A listener in Hartford, Connecticut, is sure he’s heard a word that means “an erotic attraction to lips.” The word is cheiloproclitic, from ancient Greek words that mean “inclined toward lips.” Grant offers a couple of other terms, jolie laide, French for “beautiful ugly,” and cacocallia, from Greek words that mean roughly the same thing. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Cheiloproclitic”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hello, Grant.
Yeah, who’s this?
My name is Marv. I’m calling from Hartford, Connecticut.
Hi, Marv. How you doing?
Hey, Marv.
I’m all right. Hey, Martha. How you guys doing?
Doing well.
Good enough. Good enough. What can we help you with?
I had a question about probably about three years ago I was listening to the show, and you had said a word, chiroprocliptic or chyloprocliptic. I’m not really sure what the spelling was. And I tried to investigate further on the Internet. But I didn’t know the proper spelling, and there was no words that were actually kind of like it. And that’s like, I know, like I tell people, that’s my favorite word, and I don’t even know how to spell it because it was such a short, you know what I mean? Like, I couldn’t really figure out the spelling or anything else, so I just wanted to call and ask you, like, what the proper spelling is, and if that’s, like, indeed, like, the right definition for this word.
And, Marv, what does it mean?
An erotic attraction to lips.
Oh.
Is what I remember you guys telling.
An erotic attraction.
Or speaking.
Okay.
Yeah, that’s an important word to know, I guess, huh?
Well, I mean, I have, you know, an erotic attraction to lips. That’s why I took to the word so much. Like, you know, it’s like I love a beautiful face, you know?
So you want to tell somebody that you’re that word, an appreciator of lips.
Yeah, it’s just like a cool word to know, you know? I don’t know if I’d use it in a sentence, but I know I’d be, you know, there’s a word for that.
Oh, what’s the word?
Oh, chiroprocliptic, chiroprocliptic, you know what I mean? Like, I just rather have it in my Rolodex, you know?
Yes, you’re very, very close to what the word is, and I will tell you what it is now, all right?
Thank you.
The word is chyloproclytic, and I will spell it. Pro. Okay.
Yeah, it’s C-H-E-I-L-O-P-R-O-C-L-I-T-I-C.
Chyloproclytic.
Wow. Okay.
And as you said, it means an erotic attraction to lips. And it’s a word that you really don’t find many places. I mean, as you said, you might not even use it in a sentence. I mean, usually when you see it, it’s in collections of wacky words. I’ll give you just a little bit of history on it. It comes from Greek words that the kylos in Greek means lip. And proclitic means to lean toward. It’s related to the word incline. So, chyloproclitic means having an erotic attraction to lips.
Well, thank you so much. It definitely made my day, and I definitely love your show. Keep doing what you’re doing, and I appreciate everything.
Hey, thanks a lot, Mark. Appreciate the call. Take care now.
All right, you too.
Bye-bye.
All right, bye-bye.
There are a ton of these, though, right? These words that are fun, they have a cool meaning, but we hardly use them.
Yeah.
They just kind of exist to exist.
Yeah.
I think one that I was surprised to find, you know, I’ve always used the French expression jolie led, which means beautiful, ugly. That’s like, let’s say a bulldog. Like, absolutely ugly, but just adorable as all get out.
Or E.T.
Yeah, E.T. Great, yeah.
And there’s a word for that, another word for that.
There is?
Yeah, it’s caca-calia.
Okay.
So the caca part, you probably remember, right? From bad.
Yeah, from bad. Great for bad.
And so that’s actually, even though somebody is ugly, they are really attractive.
Oh, how do you spell that?
Is it c?
C-A-C-O-C-A-L-L-I-A, caca-calia.
Oh, nice.
Yeah.
Very nice.
And that’s an interesting concept because one of the reasons these words click for us, and it sounds like that was Marv’s case, it’s because we have the concept in us and to find it neatly wrapped up in a word is really appealing.
Oh, it’s always a thrill, right?
Right.
It’s like somebody has been here before me and had those same thoughts and same feelings. And solves my problem for me before I arrived.
Exactly.
We’re all more connected than we realize. That’s what this show is about.
All right.
She’s waving her hands, people. She’s serious.
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