Question about "The Last Hero"

[RathDarkblade]

In "The Last Hero",

Spoiler

Sweevo, God of Cut Timber, is noted as banning the practice of panupunitoplasty.

He has no idea what it is, or even if it's real, but is amused by how it makes his worshipers panic.

So I always wondered what

Spoiler

panupunitoplasty

actually is - and I think I have the answer!! I'm an amateur etymologist, and I just love it when TP uses words that make you think about what they mean.

Firstly, the word

Spoiler

panupunitoplasty

is made up. But it is possible, if you break it down to its component parts, that it means:

1. kneading dough (i.e. panu- from the Latin panis, meaning bread);
2. -punito- would come from "punitive", meaning "rough treatment" - this is the same place where the word "punishment" comes from; and
3. -plasty, meaning "shaping" (as in "rhinoplasty", i.e. "nose surgery").

So putting it all together, the word means "the rough kneading of bread" (or possibly other pastry products). It's a tough word to work out - but I like it! :twisted:

What do you think it could mean, hmm?

 

[=Tamar]

It sounds like something Nanny Ogg would do. It probably was edited out of her cookbook.

 

[raisindot]

Here's how the DW wiki describes it:

Spoiler

A practice expressly prohibited by Sweevo, the God of Uncut Lumber.
In conversation with Offler, he frankly admitted that he didn't know what it was, but it gets them worried.
Sweevo should really take more care in inventing Abominations unto the Gods, as when you disentangle the supposedly nonsensical polysyllables he has just assembled, they appear to mean:-
a cosmetic operation, undertaken with the intention of making things look better by indiscriminately punishing, blasting or smiting all and everything within sight"
which is 80% of the definition of Godhood. Sweevo has inadvertently placed a ban on one of the practices that makes being a God worthwhile (to a God). Luckily, most Gods have difficulty with words longer than two syllables, so very probably will not notice (and of course, Gods have never felt themselves to be bound by their own rules. Rules are for worshippers to follow). And of course a god would want to make it very clear that he's the one doing the smiting, ok?

In this interpretation, it makes sense. A god of uncut limber would want to ban a practice that essentially defines the job of the lumberjack--to cut down trees to make (in human terms) a landscape more useful for farming or homes or whatever. The irony is that Sweevo doesn't seem to know the meaning of the practice that protects what he "stands" (arf arf) for.