Subject: DIS-secting CON-form-er

From: <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 22 Mar 1996 17:53:07 EST

Colleagues:
     I am a   con-FORM-ist that talks about CON-form-ers  It
depends on the starting point.  "Con" words of two or three
syllables in "The American Heritage Dictionary"  The New
Edition(1978) are usually accented on the second syllable; hence
con-FORM(a verb, con-FORM-ist,  etc.  Four syllable words, e.g.
CON-fron_TA-tion, CON-for-MA-tion(generally nouns) have two accents
on CON and the third syllable.  The same exists for in-FORM-er and
IN-form-A-tion. 

     CON-for-mer is a word synthesized by scientists to lazy(or
busy) to keep repeating "CON-for-MAY-tion-al ISOmers". This is now
like  re-DOX  rather than  RED-ox (reduction-oxidation) although we
normally say oxidation-reduction (OX-red is yuk). Since the word is
synthetic the pronunciation can be arbitray. 

     A greater problem is the DI-SSEASE DIS-ease. Many who are now
CON-form-ing or co-FORM-ing are probably also DI-ssecting  rather
than DIS-secting con-form-er.  Their women are probably attended to
by a GUY-nee-cologist rather than a JEAN-a-cologist. Do these same
people go to the GUYM to play basketball.

     The problem is that we have neglected the classic education.
DIS-sect from SECARE(to cut, early Italian(Latin?) and DIS(apart).
DIS-sect, to cut apart. there is no word in any language that
begins with two esses ! yet most people still say, wrongly, Di-
ssect. The Greek word for woman is yeh-ne-ka.  Because it starts
with gamma doesn't mean it is pronounced GUY. Or, did this develop
because most JEAN-a-col-o-gistswer are GUYS ?

     The proper pronunciation of these, and other, words is
grounded in established languages and we should correct these,
whenever possible.    

     Words are beautiful and I enjoy creating them. Getting them
accepted is another matter. 

We are chemists.  Try this at some meeting.

"Let us not do this in a "hemionic" fashion "  Does this mean half
(hemi) ionic(involving ions" with the elision of the i's or hemi
and onic(Greek, onus = donkey) Ergo, "let us not proceed in a half-
donkey fashion" :-)

********* Happy St. Patrick's Day *************
Ciao

Fr. Ascanio, C.H.S.