dontopedalogy

[prettygoodword.livejournal.com]

dontopedalogy (don-toh-peh-DAHL-oh-jee) - n., the art of putting one's foot in one's mouth.


This may or may not have been coined by Prince Phillip to describe his own affliction, but it certainly doesn't seem to have caught on for describing anyone but his right royal talent for faux pas. Coined from a mixture of Greek and Latin roots, in a way that this linguist complains is bad morphology: donto-, from Greek odont-, from odṓn, tooth + -peda-, which is usually pedi- when a vowel is needed, from Latin ped-, from pēs, foot + -logy, science or branch of knowledge, from Lating -logia, from Greek -logos, speech, discourse, thought. A form slightly more true to the roots would be dontopedology, but that looks like the middle element is pedo-, making it the science of children's teeth.

I think the real reason Pete is such a master of dontopedalogy is that, deep down in his soul, he enjoys the taste of his sole.

---L.

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