海角大神

鈥楨xcuse me, can you tell me where the emoluments are?鈥�

鈥淥h, sure, over on Aisle 6, with the other skin-care lotions.鈥�

鈥淕reat, thanks!鈥�

There. Doesn鈥檛 that sound about right?

Um, no, actually. 鈥淓mollients鈥� are what the customer in this imagined exchange really wanted. Emoluments are something else. Emollient comes from a Latin word, emollire, meaning 鈥渢o make soft, soften,鈥澛爐he Online Etymology Dictionary says.

Mollify, another 鈥渟oft鈥� word, shares the same moll element, plus the -fy suffix, meaning 鈥渢o make鈥� or 鈥渢o do.鈥�

In real life, an emollient is a lotion for softening the skin.听

Mollify goes back to the late 14th century and meant concretely 鈥渢o soften (some substance).鈥� You might speak of setting the butter out on the kitchen counter to mollify it. But in real life, mollify is used in a metaphorical sense that came a bit later: to 鈥渟often in temper, appease, pacify,鈥� as the dictionary explains.

Emolument, back in the news because of the Constitution鈥檚 Emoluments Clause, which prohibits presidents from accepting payments from foreign states, seems rooted in a different metaphor: grinding.

The Oxford English Dictionary traces emolument to a Latin word meaning to 鈥渂ring out by effort,鈥� but then hedges and suggests that another verb meaning 鈥渢o grind out鈥� is a more plausible root. 鈥淧ossibly two distinct Latin words of the same spelling may have been confused.鈥�

Oxford defines emolument as 鈥淧rofit or gain arising from station, office, or employment; dues; reward, remuneration, salary.鈥�

If you accept the 鈥渂ring out by effort鈥� etymology, the idea behind emolument is of a financial reward brought about by one鈥檚 effort. But according to John Kelly at the etymology website Mashed Radish, there鈥檚 much speculation that 鈥渢he original sense of [the Latin] emolumentum was a 鈥榩ayment to a miller for grinding corn.鈥� 鈥澛�

That analysis supports the 鈥済rinding鈥� etymology.

There鈥檚 something satisfying about a monetary term grounded in something as humble as grain 鈥� or salt, which is the metaphor behind salary. The Latin salarium was the term for a Roman soldier鈥檚 salt allowance.

Our financial vocabulary, though, tends toward the high-flown and polysyllabic. Consider Charles Dickens鈥檚 Mr. Micawber, in 鈥淒avid Copperfield鈥�: 鈥淚 am at present, my dear Copperfield, engaged in the sale of corn upon commission. It is not an avocation of a remunerative description 鈥� in other words it does not pay 鈥� and some temporary embarrassments of a pecuniary nature have been the consequence. I am however delighted to add that I have now an immediate prospect of something turning up....鈥�

鈥淎n avocation of a remunerative description鈥�? How can he even get those words out of his mouth at a normal conversational tempo? And look at all those聽 liquid consonants in 鈥渞emunerative鈥� 鈥� the 鈥渞鈥檚,鈥� the 鈥渕,鈥� and the 鈥渘.鈥�

One can make a similar observation about emolument.听

Emolument may indeed be a completely non-pejorative term derived from the Latin word for a miller鈥檚 honest fee. But the sound symbolism, plus the coincidental resemblance to emollient, suggests that someone has been softened up.