xerxes (11/29/82)
I encountered an unusual and to me obscure word in the recent Mathatics Association of America journal: mumpsimus - a bigoted adherent to an exposed but customary error Are we all mumpsimusses (mumpsimi) when we call Des Plaines Illinois, Dez Plainz? The origin of the word has to do with a cleric from the distant past who repeatedly mispronounced a Latin word 'simpsimus' during his thirty years of sermonizing (Does a follower of Peter, Simonize?). On being informed of his errant ways he refused to correct the pronunciation presumably because his listeners were used to his ways. Can you think of other more contemporary examples of a mumpsimus? The noun can actually refer to the 'bigoted adherent' or to misconception of error itself. Ben Adams btl-ih ihldt!xerxes