Word of the Day #3: adelocity

adelocity, n. a measure of unknowability; the degree to which something or someone is obscure or unclear. adelocious, adj.

From the Greek adelos, meaning unknown.

It will come as no surprise that this term was commonly used in sentimental prose and poems written around the 18070s-90s. Thurston Scythesley, a popular British poet of the time, used the word freely in his works. This example comes from his epic Twelve Greek Loves, published by Faber:

Oh Thessaloniki,
Home of my sweet Eugenie.
She of the sun-gold skin,
wild hair,
budding lips,
and infinite adelocity.
When will you release me,
oh Thessaloniki?

Such recent (and florid) examples divert us from linguistic origins which appear much older and less ethereal. It was Pierre Neige, the renowned Undertaker of Reims, who is widely regarded in etymological research circles to have first used adelocity in print, in his Practical Embalming, a pamphlet that was copied and distributed among new recruits to his business in the years 760-70:

After death, the eyes often become marred by a milky sheen of great adelocity, and the colour of the eyes can be no more seen. By this time the remains of the spirit have most certainly left the body, and the draining of fluids can begin. If the eyes remain coloured, have the priest bless the body before embalming commences.

Despite this evidence, there is some argument as to the first actual usage of the word and its variants, since written evidence of it is rich even as early as this. While etymologists and linguists are constantly at work on the question, it seems the history of the word adelocity is in fact adelocious.