On being ripped off

I claim to have originated the label “septic” for the malodourous end of the skeptic range, and I have the evidence (in fact I can go back further) for the context-less jonny-come-latelies.

I also claim “going emeritus” [1], but admit I got that from Jack Vance (the Languages of Pao, possibly the only (sci-fi?) book about societal control by choice of language, err, except for 1984 of course).

From the book

Another subject enjoyed a furtive currency among the students: the subject of age and death. The topic was more or less taboo – especially in the presence of a dominie – for no one died of disease or corporeal degeneration on Break ness. The dominies ranged the universe; a certain number met violent ends in spite of their built-in weapons and defenses. The greater number, however, passed their years on Breakness, unchanging except for perhaps a slight gaunt ness and angularity of the bone structure. And then, inexorably the dominie would approach his Emeritus status: he would become less precise, more emotional; egocentricity would begin to triumph over the essential social accommodations; there would be outbursts of petulance, wrath and a final megalomania and then the Emeritus would disappear.

And

Finisterle propounded another apparently paradoxical law of nature: ‘The more forceful and capacious the brain of a dominie, the more wild and violent its impulses when it succumbs to sclerosis and its owner becomes an Emeritus.’

And

Finisterle shrugged, ‘This means nothing, either to sire or to son. A man, no matter how remarkable, has only a finite capability. It is no longer a secret that Lord Palafox has succumbed to the final sickness, he is an Emeritus. The world and his brain are no longer separate they are one and the same.’

And

Palafox’s expression changed no whit; the sad smile trembled on his mouth; the dangerous shine glittered in his eyes. It was clear to Beran that Palafox had completely succumbed to the Breakness syndrome. Palafox was an Emeritus.