Originally in its Latin ancestor, the word "complicate" described the folding or turning of physical objects, like letters and knees. But as the word developed in English, complication could denote "folds" outside these physical examples: a psychological conflict or a moral ambivalence, for instance. In today's episode, we consider one of the more famous appearances of this word in modern literature: the opening line of Emily Wilson's celebrated translation of Homer's Odyssey. It's a word that draws out the difficulty of portraying the conflicted, complicated Homeric hero on the silver screen, as we see this summer in Christopher Nolan's new film adaptation of Homer's epic.

Suggest a word for a future episode or support this podcast at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/wordswordswords

Music: Adapted from Sonatine by Maurice Ravel, performed by Irene Posviatovska (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0)

---

https://originalpublicmeaning.com

Recently my students have started to use the word "extra" as an adjective meaning something like "over the top" or "ostentatious." Today we look at "extravagant," a word that approximates this new slang but one that also has its own fascinating etymology related to "wandering" and "straying." To help us understand the idea of extravagance, we take a look at Susan Sontag's "Notes on 'Camp'"—it's an essay that instead of giving a clear definition of campiness sketches the aesthetic of kitsch and excess.

Suggest a word for a future episode or support this podcast at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/wordswordswords

Music: Adapted from Sonatine by Maurice Ravel, performed by Irene Posviatovska (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0)

---

https://originalpublicmeaning.com

Questions of "distribution" have always been central to ethical and legal matters. The etymology of "distribute" itself comes with its own knotty questions and deceptive cousins—for instance, the loose and probably false connection between this word and "tribe." To close things out, we consider the opening paragraph of René Descartes's Discourse on the Method and its insistence that "good sense is the best distributed thing in the world."

Suggest a word for a future episode or support this podcast at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/wordswordswords

Music: Adapted from Sonatine by Maurice Ravel, performed by Irene Posviatovska (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0)

---

https://originalpublicmeaning.com