{"id":1770,"date":"2022-08-17T14:09:16","date_gmt":"2022-08-17T18:09:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/writing\/?p=1770"},"modified":"2022-08-17T14:25:23","modified_gmt":"2022-08-17T18:25:23","slug":"word-of-the-week-pernicious","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/writing\/2022\/08\/17\/word-of-the-week-pernicious\/","title":{"rendered":"Word of the Week! Pernicious"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/writing\/files\/2022\/08\/sloth.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-1772\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/writing\/files\/2022\/08\/sloth-300x214.jpeg\" alt=\"Sloth in tree\" width=\"300\" height=\"214\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/writing\/files\/2022\/08\/sloth-300x214.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/writing\/files\/2022\/08\/sloth-768x548.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/writing\/files\/2022\/08\/sloth.jpeg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>After &#8220;propinquity&#8221; last time, I found myself using another p-word. This one could be from Edith Wharton&#8217;s novels, but I used it long before I read anything by her. In fact, I think I acquired it early in my undergrad career at Virginia.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s not uncommon for students to pick up words that make them sound more academic, but our word serves a number of purposes really well. The term has Latin roots but its nearest ancestors are &#8220;Anglo-Norman\u00a0<em>pernicious<\/em>\u00a0and Middle French\u00a0<em>pernicieux,&#8221; <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.oed.com\/view\/Entry\/141266?result=1&amp;rskey=OeRrt3&amp;\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">as the OED tells us<\/a>. Their definition notes an early relation to illness, too. You may have heard a doctor speak of a particularly pernicious infection.<\/p>\n<p>And yet. I have this pernicious habit in late summer of NOT wanting to go back to work. Do you? Yet as soon as classes begin (and my procrastination ebbs) I really begin to enjoy myself on campus again. In that sense, pernicious means harmful or destructive. I harm my sleep habits, my mood, my schedule by delaying the inevitable (that syllabus <em>will<\/em> be ready any minute now).<\/p>\n<p>Are there other things near\u00a0 you that are pernicious? I do not think weeds are that, even ones like Poison Ivy. Being pernicious requires agency. For some weeds that are both invasive and difficult to eradicate, I&#8217;ve heard &#8220;Noxious,&#8221; another word I adore.<\/p>\n<p>What pernicious habits do you have (keep replies safe for work, please!). And do you have words or metaphors for this blog?<\/p>\n<p>Send them to me by e-mail (jessid -at- richmond -dot- edu) or leaving a comment below.<\/p>\n<p>See all of our Metaphors of the Month\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/writing\/tag\/metaphor-of-the-month\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a>\u00a0and Words of the Week\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/writing\/tag\/word-of-the-week\/\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Sloth in tree courtesy of <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:SlothDWA.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Wikipedia<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After &#8220;propinquity&#8221; last time, I found myself using another p-word. This one could be from Edith Wharton&#8217;s novels, but I used it long before I read anything by her. In fact, I think I acquired it early in my undergrad career at Virginia. It&#8217;s not uncommon for students to pick up words that make them &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/writing\/2022\/08\/17\/word-of-the-week-pernicious\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Word of the Week! Pernicious<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":589,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2516,87405,40197],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academic-writing","category-etymology","category-vocabulary"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcsCNV-sy","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/589"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1770"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1770\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1776,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1770\/revisions\/1776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}