Take it all off
Writing at his World Wide Words newsletter, Michael Quinion credits H.L. Mencken with a notable addition to the American lexicon: ecdysiast.
Mencken came up with it in response to Georgia Sothern, a notable stripper of the 1940s in Baltimore, who asked him to “coin a new and more palatable word to describe this art.”
Mencken obliged, working with ecdysis, the technical term for molting, derived from the Greek ekdudis, “shedding” or “molting.”
Ecdysiast for “strip-tease artist” did not catch on, though it turns up occasionally in a jocular tone.
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Comments
I knew the word, but I did not know that Mencken coined it. One thing I did learn from cataloging many books owned by or given away by HLM, is that he appreciated a pretty face.
Posted by: Dahlink | October 30, 2011 7:38 AM
"Shedding," not "shredding." And "ekdusis," not "ekdudis."
Given your recent note on the etymology of apocalypse, I think it's time for a reference either to the ecdysiasts of the End Times or to Sally Rand's apocalyptic performances.
Posted by: Brian Throckmorton | October 31, 2011 8:25 AM
I wonder how many of the younguns here recognize the name Sally Rand? When I was little I discovered in the back of my father's secretary (as in furniture, not people) a flip book of Sally Rand doing a fan dance.
Posted by: Dahlink | October 31, 2011 5:35 PM