Dear Neologist,
Please help, and quickly! I'm supposed to give a speech in a few days about a student of mine who is both a vocabulary fiend and a linguaphile (French, Latin, German, and Gaelic). He is also one who not only pursues but achieves some level of skill in odd hobbies---like Tuvan throat singing and juggling.
Can you provide a word that describes someone who masters strange hobbies?
Thanks,
Speaker in Tennessee
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Dear Speaker,
Thank you for your inquiry on behalf of your multi-talented, linguaphilic student. It strikes me that the word you need should not only describe somebody who masters strange hobbies, but a multitude of them. Clearly your student is a
Vielsprachiger Steckenpfau
m, feel'-shpruh-keeg-ur Shteck'-ken-pfow
(multilingual hobby peacock)
The word Steckenpfau is a combination of Steckenpferd (hobby horse) and Pfau (peacock), because there is always an element of gleeful ostentation when a person of immodest talents lacks the good manners to hide his unfairly apportioned gifts.
One would hope that your student, faced with the inevitable setbacks of life and treated with gentle but consistent chastisement by his peers and mentors, will eventually foreswear his profligate ways and settle on no more than one foreign language and one acceptably mainstream hobby, such as philately or dressage.
The Neologist
Please help, and quickly! I'm supposed to give a speech in a few days about a student of mine who is both a vocabulary fiend and a linguaphile (French, Latin, German, and Gaelic). He is also one who not only pursues but achieves some level of skill in odd hobbies---like Tuvan throat singing and juggling.
Can you provide a word that describes someone who masters strange hobbies?
Thanks,
Speaker in Tennessee
----
Dear Speaker,
Thank you for your inquiry on behalf of your multi-talented, linguaphilic student. It strikes me that the word you need should not only describe somebody who masters strange hobbies, but a multitude of them. Clearly your student is a
Vielsprachiger Steckenpfau
m, feel'-shpruh-keeg-ur Shteck'-ken-pfow
(multilingual hobby peacock)
The word Steckenpfau is a combination of Steckenpferd (hobby horse) and Pfau (peacock), because there is always an element of gleeful ostentation when a person of immodest talents lacks the good manners to hide his unfairly apportioned gifts.
One would hope that your student, faced with the inevitable setbacks of life and treated with gentle but consistent chastisement by his peers and mentors, will eventually foreswear his profligate ways and settle on no more than one foreign language and one acceptably mainstream hobby, such as philately or dressage.
The Neologist
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