The word for the day is “manure.” Look it up in your dictionary and you may be as surprised as I was to learn the meaning. I thought I knew. I’ve used it in ag journalism forever. I didn’t know I had such limited understanding.
Lots of people use the word. I wonder if they know this: “Webster’s New World College Dictionary” tells an old meaning new to me. No. 1 definition: To cultivate, literally to work with the hands. See: Maneuver.
That definition makes manure a verb, coming from a Middle English word for “to farm.”
I can’t use that meaning. It might mislead people who don’t read dictionaries.
The last meaning in Webster’s is the noun I know: Organic substance, esp. animal excrement put on or into the soil to fertilizer it.
There’s more: a person who does that is called a “manurer.” Let’s let that word stay in the dictionary. I won’t use it writing about farmers.
This resolution started when I saw an official from the Ag College Dean’s office. The informal name on campus for one of those people: “Deanlet.”
I saw one, usually dressed in office attire, driving a tractor pulling a manure spreader along East Campus Drive in Columbia. Whoa, many suspected that what comes from administrative offices should be distribution with a spreader.
Finally it clicked. This person oversees Experiment Station farms. He came from nearby Sanborn Field, the 128-year-old research plot on campus. Some crop plots there are still fertilized with manure. The research continues.
Fertilizing became difficult over time. Actually there’s less manure created on campus. Beef pens and dairy research moved off campus when I was a student. That’s long ago.
I did see a pile of manure behind Trowbridge Center after a show and sale by a beef breed association. That event created “animal excrement.”
My manure meander started with a New Year Resolution I’d started early. I’ll look up a word every day. These are words I think I already know.
This started with a review of a new book I must read. It’s “That Doesn’t Mean What You Think it Means” by Ross and Kathryn Petras.
My mother told me long ago, that I would be better writer of English if I’d learned Latin in high school. When she went to school that language was taught. She knew my learning lacked.
The book reviewer in The Economist, that fancy-pantsy English magazine, points out we’d do better with our reading if we knew Latin.
He reports that 28 percent of words in the “Shorter Oxford Dictionary” derive from Latin. Seems this argument started long ago. But, we stick with Germanic roots of English. The reviewer notes we prefer the more lively and earthy feel. Yep, an ag journalist should be earthy.
A factoid I picked up from this reviewer. The English poet William Barnes wanted to revive the more direct word “earthtillage” in place of “agriculture.” But, I won’t promote “manurer” for tiller of the soil. That comes to us with no Latin influence. It’s a bit earthy.
Meanwhile, I wonder if my dictionary resolution will last much past January. Past resolutions didn’t last that long.
I hope another resolution works as well. I’ll waste less time on Facebook and more time reading books. In years past, I read a book a week. That’s 52 a year, maybe not an actual book each week. I’ve fallen far behind since I got a cellphone. Digital nonsense, sent by friends, continues to distract. I rarely share anything read there. Some people seem to do little else. Enough! I’ll read original ideas but no forwarded digital triteness.
This week, I found fascinating a book I’d had for a long time, “Beyond Civilization.” It’s kinda pessimistic. Our Civilization may be ending from lack of responsible leadership. Real thought brought that idea to clarity in detail.
Write to daileyd@missouri.edu in Germanic or Latinate English.
