From: oursin	Date: July 24th, 2008 06:26 pm (UTC)		(Link)

I would guess 'cultivation' and really bad handwriting!

	From: forthright	Date: July 24th, 2008 06:39 pm (UTC)		(Link)

If that is the case, then somewhere, a paleographer is weeping. Possibly curtana.

	From: youngwilliam	Date: July 24th, 2008 06:54 pm (UTC)		(Link)

Or 'inclination'?

Although exactly what Dr. Lazear is inclined to do, I've no idea.

	From: chickenfeet2003	Date: July 24th, 2008 07:31 pm (UTC)		(Link)

That was my guess too

	From: quettalinde	Date: July 24th, 2008 06:41 pm (UTC)		(Link)

It probably doesn't help to know that clivus means "slope or hill" in Latin, does it?

	From: forthright	Date: July 24th, 2008 07:16 pm (UTC)		(Link)

I did find that (and the noun 'clivity' meaning 'inclination, slope') but I find it hard to believe that was what was intended, alas.

	From: jere7my	Date: July 31st, 2008 05:13 am (UTC)		(Link)

Perhaps it means he lived inside a hill, like a hobbit.

	From: wordweaverlynn	Date: July 24th, 2008 06:58 pm (UTC)		(Link)
	Where did I go wrong? (facepalm)

I can see several places where the letters might have been misread:
en could be eu, in, er
cl could be d
iv could be w, ir, ri
ac could be ec, ca

Or it could be that the copyist inadvertently dropped a line, a word, a few letters.

Indirection? Enduration?

Thanks. It's a nice puzzle, and I have the perfect icon for it.

	From: forthright	Date: July 24th, 2008 07:19 pm (UTC)		(Link)
	Re: Where did I go wrong? (facepalm)

I did try the cl = d form to get 'endivation' as well as en = in 'inclivation' or 'indivation', but nothing gets us anything that is a word describing a person's character or qualities. It's a real mystery, that's for sure.

	From: lemur_man	Date: July 24th, 2008 08:19 pm (UTC)		(Link)
	Re: Where did I go wrong? (facepalm)

'Inclination'? But then that doesn't tell what he was inclined to.

	From: oursin	Date: July 24th, 2008 08:49 pm (UTC)		(Link)
	Re: Where did I go wrong? (facepalm)

Endivation, or resembling chicory????

	From: mktgurl	Date: July 24th, 2008 07:55 pm (UTC)		(Link)
	babble. babble. babble.

Personally, I think it's just a typo for "enclavation", medical technobabble term for a surgery procedure involving the eye. An enclavation needle is an ophthalmic instrument used to manipulate iris tissue during the surgical procedure to fixate an phakic or aphakic intraocular lens in a human eye.. for things like cataract surgery.

But wait, you say. That doesn't fit in the context of the above phrase. I think the author means "precise" in lieu of enclavation.

	From: swestrup	Date: July 24th, 2008 08:37 pm (UTC)		(Link)

On first reading I took it to mean 'of gentlemanly inclination', but I have no idea how close that is to the intended meaning.

	From: prolixfootle	Date: July 24th, 2008 09:17 pm (UTC)		(Link)

civilization?

	From: athelind	Date: July 24th, 2008 09:20 pm (UTC)		(Link)

Cultivation!

	From: prolixfootle	Date: July 24th, 2008 09:24 pm (UTC)		(Link)

Excellent and quite possibly!

	From: athelind	Date: July 24th, 2008 09:18 pm (UTC)		(Link)

I'm just going to start using "enclivation" in my own writings, and forcibly inject it into the language.

	From: generickid	Date: July 24th, 2008 09:34 pm (UTC)		(Link)

That is a very enclivized thing to do athelind.

	From: rockdg9	Date: July 25th, 2008 12:32 am (UTC)		(Link)

Great idea. I'm with you. It's time these people learned a little bit of enclivation.

	From: mktgurl	Date: July 26th, 2008 12:38 am (UTC)		(Link)

Submit it as an entry to the Oxford dictionary. If "d'oh!" can make it in there, so can this word.

	From: ankhorite	Date: July 25th, 2008 08:27 am (UTC)		(Link)
	Enclivation = [Social] Inclination or Proclivity? No, Education

"a good clinical man, a bacteriologist and withal a gentleman of enclivation and agreeable personality."

Endivation? He likes crisp green salad?

Endivination? A perspicacious sort?

Enclavation? Enclaving is in the dictionary. Would a person of enclavation be a somewhat exclusive, therefore class-conscious, person?

Medically, enclavation is a nasty flap-lifting procedure in eye surgery. Eew. No help there.

Incultivation is "a want of cultivation," which would be a bit of an insult here.

Inclination is my runner-up, I think, in the sense of being socially inclined. Inclined towards company and conversation. The "iv" and "in" would be near-indistinguishable in almost any pen-and-ink script.

Otherwise, look towards the proclivity family: proclivation = enclivation, perhaps? The definitions of proclivity and inclination are not too far apart; perhaps they were elided into a new construction here, inclivity? Inclivation?

My winner is education, which fits perfectly in the syntax of the period and of this sentence in particular. Imagine the script:

in-cl-iv-ation
e--d--uc-ation