One
of my more colorful college classmates was a guy I nicknamed Mr.
Perfect. We were both biology majors and shared many classes.
Sometimes we hung out in the library together – I would rewrite
class notes and study and hope that the intelligence in the library
would somehow osmosis itself into me.
Mr. Perfect would read the
dictionary. His goal was to go to dental school and he wanted to
score high enough on the boards to get a scholarship – so he read
the dictionary in his spare time to prepare himself for the verbal
section of the dental boards.
And
he knew a lot of words.
He
also liked musk perfume. Just a random recollection there – I
bought some musk and started to wear it to see how quickly he would
recognise it. Turns out he knew the first time I had it on, just
didn't acknowledge it. For years.
One
day Mr. Perfect said that my voice was both mellifluous and
meretricious. I, of course, did not know what those words
meant. Either they were words of compliment or words of derision. I
did not realize that they might be a one/two punch of compliment and
derision. And for the longest time, I did not look the words up in
the dictionary myself – but I always remembered them, I guess due
to the alliteration – mellifluous and meretricious.
Finally,
years later, I looked up the word mellifluous – it means a
flow of honey, sweet – I took Latin, I should have figured out
mellifluous on my own! Well, I did not want the compliment to go to
my head, so I did not look up the definition of meretricious –
it was probably also something nice and sweet.
And
so it was a few more years before I finally turned to the
meretricious page of the dictionary. It means prostituted! –
from the Latin for prostitute, which I would not have known
from Latin class. Prostituted – I guess my voice could be described
that way – what with the sarcasm and barbs that flowed forth back
then.
Mr.
Perfect did make it to dental school – I guess his words helped him
to get there, just like his words helped to keep me in my place.
Thanks, John.
90
20150331 mellifluous and meretricious
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