Vocabulary Lesson 9/27/07

I've mentioned before on this Blog that I love words. I've given some examples of words I like and I may wind up repeating some of them here. Some of the words I use because they are obscure and it gives me a false sense of being an intellectual when I use them. Others I like just because of the way they sound.

One of these words comes from our Masonic Ritual. It sounds like hail but it is really hele. The word is used in our ritual. One Brother says, "I hele." and the other Brother answers, "I conceal." Both words mean the same thing. It is a really old word. The Oxford English Dictionary says that it comes from around 825 A.D. It means to, hide, conceal, to keep secret. So we are not saying "Hail fellow, well met." We are talking about keeping our Masonic secrets.

I have asked Past Grand Masters and District Lecturers what the word means and you might be surprised how many are not aware of the masonic meaning of the word. Let alone what the word really is.

Another word I like is palliate. In one of the charges the new brother is told not to aggravate or palliate the offenses of their brothers. I think everyone knows what aggrivate means but palliate? I heard that word for years before I looked it up. It means:

1. to relieve or lessen without curing; mitigate; alleviate.
2. to try to mitigate or conceal the gravity of (an offense) by excuses, apologies, etc.; extenuate.
[Origin: 1540–50;

So, I am being told not to make the offense worse but also not to cover it up. I wonder how many of us know that.

I like the word affluvia and disagreeable affluvia is obviously an obnoxious smell.

Another phrase in Masonry that I like comes from Shakespeare;

But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscovered country, from whose bourn
No traveler returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have,
Than fly to others we know not of.
(3.1.76-82)

Hamlet is contemplating suicide and the undiscovered country is death.Bourn is

an archaic term for a boundary
bourne
boundary, bounds, bound - the line or plane indicating the limit or extent of something

See how Masonry can increase our knowledge.