Inculcate -- Making an Impression

As a word connoisseur, I'd like to argue that use of unusual, attention-grabbing terminology would aid listeners' memory by making a real impression. However, I disprove my own hypothesis. On Tuesday, my wandering attention snapped back to a speaker's presentation when my ears caught the word inculcate. Ooh, there's a choice term! However, for the life of me I couldn't tell you now what exactly he was saying should be inculcated.

Even so, the word has stuck in my brain with the stubborn clinginess of a dryer softener sheet on a wool sock. Which is kind of apropos considering inculcate basically means "to impress upon" as well as "to influence" and "to instill via teaching."

Now, maybe it's just me, but I can't help but think the word sounds kind of sinister, its syllables punctuated by the sharp raps of those two hard c's. But obviously you can't always judge a word by its sound any more than you can tell the state of a politician's marital harmony by how many times he invokes "family values." The usage is what counts.

Webster's Third New International Dictionary defines inculcate as: "1: to teach and impress by frequent repetitions or admonitions; urge on or fix in the mind. 2: to cause (as a person) to become impressed or instilled with something." The term, the dictionary notes, derives from the Latin root culcāre meaning "to tread on, trample."

So inculcate seems to occupy linguistic terrain somewhere between "to teach" and "to indoctrinate." It's not directly synonymous with brainwash, but it means more than simply "to present ideas for consideration." Many an independently minded student has posed the question: Where does teaching stop and indoctrination begin? It comes down to the intent behind the action. Likewise with inculcate: Do you intend to impress an idea on someone or to have your ideas tread on someone else's?