Make Your Point > Archived Issues > SCIAMACHY

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connect today's word to others: Let's visit the late 90's with these lyrics from Fiona Apple's "Shadowboxer:" So I'm a shadowboxer, baby I wanna be ready for what you do And I've been swinging around At nothing I don't know When you're going to make your move Shadowboxing, or fighting with someone who doesn't actually exist, has a more elegant synonym in the Greek sciamachy, literally "shadow battle." Imagine throwing punches at a shadow, at an imaginary person: that's sciamachy. But according to the etymologist Douglas Harper, there's another possible way in which ancient Greek culture gave rise to the word sciamachy. Rather than "shadow battle," it can be interpreted as "shade battle," or "fighting in the shade." Not the kind where you offer to fight in the shade because the invaders have threatened to darken the sun with a multitude of arrows, although that was a cool snappy comeback. The kind where you fight in the shade figuratively, studying outdoors, under the shade of trees or porches. So from sciamachy, let's take that Greek word for "shade" or "shadow," skia, then translate it to Latin, umbra, and recall some other words involving shades and shadows: 1. Originally meaning "a shadow," then "a doubt," then a "pretext," today umbr___ is a feeling of offense, anger, and annoyance.  2. A p__umbr_ is a fuzzy, unclear area outside a main area. 3. To a_umbr___ something is to foreshadow it or to give a basic explanation of it. (To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.) make your point with... "SCIAMACHY" From Greek roots meaning "shadow" and "battle," a sciamachy (or just "sciamachy") is a fight with an imaginary person or thing. Pronunciation: sigh AM uh kee Part of speech: Noun, both the countable kind ("a sciamachy," "their sciamachies") and the uncountable kind ("tired of sciamachy," "enough of that sciamachy"). Other forms: The plural is "sciamachies." An alternate spelling is "skiamachy." How to use it: Pick "sciamachy" when you need a scholarly synonym of "shadowboxing," one that makes it clear that you're speaking figuratively about people arguing against nonexistent things rather than literally about people bobbing and weaving and practicing their punches. Talk about the sciamachy between someone and his or her invisible opponent. Or, talk about someone's sciamachy, often with or against that opponent. Or, call someone's one-sided fight, hatred, dispute, conflict, or argument a sciamachy. Or, talk about sciamachy in general: "this pointless sciamachy," "displays that amount to mere sciamachy," "we have no interest in or taste for such sciamachy." examples: The channel is bizarre, a kind of sciamachy conducted daily against extremists who want to outlaw guns, flags, cars, bacon, and Christmas. "He pursues this phantom, he puts himself in an attitude of attack, he brandishes his weapons, and, like the knight of La Mancha, seems fully persuaded that he has gained a victory, though his antagonist may all the while have been but a syllogism with one leg. By degrees, however, this skiamachy grows amusing."    — Sir Thomas Browne, Religio Medici: to which is Added Hydriotaphia, Or Urn-burial, 1845 study it: Explain the meaning of "sciamachy" without saying "argument with an enemy that doesn't exist" or "fight against an imaginary phenomenon." try it out: Fill in the blanks: "(Someone)'s insistence that (something is true, or something must happen) devolved into a sciamachy; no one cares to debate (him or her)." Example: "His insistence that bad luck and unfairness cost him each of the jobs he held devolved into a sciamachy; no one cares to debate him." before you review, play: Spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—let your working memory empty out first. Tidbits and Titles! I provide the tidbits; you provide the title. From our previous issue: Here's a quote from a book: "There is grandeur in this view of life...from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been and are being evolved." And here are some terms and phrases that often appear in that book: adapted, allied species, become, believe, divergence, favourable, gradations, hence, modification, offspring, probably, resemble, varieties. What's the book's title? Answer: On the Origin of Species. (More fully: On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, Or The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life.) Try this today: Here's a quote from a book: "Over increasingly large areas of the United States, spring now comes unheralded by the return of the birds, and the early mornings are strangely silent where once they were filled with the beauty of bird song." And here are some terms and phrases that often appear in that book: agriculture, animals, carcinogen, chlorinated hydrocarbons, damage, death, destruction, environmental, gypsy moth, human, insect control, streams, toxic. What's the book's title? review today's word: 1. A near opposite of SCIAMACHY is A. BLISS. B. DEFEAT. C. TUG-OF-WAR. 2. Appropriately enough, the European Space Agency's tool SCIAMACHY measures not _____, precisely, but _____. A. speed .. distance B. shadows .. sunlight C. climate change .. polar ice Answers are below. a final word: Make Your Point is crafted with love and brought to you each weekday morning by Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words. From Liesl's blog:    36 ways to study words.    Why we forget words, & how to remember them.    How to use sophisticated words without being awkward. To be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com. Disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes. Answers to review questions: 1. C 2. B