Lunaversary TM

lunaversary (loon' a ver' sah ree) - the monthly recurrence of a notable event. At the half-year point in their relationship, Roger chimed, "This is our sixth lunaversary!"

"Six month anniversary." Something is just linguistically WRONG about that. Anni- refers to year. Now semi-anniversary, or some variation, maybe.

You may have read about the recent study about the "swooning magic of head-over-heels love." Researchers "found high amounts of activity in a 'reward' part of the brain when the smitten subjects were shown photos of their honeys. That part of the brain has previously been linked to the desire for cocaine, chocolate and money. 'It shows us exactly why love looks so crazy. It's activating these circuits that are associated with very intense desire,' said SUNY Stony Brook psychologist Arthur Aron, who [helped lead] the study."

Well, luna- is the prefix, not just for moon-based objects, from which the word "month" comes, but for "lunatics" and "lunacy," all the things "early-stage intense romantic love" is.

I sent this word to William Safire's "On Language" column in the New York Times about a dozen years ago. Safire thought it was interesting construction, and wrote that he considered using it in his column, but never did. (But a question I had about "Joe Sixpack" did appear in a Safire column.)

Use at will. Tell them when they say "fifth month anniversary" that the PREFERRED term is "fifth lunaversary."

You never heard of lunaversary before? That's because I created it. Impress your friends, and confound those who aren't.

This would be Carol's and my 73rd lunaversary, except that it isn't really the way I envisioned using the term. We have a more stable, MATURE love. But we do try to go out to a dinner date once a month around the 15th (sometimes two days early or three days late.) Maybe we CAN still use lunaversary...