Conference thebay::joyoflex

    Divorce?

     Re: Note 787.1 by SSDEVO::EGGERS 

     Bravo!

	Come now.  I have been assured that, through the medium
	of this notesfile, I would be able to avail myself of
	the finest brains in the company.

	I expected that a great hoard of insightful, witty and
	clasically correct suggestions would be revealed.

	Don't disappoint me  :-)

    Half wife

     Half-wedded

    Betwixt and between.
    
    ------------------
    
    canoodle - to cuddle
    
    Canterbury Tales - unfinished literary work by Chaucer, largely in
    verse, consisting of stories told by pilgrims on their way to
    Canterbury
    
    canter - a smooth, easy pace like a moderate gallop
    
    cantilena - a smooth, flowing lyrical passage of vocal, or sometimes
    instrumental music
    
    cantrip - (1) a magic spell (2) a prank
    
    
    cantus firmus - a simple melody serving as the main theme in a
    contrapuntal work
    
    <take your pick, I vote for "cantrip".  Found the above selection in my
    dictionary about half way between the "agony" and the "ecstasy".  Guess
    you just have to know where to look.>
    
    Stan B.

		*Now* we are getting there!  Now I begin to see 
		the imagination and wit that I expected.

		`Cantrip' looks good, and the mysterious method
		of its definition is appealing.  `Half-wife' is
		also excellent!
		
		But are there any classical scholars out there 
		who can suggest or invent a sound Latin- or 
		Greek-based word?

		rgds  Jim

		PS Thank you for the contributions so far.

    demisticity?
    blissphemy?
    hemiconnubiality?
    dispousal?
    
    if her name's Kate - biforKated
    
    -Jody
    

	Hello Jim,

	In Latin, "half-life marriage" would translate to something
	like: 	    
			Medium aetatis nuptiae

	Perhaps someone wants to build an English word from that (Bob ?)

	How about       Mediagenuptial Day ?
			Midlifenuptialism ?

	roger 

	Latin:	bimaritous (bi- = two, -maritus = married)
		binubilate (bi- = two, nubere = to marry)
	Greek:	demithalamious (demi- = half, thalamium = bridal chamber
		-- from epithalamium)

		-- Cliff

    I like Roger's Mediagenuptial Day, though I'm not sure what the g's
    doing. Still, there's nothing wrong with etymologically inappropriate
    consonants to bind things together.
    
    Dante used the circuitous (and iambic) `nel mezzo del cammin di
    nostra vita' - he was writing in Tuscan, so don't blame me for getting
    the  spelling wrong - to mean 35 (or was it 40, or 45? - anyway "half
    way along the road of our life"). But this isn't really it - you're
    talking about something that happened half way along a shorter road.
    
    Gk		Hemibiogyneureka? (but that wd really apply to someone who'd
    		_found_ somebody: `eureka' is the perfect of euriskein - to
    		find)
    
    Lat.	Semivital matrimonials?
    
    b
    

	Hemibio- sounds good to me. All we need is to add the 
	root for marriage (which I can't remember right now).

	Mediagenuptial:  that's medi-age-nuptial. 
	"Age" is derived from aetas. In mediaeval French, it meant
	life, as in
		Vivre entre mes parents le reste de mon �ge (Du Bellay)

	Don't know if age ever meant life in English (it should have ! :)

	roger

			Keep at it, my friends.  

			You have all weekend.  :-)

	Of course, if you admit mixed Latin/Greek roots,
	you could boldly go for:

		Hemibionuptial Day

	roger

		hemidemisemizoobiovitanuptimaritathalamion

>	hemidemisemizoobiovitanuptimaritathalamion

	Thanks to everbody for the suggestions.  They are all 
	imaginative and it was a difficult choice.  

	In the end, I decided to use HALF-WIFE due to its 
	literalness, and SEMIVITANUPT because it is snappy and 
	will impress most of the people to whom I'm likely to 
	mention my "condition" - other depressed people in bars, 
	for example  ;-}

	Jim

    You're welcome.

    G'day,
    
    
    Has the resolution of this marital problem resulted in any mid-life
    crises?
    
    then there was
    
    centre-fold
    
    mid-wifed
    
    mildewed = miled with wed init (in reverse) = milde wed 
    
    equilibrium = half of it I was free [loosely taking librium to be a
    member of the liberated family] 
    
    ( or maybe equivalium? )
    
    centaur = half man, half something else
    
    equivocal = half the time I could have a say, half, I couldn't
    
    derek
    

Since you have been single for half your life, and married for half your life,
how about:

	Semi detached

	Steve