spang [spang]: directly, exactly

The bullet landed spang on target.

Sophrosyne : a Greek philosophical term etymologically meaning healthy-mindedness and from there self-control or moderation guided by knowledge and balance.

In Greek philosophy Sophrosyne was a Greek goddess. She was the spirit of moderation, self-control, temperance, restraint, and discretion. She was considered to be one of the good spirits that escaped Pandora’s box when the first woman had opened the lid and fled to Olympos. Her Roman goddess equivalents were Continetia, the goddess of continence and moderations, and Sobrietas, the goddess of temperance and sobriety.

The Ancient Greeks upheld the ideal of sophrosyne, which means prudence and moderation but ultimately its complex meaning, so important to the ancients, is very difficult to convey in English. It is perhaps best expressed by the two most famous sayings of the Oracle of Delphi: “Nothing in excess” and “Know thyself.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophrosyne

Hypochondriac comes ultimately from the Greek word hypokhondria, which literally means “under the cartilage (of the breastbone).” In the late 16th century, when hypochondriac first entered the English language, it referred to the upper abdomen.

The upper abdomen, it turns out, was thought to be the seat of melancholy at a time when the now-outdated medical theory of the four humors (blood, phlegm, yellow bile [choler], and black bile [melancholy]) was accepted as a basis for legitimate health practice. In the 17th century, hypochondriac referred to people who suffered from “depression and melancholy without cause,” though we might suppose from the name of this malady that many depressed patients complained of abdominal pains, which otherwise went undiagnosed. “Vapors,” another archaic disorder connected to the upper abdomen, was used as a euphemism for PMS in a time when such things were not discussed in polite conversation. Because doctors were male at this time, “women’s problems” were largely written off as fits of hysteria (another obsolete medical term of Greek origin from the word for womb).

It wasn’t until the 19th century that hypochondriac described someone who suffered “illness without a specific cause.” This sense is still widely used, though today we diagnose modern hypochondriacs by their overuse of the website WebMD.

Popular References

—The Hypochondriac: Molière’s last play, first performed in 1673. During the play’s fourth performance, Molière passed out onstage and died a few days later.

temerarious [tem-uh-RAR-ee-uhs]: presumptuously or recklessly daring or bold; rash

idiolect [ID-ee-uh-lekt]: a person’s individual speech pattern

oneirataxia: the inability to differentiate between dreams and reality

Why Do We Hate Certain Words?

The curious phenomenon of word aversion.

Jason Riggle, a professor in the department of linguistics at the University of Chicago, says word aversions are similar to phobias. “If there is a single central hallmark to this, it’s probably that it’s a more visceral response,” he says. “The [words] evoke nausea and disgust rather than, say, annoyance or moral outrage. And the disgust response is triggered because the word evokes a highly specific and somewhat unusual association with imagery or a scenario that people would typically find disgusting—but don’t typically associate with the word.” These aversions, Riggle adds, don’t seem to be elicited solely by specific letter combinations or word characteristics. “If we collected enough of [these words], it might be the case that the words that fall in this category have some properties in common,” he says. “But it’s not the case that words with those properties in common always fall in the category.”   

Lonely negative words - words with no opposite positives:

1. disgust
2. disheveled
3. inscrutable
4. ineffable
5. disappoint
6. indelible
7. impeccable
8. indolent
9. indefatigable
10. incessant
11. reckless
12. disgruntled

jackanapes [JAK-uh-neyps]: 

An impertinent, presumptuous person, especially a young man