A Word A Day — acnestis

with Anu Garg

Little strokes make a letter and those letters come together to form words. We assign meanings to the words. Often they express simple ideas: a tree, a rock, water, and so on. Sometimes a word describes a more complex idea.

Have you ever found yourself wondering, “Wouldn’t it be nice if there were a word for it?” Well, there is a word for almost everything under the sun. This week we have dug up five words you may not have known existed.

acnestis

(AK-nist-uhs)

noun: The part of the body where one cannot reach to scratch.

From Greek aknestis (spine), from Ancient Greek knestis (spine, cheese-grater).

“In what has to be the longest post-election season in living memory, the last five months have felt like an acnestis upon our collective soul; like that little patch of skin on our backs that we just can’t reach to scratch ourselves. It’s irritating. It’s annoying. It’s left us reaching and spinning around in circles.”
A Wish List to Soothe Our Collective Itch; New Straits Times (Malaysia); Aug 5, 2008.

A decent provision for the poor is the true test of civilisation. -Samuel Johnson, lexicographer (1709-1784)