“Excellent, Watson! You scintillate today.” — Arthur Conan Doyle, 1924
Wednesday marked the beginning of Lent, the Christian season consisting of 40 days leading up to Easter.
I was recently listening to the late actor Robert Hardy reading some Sherlock Holmes stories on Audible (he’s really marvelous — I highly recommend it), when I noticed a quick succession of words ending in “-lent” in the story “The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton.”
It reminded me of the beginning of this season where so many people give something up. I’ve always been of the mind that it’s better to take something on for 40 days: practicing gratitude, offering a kindness, and bettering yourself.
In that spirit, let’s learn a little something about lent — the suffix, not the season.
The word “Lent” comes from the Middle English word lente, which means “springtime.” It is a shortened form of the Old English word lencten, which means “spring season.”
This makes sense. Lent occurs in conjunction with the spring.
In English, the suffix “-lent” has the meaning “having in quantity, full of.” It is a variation of the suffix “-ulent” and is found in loanwords from Latin.
The Latin suffix “-lentus” has a similar meaning to “-osus” and also means “full of.” When this element is added to the base of a Latin noun, it must be joined by a linking vowel.
All of this makes great sense, as spring is a time of renewal as the trees and flowers bloom, on their way to fullness once again.
Applying that to the Sherlock Holmes stories, let’s have a look at various small-l “lenten” words that Arthur Conan Doyle used in the 60 stories that comprise the Sherlock Holmes canon.
The three most frequently used words with this suffix are violent, silent, and excellent. Violent occurs 37 times, silent 107 times, and excellent 131 times.
This makes perfect sense, as these are rather common words — and when you consider the nature of Sherlock Holmes’s investigations, violence and silence are the antithesis of each other.
But other words that come up are more fascinating, which we’ll explore below, with a reference to each of them. All definitions are via Merriam-Webster.
Benevolent / Malevolent
The Latin suffix volent- and volens are the present participle of the Latin verb velle, which means “to will” or “wish.” Benevolent means being disposed to doing good; malevolent is having intense often vicious ill will, spite, or hatred.
“This matter cuts very deep, and though I have not finally made up my mind whether it is a benevolent or a malevolent agency which is in touch with us, I am conscious always of power and design.” (The Hound of the Baskervilles)
Corpulent
Corpus means body in Latin, and corpulent means having a large, bulky body. A modern version would be obese.
“Mycroft Holmes was a much larger and stouter man than Sherlock. His body was absolutely corpulent, but his face, though massive, had preserved something of the sharpness of expression which was so remarkable in that of his brother.” —“The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter”
Fraudulent
Given recent headlines, this word is more relevant than ever. It means deceitful; characterized by being based on or done by intentional perversion of truth in order to induce another to part with something of value or to surrender a legal right.
“And the catalepsy?”
“A fraudulent imitation, Watson, though I should hardly dare to hint as much to our specialist. It is a very easy complaint to imitate. I have done it myself.” — “The Adventure of the Resident Patient”
Indolent
From the late Latin indolent-, indolens, meaning insensitive to pain. This originated in Latin with in- plus dolens, the present participle of dolēre to feel pain. To be indolent is to be averse to activity, effort, or movement; habitually lazy.
“In his hand he held a long legal document, which he was reading in an indolent fashion, blowing rings of tobacco smoke from his lips as he did so.” — “The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton”
Insolent
This is an interesting one, as it would seem to be closely related to indolent. In fact, this is from Middle English, from Latin insolent-, insolens meaning unaccustomed or overbearing. Again, the Latin origin is from in- plus solens, present participle of solēre to be accustomed. Merriam-Webster adds that this is perhaps akin to Latin sodalis, meaning comrade.
To be insolent is to be insultingly contemptuous in speech or conduct.
“And all this with such a sneering, leering, insolent face that I would have knocked him down twenty times over if he had been a man of my own age.” — “The Adventure of the Gloria Scott”
Truculent
Truculent derives from truculentus, a form of the Latin adjective trux, meaning “savage.” It has been used in English since the 16th century to describe people or things that are cruel and ferocious. More commonly, it means aggressively self-assertive.
“How came you to know of this?” he cried. And then, with some return of his truculent manner: “What business is it of yours?” — “The Adventure of Shoscombe Old Place”
Turbulent
We can find the origins of turblent in the Latin turbulentus, from turba, meaning confusion or crowd. To be turbulent is to be characterized by agitation or tumult.
“Before ever he had set foot in it, McMurdo the turbulent had become a character in Vermissa.” — The Valley of Fear
With any luck, I haven’t made you positively somnolent after this divergence. Far from me to be insouciant about it.
There’s so much to learn,
Not only fascinating in its own right, but congratulations on a Sherlock Holmes essay I imagine has never been done before!
You definitely have a talent for words!