Valentine Vocabulary for Sardonic Singles Quiz

Answer: gamophobia

Signifying an abnormal fear of commitment or especially marriage, gamophobia comes from the Greek 'gámos' ("marriage") and 'phobos', meaning "fear, panic", though it originally meant "flight" (and was used by Homer as such). Maybe male gamophobes are afraid of uxorodespotism (the domination of a wife) and females fear maritodespotism (the tyranny of a husband).

The opposite is anuptaphobia, the morbid fear of remaining single, of never marrying, from the Latin 'nūpta', feminine past participle of 'nūbere' ("to take a husband").

Answer: azygophrenia

Azygophrenia is a neurosis brought on by living a single, lonely life. It may occur after the death of a spouse. It may also occur from dejection and isolation experienced by a never-married individual. Azygophrenia comes from the Greek 'zygón' meaning "yoke" and 'phrēn' meaning "mind".

The word "azygous" means "not being one of a pair", and while it is typically used in biological sciences, it can be applied to people who are single or widowed.

Answer: suppalpation

Suppalpation comes to English from the Latin 'suppalpari' meaning "to caress a little". To break it down further, it comes from 'sub' ("under" or "a little bit") and 'palpare' ("to caress"). The Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary from 1913 lists "suppalpation" as obsolete, and it is difficult to determine when it was ever not so. Even Noah Webster's "American Dictionary of the English Language", published in 1828, tags the entry with "[Not used]".

Answer: benedict

The word "benedict" has nothing to with the lexical meaning of the name "Benedict", which comes from Latin and means "blessed". Rather it is named after the character Benedick, who marries Beatrice in the comedy 'Much Ado About Nothing' (1598?) by William Shakespeare.

A benedict is a newly married man, especially one who has long, long been a bachelor. The first recorded use of "benedict" in this way was in 1821.

Answer: lasslorn

Samuel Johnson recorded in his famous dictionary an entry for Shakespeare's "lass-lorn" as "forsaken by his mistress". A lass is a girl or young woman, especially one who has never married, although it has been used as a familiar form of address for any female person, especially in Scotland as "lassie".

It entered the language around 1300, from Old Swedish 'lřsk kona' ("unmarried woman") according to the OED. Other sources suggest less flattering origins, like the Old Norse 'löskr' ("idle, weak") or West Frisian 'lask' ("light, thin").

The archaic word "lorn" conveys being lost, ruined, undone, forsaken, and/or wretched, and it appeared in the Middle English of the 14th century from the Old English 'loren', past participle of 'leosan' ("to lose").

Answer: paranymph

'Paranymph' is an archaic word that entered English in the 16th century via Late Latin from the Greek 'paranumphos', from 'para' meaning "beside, near, alongside" and 'numphē' meaning "bride". In other words, a paranymph is literally the person beside the bride, although it has been used to mean the person beside the groom as well.

In ancient Greece, it referred to a friend who accompanied the bridegroom when he went to fetch home his bride, or to a bridesmaid who escorted the bride to the bridegroom.

It has also been generalized to refer to the attendants of doctoral students at their dissertation defense. An even more obscure use of the word is as one who speaks for the bride or groom, such as Cyrano de Bergerac toward Roxanne (on behalf of Christian).

Answer: matrimania

Because Western women no longer need a husband for survival, and because having children out of wedlock has become less stigmatizing, some people fail to see the necessity of marriage. The word "matrimania" was coined by Bella DePaulo, Ph.D., who used it to describe American culture on the defensive about this anti-marriage trend. "I think that all this what I call matrimania," said Dr. DePaulo, "all this hype about marriage in advertisements and television shows and books and movies. It's a reaction of a culture that feels threatened by rapid social change."*

*Quoted in "Marriage: We're too easily seduced by the myth" by Amy O'Brian, 'Vancouver Sun' 1 May 2007.

Answer: singlism

Here is another word if not coined by Bella DePaulo Ph.D., then one she made widespread. In "Singlism: How Serious Is It, Really?", published 9 September 2018 in 'Psychology Today', she described being mocked for taking singlism seriously. In fact, DePaulo argued, singlism hurts in material ways, particularly in the United States. Married men get paid more than single men. Singles pay more per person than married people do for car and home insurance, club memberships, transportation, travel packages, and even wills. According to the Social Security Administration, never-married seniors (especially women) had the highest poverty rate, followed by divorcées, then widows.

Singles in America have less access to health insurance than married people, who may be covered under a spouse's plan. Doctors have frequently denied single women a hysterectomy or a mastectomy, even when one is medically warranted. Single women suffer greater workplace sexual harassment. Universities that offer free tuition to faculty spouses and children offer no comparable benefit for unmarried/childless faculty.

The Family and Medical Leave Act permits married employees to take leave to care for a spouse. Singles cannot do likewise for the most important person in their life (unless that person is a parent or child), nor can that person do so for them when they are seriously ill. Single people are expected to stay later or cover weekends and holiday/vacation times, on the singlist assumption that singles have no outside obligations, no one, and no life.

Answer: ateknia

It comes from the Greek 'a' ("without") and 'teknon' ("child"). Modern dictionaries define 'ateknia' as childlessness, although in the nineteenth century failure to have children was seen as a medical condition (whether the cause was infertility or lack of desire for children, and whether this distinction was maintained, is not clear).

In 1874 poet Juliet Ward Howe, author of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic", wrote the essay "Sex and Education: A Reply to Dr. E.H. Clarke's 'Sex in Education'". Among her critiques was the complaint that the medical profession defined women's bodies as diseased, and especially so if the mind connected to those bodies sought higher education! "But Dr. Clarke sees disease chiefly in American women. In them reside leucorrhoea, dysmenorrhoea, amenorrhoea, &c. In them are ateknia, agalactia, amazia. And the reason why they have all these evils is simply this, some of them wish to enter Harvard College, and some of them have already passed through other colleges."

'Agalactica' is the inability to produce milk, and 'amazia' is the failure of one or both breasts to develop. Scrabble fans, I regret to report that 'ateknia' is not in the Scrabble Dictionary; too bad, it would have been worth 11 points!

Answer: eremite

An eremite is a Christian hermit or a recluse, living in seclusion or apart from society, for religious meditation, prayer, receiving the Eucharist, etc. The word comes from the Greek 'erēmitēs', meaning of the desert, for originally eremites or hermits lived in the desert, in a cell or a cave.

The opposite is a cenobite (from Greek 'koinos', "common", and 'bios', "life"), who lives in a convent or similar religious community. One can take eremitism to the next level as an anchorite, from the Greek 'anakhōrein' meaning "to withdraw".

A medieval anchorite was literally walled up into a cell, with a narrow slit for receiving Communion, and perhaps a small window for passersby to donate food and water.