When a friend says my house is "pyloric" he says it means dirty. When I look it up it means "part of a stomach". Is there a meaning of "pyloric" for dirty or is he wrong?
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1I think your friend is simply mistaken. Perhaps he's conflating pyloric (which I only know as "relating to the pylorus - the sphincter connecting the stomach to the duodenum") with pyaemic/pyemic - relating to pus.– FumbleFingersMay 25, 2014 at 14:58
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Ha Ha. He cannot mean it is like blood poisoned with pus. I shall wait for another answer. Thank you.– SidMay 25, 2014 at 15:42
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Why not accept your friends definition (your house is dirty), regardless of his actual word choice (which might, or might not, refer to partially digested food).– Elliott FrischMay 25, 2014 at 15:51
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Yes it is dirty from the hot winds bringing sand and dirt inside but I ask about the word that he uses because it is a word I cannot find to mean dirty.– SidMay 25, 2014 at 16:23
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4 Answers
My daughter has found the answer. Her university master says that "pylor" is an old word for dust and powder. My friend was right in one way because he knew the word but unfortunately for him "pyloric" is not a right way to mean dusty and does mean as Fumblefingers has said about the stomach. So I hope this helps you to understand the meaning of the word "pylor" now and I want to thank the people who tried to help but didn't know about the word "pylor".
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I think your daughter's professor was probably simply mistaken. Apart from pylor- as a prefix based on pyloric, OED only records pylor as a an obsolete spelling of pillar. So my downvote will stand unless and until you provide a supporting link for your definition. May 28, 2014 at 20:11
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Pylor is from Greek pylōrós [literally, gatekeeper]. I cannot agree that this has a different meaning in English. Thr pyloris is the part of the stomach which is figuratively the gatekeeper to the intestines, in terms of food. May 28, 2014 at 21:15
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1It seems that your friend is thinking of pulver (the base of the word pulverise), which is an word for powder, ultimately from the same Latin word as powder itself. The adjective is pulverous, meaning ‘powdery, dusty’. To say that someone has a pulverous home would be misusing even that word, though, since it would mean the house is made of dust, rather than filled with dust. May 28, 2014 at 21:32
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Allow me the time to check with my daughter today. She is in the UK and time difference means she cannot respond straight away when I asked her by email.– SidMay 29, 2014 at 3:18
My best guess is that OP's friend is actually thinking of...
psoric (adj. and n.) - of, relating to, or associated with psora
psora any of various skin diseases characterized by the presence of scabs or scales, usually with itching; esp. scabies, mange, or (in later use) psoriasis.
I base that on the fact that when describing someone dwelling as "dirty", we're very much inclined to go for references to skin diseases, body parasites, etc. As in lousy, flea-pit, scabby, mangy, etc.
On the other hand, perhaps he's just from Czechoslovakia (Czech pyl = "dust").
answered May 28, 2014 at 20:29
I could not find anything to support your friend's usage of Pyloric in the English language. Even if it is based on a foreign word, such as the Czech "pyl", the suffix "ic" is an English construct. All modern references refer to the Pyloric sphincter or Heliobacter pylori, a bacteria found in the stomach. If they are using it in the sense of the bacteria, one might as well say your house is Staphylococcal, or some such nonsense. The word itself stems from the Greek "gate" or "gate-keeper", in this sense, the usage to describe something as dirty or messy makes no sense. There are any number of words your friend may be misusing, but I hope it's not pyemic! Yuck...
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My friend understands that using "pyloric" instead of "pylor" is not a right way to mean dusty. Thank you. I hope to bring more information to the question above in time.– SidMay 29, 2014 at 3:21
The confusion is cleared. There is some detail information my daughter did not provide in her first response email. The word "pylor" is a word from the language in Wales in Welsh with the meaning of dust. The word "pyloric" is from English language. I have never visited Wales but when checking they can speak both languages. I think it is now right to say that my friend used a UK word but said it in the wrong way but that he did not use an English word in the right way. Thank you again to everyone who have taken their time to help me with this question and please accept my apologies for the confusion caused. I now understand what is the difference between a word in the UK and a word in English.