Felicitous Felinity (5)—Edacious

Click here for the introduction to the Round and Square series Felicitous Felinity.
A year ago on Round and Square (10 July 2012)—Fieldnotes From History: Provincial Elections-l
Two years ago on Round and Square (10 July 2011)—Hurtin' Country: Amarillo By Morning

[a] Eater RF

Edacious.

It has nothing to do with fearlessness, recklessness, and crazy-eyed focus. No, this is not Achilles, dragging Hektor's lifeless corpse in a chariot-driven NASCAR-preview circle of pugilistic fury. No, it is not even an audacity of...Hope (AR). It has nothing to do with audacity at all. Well, um, except when it does. 

I have to admit that kitty-eating-latke (below) is pretty audacious. The problem is that it's not today's word. "Audacious" is in our current vocabulary and popular culture. Heck, anything with a "—cious" ending has a cultural and linguistic pull that is hard to ignore. Do you doubt me? How about "bodacious" (I have a very specific meaning, which can be found by clicking the link), "specious," "ferocious," "delicious," "vicious," "gracious," "precocious," "capricious," "capacious," and "tenacious." 

[b] Guilty latke RF

That's only the beginning, but cats share all of these.

Let's think of today's word this way—it's audacious eating. Edacity. It's jumping up and chomping on the latke. It's surreptitiously shoveling the pie slice into your mouth by dark of night (and light of refrigerator).

This is big eatin', and cats know all about it. A whole bunch of "their humans" do, too. But let's stick to cats. They look better in pictures.

What is major voraciousness among cats? No, I don't mean the poor ol' zebra that limped up late to the drinking pool. I'm not even talking about the sad, little chipmunk who waited just a second too long and ran too slowly toward the woodpile. I'm just speaking of the kinds of things that make seemingly "fully domesticated" cats go crazy with edacity. 

The edacity of hope.

I'm talking about the kinds of things that make them figuratively walk on their back legs in eager anticipation of pork, chicken, beef, squirrel, and Fancy Feast. "My" cats turn around in flowing circles of anticipation when I quietly open the sardines. They can hear and smell in ways that show that Immanuel Kant was right about the limits of human understanding and sensibility. Trust me.

Before we continue, let's define the voraciousness of edacious...ness.

[c] Wild RF

eda·cious 
adjective \i-ˈdā-shəs\ 

Definition of EDACIOUS 
1 archaic: of or relating to eating 
2: voracious 
— edac·i·ty noun 

Examples of EDACIOUS
My edacious dining companion could always be counted on to order the largest—and often most expensive—item on the menu

Origin of EDACIOUS 
Latin edac-, edax, from edere to eat
First Known Use: circa 1798 

American Heritage Dictionary  
Oxford English Dictionary**

**(Beloit College students and faculty: this is available through the library. Many other RSQ readers may find the link through a college, university, or local library). The "OED" is the best, by far, of any English language dictionary on the planet. Among mere mortals, the American Heritage is superior to anything else (I have loved it since I was a child, and my father taught me the many meanings of "culture"). I use the Merriam-Webster site because it is solid and everyone around the world can access it. Find your way to AHD or OED, though. The latter is even worth $295 a year (seriously). Words matter.

***  ***

Edacious. 

[d] Yogic cleanup RF

Now we come to the little twist that I didn't tell you about in the introduction to this series. If your native language is not English, go to the comments section and give a rough translation that "works" for you. I am hoping to get a whole passel of approximations for "edacity" in languages ranging from Achang and French to Luo and Québécois. And of course they will be approximations. Language doesn't have any exact equivalents. That would be boring (try to find a synonym for ごちそうさまでした, for happy-meals'-endings-sake(s).

So what's a word that means something like "eating voraciously" in your native language?

And, if you really want to think about how to make use of vocabulary, use a sentence that you might actually speak or write. 

          The edacious and omnivorous kitten gave little thought to the relative 
          tastes of chipmunk, squirrel, rabbit, or wren. She devoured them all.

Edacious. It's what's for dinner.

Just ask cats. They know the drill—eat lustily, clean up well, and sleep it off.

Oh, and too much edacity can result in a very, very strange Japanese language video. This is not good...and in so many ways.

Japanese Diarrheal Phrasing

[e] Digestion RF