have obtained their material from this publication:

http://goo.gl/G4K7i
The Triflers. To Which Is Added, The Rout. Also The Farmer's Son. By
Richard Graves. London: 1805
The Triflers. p. 37
> By which means he had contracted such an habitual emacity, as Pliny
> calls it (or propensity to purchase every thing that we see)
> especially if it strikes our fancy, under the idea of being cheap or a
> great bargain, that after he had accomplished his purpose, for which
> he attended those repositories of damaged furniture, he still
> persevered in purchasing what he did not want; and at a sale by hand,
> I saw the reverend Dr. ascend, "ab inferis," from the infernalregions
> of the kitchen and the scullery, with a basting ladle in one hand, and
> a gridiron in the other; so that in short, after his wife* died and he
> returned to reside in college, his house was found full from the
> cellar to the garret, with empty barrels, chairs and tables ; beds and
> chefts of drawers, enough to furnish one of the largest lodging houses
> in Bath.

p. 45
> I found, however, that this gentleman was a little infected with the
> disease of emacity ; or itch for buying bargains above mentioned.

A copy of Flowers of Literature for 1806 ( http://goo.gl/mGftU carrying
only Bagdon's name) confirms the match.

Another interesting mention appear a bit later, but in the copy of the
works of Thomas Urquhart of Cromarty (1611-c. 1660). So, if proved
original, this would actually serve to antedate the dictionaries, in all
likelihood. The fact that Thoreau identifies Cato and Graves Pliny as
sources for the Latin antecedent of the word makes it likely that there
may have been other sources of the same period.

http://goo.gl/sV0eA
Sir Thomas Urquhart of Cromartie, knight. By John Willcock. 1899
Chapter VI. p. 180
> [And so] I went on in my laudatives, to procure the greater longing,
> that an ardent desire might stir up an emacity [a propensity to buy],
> to the furtherance of my proposed end." One is obliged sadly to assent
> to his further statement about such conduct — " whereof . . . there
> wanteth not store of presidents [precedents]." [Works. p. 332]

Since I don't know when the original was published, let alone written, I
cannot ascertain the date of the underlying citation. But it would have
to be in the 1640s or 50s.

Digging a bit deeper, get a volume of The Works, but still from the 19th
century.

http://goo.gl/jU6Hb
The works of sir Thomas Urquhart [ed. by T. Mailtand]. 1834
Logopandecteision, Or an Introdvction to the Vniversal Langvage. The
Second Book of the Introdvction, Intituled, Chrestasebeia; or, Impious
Dealings of Creditors. p. 332
> 54. So in matter of this literatorie chaffer, I determined not to be
> too rash in the prestitution thereof, least it should be villified;
> yet went on in my laudatives, to procure the greater longing, that an
> ardent desire might stir up an emacity, to the furtherance of my
> proposed end.

Luckily, the title page of the specific work is reproduced in the
volume, complete with the publication date of 1653. So this is, indeed,
an antedating of "emacity".

In all probability, Blount got the term from Urquhart, was then copied
by Bailey and Coles, and a number of dictionaries for over a century to
follow. But the link to Urquhart was only restored in 1834, leaving the
1805 citation (copied in 1806 Flowers) disconnected, except via
dictionaries and Latin originals (in this case, Pliny). The 1834
Urquhart publication leads to a reference in the review of Condorcet in
the 1850 Quarterly Review, leaving Thoreau somewhat disconnected. On one
hand, the Thoreau journal citation (1851) is much too close to the
Condorcet review (1850) to be ignored. On the other, Thoreau also picks
up yet another Latin original from Cato, leaving the English version of
the word unexplained. Did he find the Urquhart connection in one of the
review publications (there are actually multiple copies reproduced in
other review journals in 1850) and then scoured his Latin library for a
requisite quotation? Had he had a copy of Graves, he would have looked
at Pliny. Instead, he found it in Cato. What makes it even more
interesting is that both Thoreau and Urquhart were discussing issues of
language when they got sidetracked into the stories of "emacity". My
belief is that this eliminates this particular coincidence, leaving only
Graves to stand on his own (via Pliny). Graves's own interpretation
appears to be independent and the meaning close to modern "hoarding",
whereas Urquhart's usage is quite different. Aside from the modern
publications that treat the word as a novelty, the question remains as
to whether anyone used it in normal writing outside of the four
sources--Urquhart, Graves, the Condorcet review, and Thoreau. I found no
evidence of such usage, but, of course, it's not like GB is a complete
representative source for the period. So, for now, it's just a theory.

VS-)

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