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Scorpio 11: A drowning man rescued

The word drowning descends f rom the

Indo-European ( IE ) roo t dhreg which

means “ to draw, g l ide .” 1 I t s paronyms

inc lude drench and dr ink .

The word rescued descends f rom the IE

root kwet - which means “ to shake .” 2

Pa ronyms inc lude casca ra ( a

buck tho rn na t ive t o no r thwes t Nor th

Amer ica) , cask , scu tch ( the woody f iber of

f l ax ) , squash ( t o bea t , squeeze , o r p r e s s

in to a pu lp ) , concuss , d i scuss , percuss ,

soukous ( a rumba l ike Wes t Af r i can dance

music) , pasta , paste ( a so f t , smoo th , t h i ck

mixture) , pastel , past iche (a dramat ic ,

l i t e ra ry, o r musica l p iece openly imi ta t ing the previous works of o ther

ar t i s t s ) , past is (a French l icor ice- f lavored l iqueur) , pastry , pat isser ie (a

bake ry spec i a l i z ing in F rench pas t ry ) , and pat ty ( a sma l l r ounded ,f l a t t ened cake o f food ) .

THEMES: The common theme here i s immedia te ly ev ident — FOOD and

DRINK . Concern ing the la t te r, reca l l tha t one of the paronyms of

drowning is the word dr ink a word which re fers to both a lcohol ic

beve rages and the i r consumpt ion . Among the pa ronyms o f rescued , a re

seve ra l t ha t emphas i ze bo th t hemes — pas t i s , pas t ry, pa t i s se r ie , pa t ty,

pasta , and cask . There i s even the word squash which means t o bea t o r

squeeze bu t whose homonym i s a vege t ab l e . 3 There a r e a l so mus i c

( past iche ) and danc ing ( soukous ) here . Taken toge ther a c lear por t ra i t

emerges of the man tha t requi res rescuing . I t ’s not one drowning in t he

1 Watkins, C. (2000), The American Heritage Dictionary of Indo European Roots, p. 202 Watkins, C. (2000), The American Heritage Dictionary of Indo European Roots, p. 453 http://education.yahoo.com/reference/dictionary/entry/squash

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water. I t ’s another k ind of drowning tha t i s happen ing he re —

“deaden( ing) one ' s awareness of ; b lo t ( t ing) out .” 4 Here we have a man

drowning his sor rows in food , dr ink , and pa r ty ing .

4 http://education.yahoo.com/reference/dictionary/entry/drown