{"id":7058,"date":"2025-07-15T02:55:27","date_gmt":"2025-07-15T02:55:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/?p=7058"},"modified":"2025-07-15T03:01:31","modified_gmt":"2025-07-15T03:01:31","slug":"word-of-the-day-mansuetude","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/2025\/07\/15\/word-of-the-day-mansuetude\/","title":{"rendered":"Word of the Day: Mansuetude"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Today\u2019s word of the day, courtesy of the Words Coach (https:\/\/www.wordscoach.com\/dictionary<\/a>), is mansuetude<\/em>. Pronounced \/ \u02c8m\u00e6n sw\u026a\u02cctud, \/ or \/ \u02c8m\u00e6n sw\u026a\u02cctyud \/ (personally, given that the last syllable opens with a coronal consonant, I would favor the first pronunciation and find the second a bit affected), mansuetude<\/em> is a noun that means \u201cmildness, gentleness\u201d (https:\/\/www.dictionary.com\/browse\/mansuetude<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Etymonline.com, the word entered the English language in the \u201clate 14c., from Latin mansuetudo<\/em> “tameness, mildness, gentleness,” noun of state from past-participle stem of mansuescere<\/em> \u2018to tame,\u2019 literally \u2018to accustom to the hand,\u2019 from manus<\/em> \u2018hand\u2019 (from PIE root *man-<\/strong><\/a> (2) \u2018hand\u2019) + suescere<\/em> \u2018to accustom, habituate,\u2019 from PIE\u2019*swdh-sko-<\/em>, from *swedh-<\/em> (see sodality<\/strong><\/a>), extended form of root *s(w)e-<\/em> (see idiom<\/strong><\/a>)\u201d (https:\/\/www.etymonline.com\/search?q=mansuetude<\/a>). I may have to come back to sodality<\/em> another day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Merriam-Webster says, \u201cMansuetude<\/em> was first used in English in the 14th century, and it derives from the Latin verb mansuescere<\/em>, which means \u2018to tame.\u2019 Mansuescere<\/em> itself comes from the noun manus<\/em> (meaning \u2018hand\u2019) and the verb suescere<\/em> (\u2018to accustom\u2019 or \u2018to become accustomed\u2019). Unlike manus<\/em>, which has many English descendants (including manner<\/em><\/a>, emancipate<\/em><\/a>, and manicure<\/em><\/a>), suescere<\/em> has only a few English progeny. One of them is desuetude<\/em><\/a>, which means \u2018disuse\u2019 and comes to us by way of Latin desuescere<\/em> (\u2018to become unaccustomed\u2019). Two others are custom<\/em><\/a> and accustom<\/em><\/a>, which derive via Anglo-French from Latin consuescere<\/em>, meaning  to accustom\u2019\u201d (https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/mansuetude<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I was growing up, we always had a dog, and it was always a Kerry Blue Terrier. Kerry Blues are a dying-out species, from what I\u2019ve heard. I haven\u2019t even seen one except a few years ago in the UK. The woman there is the one that told me how they are dying out. Our Kerry Blue was always named Michael, except that the last two my dad had before he died were named Seth and Patrick. Seth was a bit crazy\u2014he used to guard something, usually near a closet, and you never knew what it was he was guarding until you tried to pick it up. Patrick wasn\u2019t much more than a puppy when my dad passed, and I have no idea what happened to Patrick. I\u2019m guessing that my evil stepmother took him even though they were two weeks from being divorced, but I cannot imagine her taking care of and, most importantly, paying for a dog for very long.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my wife and I had kids, we also decided that we should get dogs. Unfortunately, my wife decided that she needed to choose which dog, and her first trip to get a rescue from the shelter gave us this little, old thing with only half her teeth. We had Sandy with us for years, but our kids never really played with her. We also had a cocker spaniel, black, named Joey (yes, Joey Cocker). He was also a rescue, and it took weeks for him to finally trust us enough to even come around us, but eventually he became a part of the family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We had two Jack Russell Terriers along the way, Caesar and Calpurnia, though we did not have them at the same time. Caesar was ADD, we think, and he ran away three times; unfortunately, he returned to us only twice. There might have been one or two more, but I can\u2019t remember; as we get older, memory is the second thing to go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joey got really sick; he had a total lack of energy. He couldn\u2019t even get down the three steps from our deck to the yard. I took him to the vet. After an examination, including an X-ray, the doctor told me that Joey had an enlarged spleen and was suffering from hemolytic anemia. I asked him what causes that. He said, \u201cIt\u2019s idiopathic.\u201d I said, \u201cI know what that means,\u201d and the doctor immediately laughed. He said, \u201cWhen I was in vet school, we used to say, \u2018Idiopathic\u2014the doctor\u2019s an idiot and the patient is pathetic.\u2019\u201d I took Joey home, and he died during the night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my kids got out on their own, they started getting dogs. My oldest seems to have a fondness for big dogs even though she has small children. My second daughter has mostly medium-sized dogs, though she did have one larger dog. My third daughter got a rescue dog in the months after a hurricane hit Houston, and that dog came home with her when she finished grad school in Austin. And even my youngest, my son, has gotten a dog.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And this week my third daughter has gotten another dog, a puppy that is only about six months old. Jellybean came to us crate trained. Yeah. Crate trained. So we bought a crate for her, since she is crate trained. She has probably, in the last two days, spent half an hour in that crate. She is pillow trained\u2014she figured out right away how to get on my daughter\u2019s pillow. It\u2019s kind of funny, in a way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe connection between human and dog runs deep. Early signs of domestication date back to 33,000 years ago and unambiguously domesticated dogs are common in the archaeological record beginning 15,000 years ago. The pairing makes for a striking case in coevolution \u2014 no other species has been so thoroughly integrated into human society. Dogs are our sentinels and shepherds, hunting partners and cancer detectors. And more importantly, to those of us who have had dogs in our lives, they are our dearest friends\u201d (https:\/\/www.discovermagazine.com\/the-sciences\/dogs-have-co-evolved-with-humans-like-no-other-species<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s the attraction? Part of it is physical; puppies, like babies, have heads overly large for their bodies and eyes overly large for their heads. \u201cDogs have actually developed new facial musculature in the domestication process \u2014 notably, a muscle responsible for furrowing the brow. The resulting \u201cpuppy dog\u201d eyes may have helped to strengthen the caretaking response that probably played into our initial desire to associate with canines. Observations at animal shelters have found that dogs who make an archetypically worried or sad expression are adopted more quickly, indicating a probable selective advantage\u201d (ibid.).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Discover<\/em> article hints at a lot of scientific evidence that illustrates why humans and canines are so closely linked, and have been for thousands of years. But most people know about how special the relationship is, whether the dog is Lassie or Scooby Doo. \u201cMore than half of millennials own dogs per some estimates \u2014 and the vast majority of dog owners consider their pets to be members of the family. Even in China, where dogs have been served as food to some people, pet ownership is growing exponentially\u201d (ibid.).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unless trained to be otherwise, dogs are the model of mansuetude, even more than the \u201cman\u201d who professes to be the dog\u2019s owner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today\u2019s image, not surprisingly, I suppose, is of a dog (https:\/\/nateschoemer.com\/from-pitfalls-to-trust-navigating-the-dog-human-relationship\/<\/a>). And I have to say this: one of the fun things about doing this Word of the Day blog is doing the research, reading the articles or wikis I use. For today, I encourage you to read the articles I\u2019ve used even though I have used fewer than I am wont to do.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today\u2019s word of the day, courtesy of the Words Coach (https:\/\/www.wordscoach.com\/dictionary), is mansuetude. Pronounced \/ \u02c8m\u00e6n sw\u026a\u02cctud, \/ or \/ \u02c8m\u00e6n sw\u026a\u02cctyud \/ (personally, given that the last syllable opens […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":7059,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[839,238,395,284,838],"class_list":["post-7058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-word-of-the-day","tag-canine-coevolution","tag-dictionary","tag-etymology","tag-linguistics","tag-mansuetude","clearfix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7058"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7058\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7060,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7058\/revisions\/7060"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}