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Thursday word: convulsion
Sep. 15th, 2016 07:57 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
prettygoodword.livejournal.comOver on my journal, I've been running a theme week of words that are prefix + -vulsion, all of which stem from the Latin verb vellere, meaning to pluck/pull violently. Here's another of that family:
convulsion (kon-VUHL-shuhn) - n., an intense, involuntary contraction of muscles; an uncontrolled fit (as of laughter), a paroxysm; a violent upheaval, disturbance, or agitation, esp. a social one.
The meaning, when it introduced around 1547, was a cramp or spasm, which makes sense given the prefix con-, a variant of com- in front of some consonants (related to cum, with), means together -- so a sudden pulling together, which intensified is a paroxysm.
Earthquakes and other convulsions of nature shake Earth on a regular basis.
---L.
convulsion (kon-VUHL-shuhn) - n., an intense, involuntary contraction of muscles; an uncontrolled fit (as of laughter), a paroxysm; a violent upheaval, disturbance, or agitation, esp. a social one.
The meaning, when it introduced around 1547, was a cramp or spasm, which makes sense given the prefix con-, a variant of com- in front of some consonants (related to cum, with), means together -- so a sudden pulling together, which intensified is a paroxysm.
Earthquakes and other convulsions of nature shake Earth on a regular basis.
---L.
