nymph

nymphs (plural)
nymphae (plural)
nymphe (alternative archaic rare)

From Middle English nimphe, from Old English nymphē and Old French nimphe, both from Latin nympha (“nymph, bride”), from Ancient Greek νύμφη (númphē, “bride”). Doublet of nympha.

(Greek mythology, Roman mythology) Any female nature spirit associated with water, forests, grotto, wind, etc.

нимфа

mythology: water, forest or mountain spirit


fairy

en-noun

fairy (countable and uncountable, plural fairies)

fairies (plural)
faery (alternative)
faëry (alternative)
faerie (alternative)
faërie (alternative)
færie (alternative archaic nonstandard)
fairie (alternative)

From Middle English faierie, fairie, from Old French faerie, from fae + -erie, from Latin fāta (“goddess of fate”). Equivalent to fay + -ry. Attested in English from about 1330, in King Alisaunder, first in the sense of "enchantment, illusion, dream" ("that thou herdest is fairye") and shortly thereafter "realm of the fays, fairy-land" and "the inhabitants of fairyland, collectively". The re-interpretation of the term as a countable noun denoting individual inhabitants of fairy-land can be traced to the 1390s, but became common only in the 16th century, perhaps due to reinterpreting phrases like faerie knight.

"They used to say there were fairies in that hill, I must tell you!"

1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 51:

(mythology) A mythical being of human form with magical powers, known in many sizes and descriptions, although often depicted in modern illustrations only as a small sprite with gauze-like wings, especially one that is female. Fairies are revered in some modern forms of paganism.


imp

From Middle English impe, ympe (“tree branch; shoot, sprig; graft, scion; young tree, sapling, seedling; tree”) [and other forms], from Old English impa, impe (“shoot, sprig; graft, scion; young tree, sapling, seedling”), from impian, ġeimpian (“to graft”) (see etymology 1).

"Yes, there are a great, great many coming after us; at least a score," said the lad.—"Well, that's the troll," said the horse; "he is coming after us with his imps."

1881, P. Chr. Asbjörnsen [i.e., Peter Christen Asbjørnsen], “The Widow’s Son”, in H[ans] L[ien] Brækstad, transl., Round the Yule Log: Norwegian Folk and Fairy Tales, London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington, →OCLC, page 218:

It was as if there were little imps dancing in my mouth, and every so often, when a situation arose, they'd get together, giggle wickedly, and try to push words out of my open mouth.

1981 December 1, Ruth Geller, “The Lesbian Teacher”, in Gay Community News, volume 12, number 20, page 5:

(chiefly fiction and mythology) A small, mischievous sprite or a malevolent supernatural creature, somewhat comparable to a demon but smaller and less powerful, formerly regarded as the child of the devil or a demon (see sense 3.2).


sphinx

sphinxes (plural)
sphinges (plural)
sphynx (alternative obsolete)
spynx (alternative obsolete)

From Middle English Spynx, from Latin Sphinx, from Ancient Greek Σφίγξ (Sphínx), perhaps either from σφίγγω (sphíngō, “to squeeze, to strangle”) (whence also sphincter), of Pre-Greek origin, or from Egyptian Szp:p-A53-anx-n:x (šzp-ꜥnḫ, “divine image”, literally “living image”).

der

<i class="Latn mention" lang="egy">šzp-ꜥnḫ</i>

[W]hatsoe'er of strange / Sculptured on alabaster obelisk, / Or jasper tomb, or mutilated sphynx, / Dark Æthiopia in her desert hills. / Conceals.

1815 September 10 – December 14, Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Alastor; or, The Spirit of Solitude”, in Alastor; or, The Spirit of Solitude: And Other Poems, London: […] Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy, […]; and Carpenter and Son, […] [b]y S[amuel] Hamilton, […], published 1816, →OCLC, page 9:

(mythology) A creature with the head of a person and the body of an animal, commonly a lion.

أَبُو الهَوْل

mythology: creature with the head of a person and the body of an animal


materialism

en-noun

materialism (countable and uncountable, plural materialisms)

/məˈtɪəɹiəlɪzəm/

Borrowed from French matérialisme. By surface analysis, material + -ism.

The result of the labours of philosophy appeared to be a total scepticism on the most important subjects of hu man duty and expectation. The irregular fears of a future state had been supplanted by the materialism of Epicurus; and this system—if system it may be called, which left them without a God, a providence, a morality, or a retribution—was the fashionable philosophy of the more cultivated classes.

1814, Joseph S. Buckminster, The Sermons by the Late Rev. Joseph S. Buckminster, Sermon I:

Medical materialism seems indeed a good appellation for the too simple-minded system of thought which we are considering. ... All such mental over-tensions, it says, are, when you come to the bottom of the matter, mere affairs of diathesis (auto-intoxications most probably), due to the perverted action of various glands which physiology will yet discover.

1902, William James, “Lecture I”, in The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature […] , New York, N.Y.; London: Longmans, Green, and Co. […], →OCLC:

With the rise of Cartesian and Hobbesian mechanical philosophy and materialism in the 16th and 17th centuries, the classical argument for the immateriality of the intellect and will was simply ignored and then forgotten.

2015 January 26, Michael Egnor, “Aristotle on the Immateriality of Intellect and Will”, in Evolution News, retrieved 2021-01-11:

(philosophy) The philosophical belief that nothing exists beyond what is physical.


agency

agency (countable and uncountable, plural agencies)

From Medieval Latin agentia, from Latin agēns (present participle of agere (“to act”)), agentis (cognate with French agence, see also agent).

moral agency

individual agency

Formally, capitalism performs its fundamental gesture—reappropriation without transformation. This bears on the question of subjective agency because this “reappropriation without transformation” is exactly what agency seeks to avoid; such a process indicates, in fact, that one's agency has failed, that one really had no agency in the first place.

2001, Todd McGowan, The Feminine "No!", SUNY Press, →ISBN, page 105:

Strictly speaking, at the level of personal agency one could say that power is a condition where one is “enabled.” I would contend that this is a condition of personal agency.

2012, Edmund V. Sullivan, A Critical Psychology, Springer Science & Business Media, →ISBN, page 75:

The feeling of being in control of one's body should involve the sense of body-ownership, plus an additional sense of agency.

2013, Andy Clark, Julian Kiverstein, Tillmann Vierkant, Decomposing the Will, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 112:

SCP-3125 incarnated the following winter.
Its first act upon its arrival — or, depending on the degree of intelligent agency you ascribed to it, the first side-effect of its arrival — was the neutralisation of the Foundation.

2019 August 26, qntm, “Unthreaded”, in There Is No Antimemetics Division, →ISBN, page 161:

(sociology, philosophy, psychology) The capacity of individuals to act independently and to make their own free choices.


gnome

From French gnome (“gnome”), from New Latin gnomus, used by Paracelsus as a synonym for pygmaeus (“pygmy”).

When the trees were disposed of, the gnomes vanished again.

1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 226:

There were not one but four gnomes standing at his feet. “I nearly trod on you,” Daniel said. “What are you doing here?”
The gnomes just stood, looking up at him.

2011, Ross Lawhead, The Realms Thereunder, page 251:

(mythology, fantasy) One of a race of imaginary human-like beings, usually depicted as short and typically bearded males, who inhabit the inner parts of the earth and act as guardians of mines, mineral treasure, etc.; in modern fantasy literature and games, when distinguished from dwarves, gnomes are usually smaller than dwarves and more focused on engineering than mining.


alternation

alternation (countable and uncountable, plural alternations)

Learned borrowing from Latin alternatio; compare French alternation. By surface analysis, alternate + -ion.

(logic) The "inclusive or" truth function.


private

en-adj

private (comparative more private, superlative most private)

more private (comparative)
most private (superlative)

→ Punjabi: ਪ੍ਰਾਈਵੇਟ (prāīveṭ)

→ Welsh: preifat

[ˈpʰɹaɪ̯vɪt]

[ˈpʰɹaɪ̯vɪt]

[ˈpʰɹɑɪ̯vɪt]

[ˈpʰɹaɪ̯vət̞]

[ˈpʰɹəɪ̯və(ʔ)]

[ˈpʰɾəɪ̯və(ʔ)]

[ˈpʰɹo̞ɪ̯və(ʔ)]

[ˈpʰɾo̞ɪ̯və(ʔ)]

From Middle English privat(e) (“individual, exclusive, private”), from Latin prīvātus (“bereaved, deprived, set apart from, release”), perfect passive participle of prīvō (“I bereave, deprive, release”) (see -ate for more), from prīvus (“private, one's own, peculiar”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *per; compare prime, prior, pristine. Doublet of privy.

bor

(philosophy) Of the mind or language, not in principle experienceable, knowable, or understandable by others.


tilde

Borrowed from Spanish tilde, from Latin titulus (“superscript”) or from tildar. Doublet of titer/titre, title, titlo, tittle, and titulus. Compare Portuguese til.

apex

visually similar diacritic in Middle Vietnamese that is often confused with the tilde

A symbol ⟨~⟩, with various names and uses, also known as swung dash or wave dash. In the computer industry, various other names may be used, such as squiggle and twiddle.

(logic) An alternate form of the logical negation operator, which is usually written as ¬.


guide

→ Hindi: गाइड (gāiḍ)

→ Japanese: ガイド (gaido)

→ Korean: 가이드 (gaideu)

→ Norwegian: guide

→ Swedish: guide

→ Urdu: گائیڈ (gāeḍ)

c. 1325–75. From Middle English guide, from the Old French guide, from Old Occitan guida, from guidar, from Frankish *wītan (“to show the way, lead”), from Proto-Germanic *wītaną (“to see, know; go, depart”), from Proto-Indo-European *weyd- (“to see, know”). Cognate with Old English wītan (“to see, take heed to, watch after, guard, keep”). Related also to English wit.

cog

The familiars of the magicians, on the other hand, were not in all cases evil, and often may have approximated the "guides" with whom present-day spiritualists are well acquainted.

1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 75:

(occult) A spirit believed to speak through a medium.


demon

demons (plural)
daimon (alternative)
daemon (alternative)
dæmon (alternative)

Anthony the Great
Michelangelo
en:demon
en:demon (disambiguation)

From Middle English demon, a borrowing from Medieval Latin dēmōn, daemōn (“lar, familiar spirit, guardian spirit”), from Ancient Greek δαίμων (daímōn, “dispenser, god, protective spirit”). Doublet of daimon.

der

(Greek mythology) A tutelary deity or spirit intermediate between the major Olympian gods and mankind, especially a deified hero or the entity which supposedly guided Socrates, telling him what not to do.


yin

From early romanizations of Chinese 陰／阴 (yīn), originally used in reference to shaded areas, as of a mountain or home.

"Steamed fish and chicken and vegetable soup and even mushrooms are considered cooling foods, edible materializations of the yang, the pure primal air. The yin, or earth element, inheres in fried dishes and especially in shark's fin soup. Am I right, Mr Lee?"

1956, Anthony Burgess, Time for a Tiger (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 187:

According to traditional Chinese medicine, blood carries chi, your “life force,” which fuels all the functions of the body. When you lose blood, you lose chi, and this causes your body to go into a state of yin (cold). When yin (cold) and yang (hot) are out of balance, your body will suffer physical disorders.

2017 January 8, Leslie Hsu Oh, “I tried the Chinese practice of ‘sitting the month’ after childbirth”, in The Washington Post, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2017-01-08, Health & Science:

In ancient Chinese philosophy, the opposing forces of Yin (passive, feminine, night) and Yang (active, masculine, sun) balance life.[…]
As we turn towards darker days (from November 1st until the winter solstice's darkest night on December 21st), we have a chance to turn inward for reflection. We enter a Yin phase.

2023 November 1, Katie Hopkins, “Transitions & Remembrances”, in Align & Spiral (Blog), archived from the original on 2024-02-01, Belief & Body Blog:

(philosophy) A principle in Chinese and related East Asian philosophies associated with dark, cool, female, etc. elements of the natural world.


yang

From early romanizations of Chinese 陽／阳 (yáng), originally in reference to the sunny side of areas such as mountains and dwellings.

The performance was unmistakably male and gay. The rousing lion dance that capped their performance provided the right touch of "yang" without destroying the distinct feel of something gay, Asian and new.

1985 August 17, S. H. Chua, “IGA Smashes Borders”, in Gay Community News, volume 13, number 6, page 10:

(philosophy) A principle in Chinese and related East Asian philosophies associated with bright, hot, masculine, etc. elements of the natural world.


ancestral

ancestrals (plural)
ancestrall (alternative)
auncestral (alternative)

From Anglo-Norman ancestrel, from ancestre (“ancestor”).

Like all ordinary ancestrals, remote successor is logically reflexive.

1992, Diane Brentari, Gary N. Larson, Lynn A. MacLeod, The Joy of Grammar: A festschrift in honor of James D. McCawley, page 309:

One can take advantage of the ancestrals of basic relations such as RemoteSuccessor, to define Quace structure as follows internal to Proposal A:

2004, Paul Martin Postal, Skeptical Linguistic Essays, page 61:

I thus naturally extend the notation introduced for the ancestrals of structural relations between arcs to the nonstructural relations Sponsor and Erase, and to relations defined in terms of them like Successor.

2010, Paul Martin Postal, Edge-based Clausal Syntax, page 32:

(logic) A relationship in which something is a precursor.


Aquarius

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-Aquarius.wav

Borrowed from Latin aquārius (“water carrier”), from aqua (“water”) + -arius. See also aquarium.

(astrology) The zodiac sign for the water carrier, ruled by Uranus covering January 20 – February 18 (tropical astrology) or February 15 – March 14 (sidereal astrology).


Scorpio

/ˈskɔːɹpɪoʊ/

From Latin scorpiō (“scorpion”). Doublet of scorpion.

(astrology) The zodiac sign for the scorpion, ruled by Mars and covering October 23 - November 22 (tropical astrology) or November 16 - December 15 (sidereal astrology).


vertex

Late Middle English, borrowed from Latin vertex (“whirl, eddy; top, crown, peak, summit”). Doublet of vortex.

Mathworld article on vertices of polyhedra

Mathworld article on vertices of polygons

(astrology) The point where the prime vertical meets the ecliptic in the western hemisphere of a natal chart.


cornucopia

en-noun

cornucopia (countable and uncountable, plural cornucopias or cornucopiae or (archaic) cornucopiæ)

cornucopias (plural)
cornucopiae (plural)
cornucopiæ (archaic plural)

Borrowed from Latin cornūcōpia (“mythical horn of plenty”), from cornū (“horn”) + cōpia (“abundance”).

bor+

Device, an anchor held by a hand from the clouds: behind the anchor are a kind of brackets, in the form of cornucopiæ, croſſed; […]

1786, Typographical Antiquities: or An Historical Account of the Origin and Progress of Printing in Great Britain and Ireland: […], volume II, London: […] [F]or the Editor, and sold by Mr. T. Payne and Son, […], page 1163:

It soon came: as they were on their way to a transparency of their majesties, not a little larger than life—with Bellona, in a very handsome helmet, on one side, and Peace, with a cornucopia and a full blown wreath of roses, on the other—the path was interrupted by a little knot of gentlemen.

1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “The Fête”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 59:

So far as Swedenborg’s elucidation extends, it is comprised in seven groupings of this family; and, possibly, the Hebraic forms of the several names which are included in them, may at some future period, like so many cornucopiæ of wisdom, yield abundance of precious fruit to the Biblical student.

1849, Elihu Rich, A Biographical Sketch of Emanuel Swedenborg: With an Account of His Works, London: E. Rich, […], page 139:

A head of Trajan, between two cornucopiæ, under which is a winged foot, with a caduceus and a dolphin.

1851, B[ram] Hertz, Catalogue of the Collection of Assyrian, Babylonian, Egyptian, Greek, Etruscan, Roman, Indian, Peruvian and Mexican Antiquities, London: […], page 46:

On these the details of the cornucopiae resemble those familiar in the Hellenistic world: from the horn, filleted and filled to overflowing with bunches of grapes, […]

1975, Yaʻaḳov Meshorer, Nabataean Coins, Institute of Archaeology, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, page 25:

The three cornucopiae which branch out to hold the candles are apparently unparalleled and this in itself offers some encouragement for regarding the pieces as by Giuseppe, for the majority of his designs seem to have been cast once only (counting for this purpose a pair as a unique item, as with the lower parts of the Victoria and Albert Museum firedogs).

1981, Charles Avery, Studies in European Sculpture, Christie’s, →ISBN, page 66:

There are other mysteries expressed by the bison horn, the Paleolithic original of which the classical cornucopia is a copy: the horn of plenty is the universal vulva from which emerge all the creatures of life, plants, animals, and humans.

1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 105:

The two cornucopiae carried by the figure likely identify her as Isis, but they also make clear her inanimate status.

2021, Stephanie Pearson, “[The Lure of Egyptian Treasures] Egyptian Gods as Lamp Stands”, in The Triumph and Trade of Egyptian Objects in Rome: Collecting Art in the Ancient Mediterranean, De Gruyter, →ISBN, page 69:

(Greek mythology) A goat's horn endlessly overflowing with fruit, flowers and grain; or full of whatever its owner wanted: or, an image of a such a horn, either in two or three dimensions.

قرن الوفرة

mythical horn endlessly overflowing with food and drink


member

→ Japanese: メンバー (menbā)

→ Korean: 멤버 (membeo)

→ Malay: member

→ Punjabi: ਮੈਂਬਰ (maimbar)

From Middle English membre, from Old French membre, from Latin membrum (“limb, body part”), from Proto-Italic *memzrom, from Proto-Indo-European *mḗms, *mēms-rom (“flesh”). Akin to Gothic 𐌼𐌹𐌼𐌶 (mimz, “meat, flesh”), Crimean Gothic menus.
Coexists with native Middle English lim, limb (“member, limb, joint”) (from Old English lim (“limb, joint, main branch”)), and displaced Middle English lith (“limb, joint, member”) (from Old English liþ (“limb, member, join, tip”)).

cog

(logic) One of the propositions making up a syllogism.


binary

en-adj

binary (comparative more binary, superlative most binary)

more binary (comparative)
most binary (superlative)

From Late Latin bīnārius (“consisting of two”), from Latin bīnī (“two-by-two, pair”). By surface analysis, bin- + -ary.

двайко́вы

being in a state of one of two mutually exclusive conditions such as on or off

Near-synonym: Boolean

en:concerning logic of mutually exclusive states

(logic) Concerning logic whose subject matter concerns such states.


descriptive

en-adj

descriptive (comparative more descriptive, superlative most descriptive)

more descriptive (comparative)
most descriptive (superlative)

From Latin dēscriptīvus (“containing a full description”).

der

He draws eclectically on studies of baboons, descriptive anthropological accounts of hunter-gatherer societies and, in a few cases, the fossil record.

2012 March-April, John T. Jost, “Social Justice: Is It in Our Nature (and Our Future)?”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, archived from the original on 2012-02-13, page 162:

(sciences, philosophy) Describing and seeking to classify, as opposed to normative or prescriptive.


politburo

politburos (plural)
Politburo (alternative)
politbureau (alternative)
Politbureau (alternative)

/ˈpɒlɪtˌbjʊəɹəʊ/

LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-politburo.wav

Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Joseph Stalin

Borrowed from Russian Политбюро́ (Politbjuró, “politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union”), a contraction of полити́ческое бюро́ (politíčeskoje bjuró, “political bureau”).

bor

(communism, Marxism) The governing council and chief policymaking body of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and other Marxist-Leninist political systems.

քաղբյուրո

governing council and chief policymaking body of a Marxist-Leninist political system


reduce

en-verb

reduce (third-person singular simple present reduces, present participle reducing, simple past and past participle reduced)

reduces (present singular third-person)
reducing (participle present)
reduced (participle past)
reduced (past)

From Middle English reducen, from Old French reduire, from Latin redūcō (“reduce”); from re- (“back”) + dūcō (“lead”). See duke, and compare with redoubt.

(transitive, logic) To convert a syllogism to a clearer or simpler form.

herleiden

logic: to convert a syllogism to a clearer or simpler form


appearance

en-noun

appearance (countable and uncountable, plural appearances)

appearances (plural)
appearaunce (alternative obsolete)

/əˈpɪə.ɹəns/

Borrowed from Middle French apparence, from Latin apparentia, from appareo. Morphologically appear + -ance. Doublet of apparence and apparency. Displaced native Old English hīew (“the way something looks or seems”) and ætīewednes (“act of appearing or coming into view”).

явяване

The coming into court of either of the parties

Catholicism teaches that the Eucharist, while remaining under the physical appearance of bread and wine, becomes really and truly the body and the blood of Christ.

(philosophy, theology) That which is not substance, essence, hypostasis; the outward reality as opposed to the underlying reality


bunyip

The bunyip here was considered to have a magical power over humans, causing them considerable misfortune. Places where there were many eels tended to be where bunyips lived, as this was their food. On one occasion, Aboriginal people claimed that a bunyip lured a woman to her death by distracting her with a large catch of eels. It was considered extremely bad luck to kill or injure a bunyip.

2007, Janet Parker, Julie Stanton, editors, Mythology: Myths, Legends and Fantasies, page 387:

According to the stories, the Bunyip comes in many different shapes and sizes—some are covered in feathers, while others have scales like a crocodile. Most Aboriginal drawings show the Bunyip with a tail like a horse, and flippers and tusks like a walrus.

2008, Oliver Ho, Mysteries Unwrapped: Mutants & Monsters, page 26:

One particularly fierce bunyip described by Smith was well known as a man-eater throughout south Australia.

2009, David D. Gilmore, Monsters: Evil Beings, Mythical Beasts, and All Manner of Imaginary Terrors, page 150:

(Australia, cryptozoology, mythology) A mythical Australian monster, said to inhabit swamps and lagoons.


Adonis

The Phœnician Adonis was identical with Tammūz.

1866, Sabine Baring-Gould, Curious Myths of the Middle Ages, S. George:

1900, James Frazer, The Golden Bough, Chapter 42: Osiris and the Sun,
A strong reason for interpreting the death of Osiris as the decay of vegetation rather than as the sunset is to be found in the general, though not unanimous, voice of antiquity, which classed together the worship and myths of Osiris, Adonis, Attis, Dionysus, and Demeter, as religions of essentially the same type. The consensus of ancient opinion on this subject seems too great to be rejected as a mere fancy. So closely did the rites of Osiris resemble those of Adonis at Byblus that some of the people of Byblus themselves maintained that it was Osiris and not Adonis whose death was mourned by them.

1921, Jessie Weston, From Ritual to Romance, Chapter X: The Secret of the Grail (1) - The Mysteries,
As Sir J. G. Frazer has before now pointed out, there are parallel and over-lapping forms of this cult, the name of the god, and certain details of the ritual, may differ in different countries, but whether he hails from Babylon, Phrygia, or Phoenicia, whether he be called Tammuz, Attis, or Adonis, the main lines of the story are fixed, and invariable. Always he is young and beautiful, always the beloved of a great goddess; always he is the victim of a tragic and untimely death, a death which entails bitter loss and misfortune upon a mourning world, and which, for the salvation of that world, is followed by a resurrection.

(Greek mythology) A beautiful young man loved by Aphrodite.


inverse

Recorded since 1440, from Latin inversus, the past participle of invertere (“to invert”), itself from in- (“in, on”) + vertere (“to turn”).

противоположност

opposite of a given due to contrary effects or nature

"Anything that isn't a dog doesn't go to heaven" is the inverse of "All dogs go to heaven." More generally, ¬ mathsf p→¬ mathsf q is the inverse of mathsf p→ mathsf q and is equivalent to the converse proposition mathsf q→ mathsf p.

Inversion is the inferring, from a given proposition, another proposition whose subject is the contradictory of the subject of the original proposition. The given proposition is called the Invertend, that which is inferred from it is termed the Inverse... The rule for Inversion is: Convert either the Obverted Converse or the Obverted Contrapositive.

1896, James Welton, A Manual of Logic, 2nd edition, Bk iii, Ch. iii, §102:

The result of an inversion, particularly:

(logic) The non-truth-preserving proposition constructed by negating both the premise and conclusion of an initially given proposition.


trigon

en-noun

trigon (countable and uncountable, plural trigons)

From Ancient Greek τρίγωνον (trígōnon, “triangle”), neuter substantive of τρίγωνος (trígōnos, “three-sided”), from τρεῖς (treîs, “three”) + γωνία (gōnía, “bend, angle”). Equivalent to tri- + -gon. Doublet of trigone and trigonon.

der

The Cancer trigon is composed of Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces

(countable, astrology) A division consisting of three star signs.

In the horoscope of Christ's nativity.[…]Whether a trigon or no, this tetragon I am sure there was.

(countable, astrology) A trine; an aspect of two planets distant 120 degrees from each other.


nor

From Etymology 1 (sense 2 above), reinterpreted as not + or or negation + or.

(logic, electronics) Alternative form of NOR


panic

en-adj

panic (comparative more panic, superlative most panic)

more panic (comparative)
most panic (superlative)
panick (alternative)

The adjective is borrowed from Middle French panique, a word itself borrowed from Ancient Greek πανικός (panikós, “pertaining to Pan”); Pan, the Greek god of fields and woods, was believed to be the source of mysterious sounds that caused contagious, groundless fear in herds and crowds, or in people in lonely spots.
Adjective sense 3 (“pertaining to or resulting from overpowering fear or fright”) is partly an attributive use of the noun.
The noun is derived from the adjective, while the verb is derived from the noun. Verb sense 1.3 (“to highly amuse, entertain, or impress (an audience watching a performance or show”) is derived from noun sense 4 (“a highly amusing or entertaining performer, performance, or show”).

der

(Greek mythology, archaic) Alternative letter-case form of Panic (“pertaining to the Greek god Pan”)


adiaphoron

/ˌædiˈæfəɹən/

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-adiaphoron.wav

Neuter of Ancient Greek ἀδιάφορος (adiáphoros, “indifferent”).

(philosophy) A matter that is morally neutral.

An indifferent matter.
A matter that is morally neutral.


lord

Belizean Creole: laad

→ Bengali: লাট (laṭ)

→ Hindi: लाट (lāṭ)

→ Czech: lord

→ Faroese: lordur

→ Greek: λόρδος (lórdos)

Gullah: lawd

→ Hungarian: lord

→ Italian: lord

Jamaican Creole: laad

Pijin: lod

→ Portuguese: lorde

→ Russian: ло́рд (lórd)

→ Serbo-Croatian: lȍrd / ло̏рд

→ Spanish: lord

Torres Strait Creole: lod

→ Turkish: lord

→ Yiddish: לאָרד (lord)

From Middle English lord and lorde (attested from the 15th century), from earlier (14th century) lourde and other variants which dropped the intervocalic consonant of earlier lowerd, louerd, loverd, laford, and lhoaverd; from Old English hlāford < hlāfweard, a compound of hlāf (“bread”) + weard (“guardian”); see loaf and ward. The term was already being applied broadly prior to the literary development of Old English and was influenced by its common use to translate Latin dominus. Compare Scots laird (“lord”), preserving a separate vowel development (from northern/Scottish Middle English lard, laverd), the Old English compound hlāf-ǣta (“servant”, literally “bread-eater”), and modern English lady, from Old English hlǣfdīġe (“bread-kneader”). The Middle English word laford was borrowed by Icelandic, where it survives as lávarður. Doublet of hlaford and laird.

The assendent, & eke the lord of the assendent, may be shapen for to be fortunat or infortunat, as thus, a fortunat assendent clepen they whan þat no wykkid planete, as Saturne or Mars, or elles the tail of the dragoun, is in þe hows of the assendent.

c. 1391, Geoffrey Chaucer, Treatise on the Astrolabe, ii. §4:

(astrology) The heavenly body considered to possess a dominant influence over an event, time, etc.


orb

From Middle English orbe, from Old French orbe, from Latin orbis (“circle, orb”). Compare orbit.

(astrology) Amount of deviation from the closest perfect aspect.


constellation

PIE word
 *ḱóm
From Middle English constellacioun, constillacioun (“(astrology) position of the moon or a planet in relation to the ascendant sign of the zodiac; horoscope; (astronomy) formation of fixed stars, constellation; (astronomy) elevation or position of the sun”) [and other forms], borrowed from Old French constellation (modern French constellation), or directly from its etymon Late Latin cōnstēllātiōnem, the accusative singular of cōnstēllātiō (“collection of stars supposed to exert an influence upon human affairs, constellation”), from Latin con- (prefix denoting a bringing together of several objects) + stēlla (“star; meteor; planet”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂stḗr (“star”)) + -ātiō (suffix forming nouns).

nb...

constelacioun, constellacion, constellacyon, constellacyoun, constillacion, constillacione, constillacioune, constillatioun, constollacion, constolacioun

sterrebeeld

arbitrary formation of stars perceived as a figure or pattern, or a division of the sky including it

rykelmä

configuration or grouping of related things

But alas such peruerse constellation nowe reigneth ouer men, that where some be aptely and naturally disposed to amitie, and fyndeth one, in similitude of studie and maners, equall to his expectation, and therfore kendeleth a feruent loue towarde that persone, puttinge all his ioye and delite in the praise and auauncement of him that he loueth, it hapneth that he which is loued, beinge promoted in honour, either of purpose neglecteth his frende, therby suppressynge libertie of speche or familiar resorte; or els esteming his mynde with his fortune onely, and nat with the suertie of frendship, hideth from him the secretes of his harte, and either trusteth no man, or els him whome prosperous fortune hath late brought in acquaintaunce.

1531, Thomas Elyot, “The Diuision of Ingratitude and the Dispraise therof”, in The Boke Named the Governour […], London: […] Tho[mas] Bertheleti, →OCLC:

[H]e was born under the constellation that gives a man skill, riches, and integrity, whatever that constellation may be, which is of the less consequence because babies can't choose their own horoscopes, and, indeed, if they could, there might be an inconvenient rush of babies at particular epochs.

1862 July – 1863 August, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], “First Impressions”, in Romola. […], volume I, London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], published 1863, →OCLC, book I, page 72:

The configuration of planets at a given time (especially a person's birth), as believed to affect events on Earth, or used for determining a horoscope.

I knovv thy conſtellation is right apt / For this affayre: […]

c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iv], page 257, column 2:

A person's character or inclinations, supposedly determined by their horoscope.


nous

Borrowed from Ancient Greek νοῦς (noûs) or νόος (nóos, “mind”).

I feel the will to roam, to learn
By test, experience, nous,
That fire is hot and ocean deep,
And wolves carnivorous.

1900, Gilbert Keith Chesterton, On the Disastrous Spread of Aestheticism in all Classes:

(philosophy) The mind or intellect, reason, both rational and emotional


atomic

نَوَوِيّ

of, or employing nuclear energy or processes

en:unatomizable
en:unsimplifiable in logic

(logic, of a proposition) Lacking logical operators; unable to be made simpler in logical form.


Wheel of Fortune

wheel of Fortune (alternative)
wheel of fortune (alternative)

/ˌwiːl‿əv ˈfɔːt͡ʃuːn/

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-Wheel of Fortune.wav

-ɔː(ɹ)t͡ʃuːn

From wheel + of + Fortune (“the Roman goddess Fortuna”), a calque of Latin rota Fortūnae (literally “Fortuna’s wheel”), from rota (“wheel”) + Fortūnae (the genitive dative singular of Fortūna (“the Roman goddess of fate, fortune, and luck”)).

calque

I hold the Fates bound faſt in yron chaines, / And with my hand turne Fortunes wheel about, / And ſooner ſhall the Sun fall from his Spheare, / Than Tamburlaine be ſlaine or ouercome.

[c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act I, scene ii, signature [A8], verso:

The vvheel of fortune turns inceſſantly round, and vvho can ſay vvithin himſelf I ſhall to day be uppermoſt.

1760, Oliver Goldsmith, “Letter VII. From Lien Chi Altangi, to Fum Hoam, First President of the Ceremonial Academy at Pekin, in China.”, in The Citizen of the World; or Letters from a Chinese Philosopher, […], volume I, London: […] [F]or the author; and sold by J. Newbery and W. Bristow, […]; J. Leake and W. Frederick, […]; B. Collins, […]; and A. M. Smart and Co. […], published 1762, →OCLC, page 22:

I was young enough not to part with hope too easily;—the vague idea I had that my turn would come,—that the ever-circling wheel of Fortune would perchance lift me up some day as it now crushed me down, kept me just wearily capable of continuing existence,—though it was merely a continuance and no more.

1895, Marie Corelli, chapter I, in The Sorrows of Satan: or The Strange Experience of One Geoffrey Tempest, Millionaire […], London: Methuen & Co. […], →OCLC, page 4:

As a medievalist Ignatius believed in the rota Fortunae, or wheel of fortune, a central concept in De Consolatione Philosophiae, the philosophical work which had laid foundation for medieval thought. […] Was his wheel rapidly spinning downward?

1963 (date written), John Kennedy Toole, chapter 2, in A Confederacy of Dunces, London: Penguin Books, published 1980 (1981 printing), →ISBN, section I, page 27:

(mythology, philosophy) The mythological wheel turned randomly by Fortuna, the Roman goddess of fate, fortune, and luck, to determine people's fortunes which were thus unpredictable.

wheel of fortune

gambling or lottery device consisting of a wheel which is spun horizontally

(tarot) A tarot card with an image of Fortuna's wheel (sense 1), generally the tenth of 22 trumps of the major arcana in most tarot decks.

la roda de la fortuna

tarot card with an image of Fortuna’s wheel


Uranus

Borrowed from Latin Ūranus, from Ancient Greek Οὐρανός (Ouranós), from οὐρανός (ouranós, “sky, heaven”).

(Greek mythology) The Greek god who personified the sky and heavens and fathered the Titans. Roman counterpart: Caelus.


Neptune

From Middle English Neptune, Neptunus, a borrowing from Latin Neptūnus, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *nébʰ-tu-s (“damp, cloudy”) (source of Ancient Greek νέφος (néphos), Sanskrit नभस् (nábhas), etc.), with the sense of "wet, moist."
Puhvel, however, connects it with Proto-Italic *nepōts from Proto-Indo-European *népōts by analogy to Portūnus, cognate with Vedic Apām Napāt and Avestan Apąm Napāt, Child (cf: neve, nephew) of the Water as part of an Indo-European 'Fire in the Water' myth.

der

Neptune
Neptune (disambiguation)#Places
Neptune (god)

(Roman mythology) The god of the ocean and of earthquakes, equivalent to Poseidon in Greek mythology.


Pluto

From Latin Plūtō, from Ancient Greek Πλούτων (Ploútōn, “god of the underworld”). Venetia Burney is often credited as having suggested the name for the celestial body.

bor

(Greek mythology, Roman mythology) Greco-Roman god of the underworld.


Thor

Representing Old Norse Þórr. Cognate with Old English Þunor, Swedish Tor.

So likewise a day comes when the Runic Thor, with his Eddas, must withdraw into dimness; and many an African Mumbo-Jumbo and Indian Pawpaw be utterly abolished.

1831, Thomas Carlyle, “Symbols”, in Sartor Resartus: The Life and Opinions of Herr Teufelsdröckh. […], London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, 3rd book, page 155:

There’s the Thor fly in tribute of the God of Thunder, played in Marvel by Chris Hemsworth. Its scientific name is “Daptolestes bronteflavus,” which is derived from Latin like most scientific names – and translates to “blond thunder.”

2020 July 29, Jessie Yeung, “Australia names new species after Deadpool, Thor, and other Marvel favorites”, in CNN:

(Norse mythology and paganism) A hammer-wielding god associated with thunder, lightning, storms, sacred groves and trees, strength, and the protection of mankind.


syllogism

From Old French silogisme (“syllogism”), from Latin syllogismus, from Ancient Greek συλλογισμός (sullogismós, “inference, conclusion”). Doublet of syllogismus.

der

Meronyms: major premise, minor premise

Ever since Aristotle, syllogism has occupied a central place in logic and cast a fateful shadow upon the power of reason. Recognized to be the great conveyor of rationality, allowing reason to reach conclusions of unparalleled universality and necessity, syllogism has equally been acknowledged to be beset by limits.

2006, Richard Dien Winfield, From Concept to Objectivity: Thinking Through Hegel's Subjective Logic, Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., →ISBN, page 107:

(logic) An argument whose conclusion is supported by two premises, of which one contains the term that is the predicate of the conclusion, and the other contains the term that is the subject of the conclusion; common to both premises is a term that is excluded from the conclusion.


stoic

stoics (plural)
Stoic (alternative)
Stoick (alternative obsolete)
stoick (alternative obsolete)
Stoïc (alternative obsolete)
Stoïck (alternative obsolete)
stoïc (alternative obsolete)
stoïck (alternative obsolete)

From Latin stōicus (noun via Middle English Stoycis pl), from Ancient Greek Στωϊκός (Stōïkós), from Ποικίλη Στοά (Poikílē Stoá, “the Stoa Poikile”, literally “painted portico”), the portico in Athens where Zeno of Citium was teaching.

The anima mundi, to whose disposal of his own personal destiny the Stoic consents, is there to be respected and submitted to, but the Christian God is there to be loved; and the difference of emotional atmosphere is like that between an arctic climate and the tropics, though the outcome in the way of accepting actual conditions uncomplainingly may seem in abstract terms to be much the same.

1902, William James, “Lecture 2”, in The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature […] , New York, N.Y.; London: Longmans, Green, and Co. […], →OCLC:

(philosophy) Proponent of stoicism, a school of thought, from in 300 B.C.E. up to about the time of Marcus Aurelius, who holds that by cultivating an understanding of the logos, or natural law, one can be free of suffering.


determine

en-verb

determine (third-person singular simple present determines, present participle determining, simple past and past participle determined)

determines (present singular third-person)
determining (participle present)
determined (participle past)
determined (past)
determin (alternative obsolete)

/ɖiˈʈɜː(ɾ)ˌmaɪn/

From Middle English determinen, from Old French determiner, French déterminer, from Latin determināre (“to bound, limit, prescribe, fix, determine”), from de + termināre (“to limit”), from terminus (“bound, limit, end”).

der

(logic) To define or limit by adding a differentia.


zodiac

zodiacs (plural)
zodiack (alternative)
Zodiac (alternative)

/ˈzəʊ.dɪˌæk/

From Middle English zodiak (late 14th century), from Old French zodiaque, from Latin zōdiacus, from Ancient Greek ζῳδιακός [κύκλος] (zōidiakós [kúklos], “[circle] of little animals”), from ζῴδιον (zṓidion), the diminutive of ζῷον (zôion, “animal”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gʷíh₃weti (“to live”).

ζῳδιακός 􂀿κύκλος􂁀

Tremulous on the bladed graſs ſhone bright the pearly drops, like an aſſembly of ſparkling ſtars dancing on the plains of the zodiac; vocal was every bending ſpray, every reed was inſpired, each vvarbling throat ſeemed to emulate the melodious voice of the bird of a thouſand ſongs.

1769, Firishta, translated by Alexander Dow, Tales translated from the Persian of Inatulla of Delhi, volume I, Dublin: P. and W. Wilson et al., page iv:

(astrology) The belt-like region of the celestial sphere, approximately eight degrees north and south of the ecliptic, which includes the apparent path of the sun, moon, and visible planets.

(astrology) The twelve equal divisions of the zodiacal region into signs or houses, each named for a prominent constellation in the region.


complement

en-noun

complement (countable and uncountable, plural complements)

From Middle English complement, from Latin complēmentum (“that which fills up or completes”), from compleō (“I fill up, I complete”) (English complete). Doublet of compliment. The verb is from the noun.

der

(logic) An expression related to some other expression such that it is true under the same conditions that make other false, and vice versa.

komplementti

expression which is true when the other is false, and vice versa


being

en-noun

being (countable and uncountable, plural beings)

beings (plural)
beeing (alternative archaic)
beïng (alternative rare)

Originated 1250–1300 from Middle English being; see be + -ing.

(philosophy) That which has actuality (materially or in concept).

(philosophy) One's basic nature, or the qualities thereof; essence or personality.


term

From Middle English terme, borrowed from Old French terme, from Latin terminus (“a bound, boundary, limit, end; in Medieval Latin, also a time, period, word, covenant, etc.”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *térmn̥ (“stump, end, boundary”).
Doublet of terminus and termon. Old English had termen, from the same source.

член

one of the addends in a sum or in another mathematical operation

The subject and predicate of a proposition are, after Aristotle, together called its terms or extremes.

1859–1860, William Hamilton, edited by H[enry] L[ongueville] Mansel and John Veitch, Lectures on Metaphysics and Logic […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC:

(logic) The subject or the predicate of a proposition; one of the three component parts of a syllogism, each one of which is used twice.

terminus

one of three component parts of a syllogism

(astrology) An essential dignity in which unequal segments of every astrological sign have internal rulerships which affect the power and integrity of each planet in a natal chart.


demigod

demigods (plural)
demi-god (alternative)

From demi- + god. Calque of the Latin semideus (“half-god”), which is probably a coining by the Roman poet Ovid for less important gods such as dryads.

(mythology) A half-god or hero; the offspring of a deity and a mortal.


fixed

en-adj

fixed (comparative more fixed, superlative most fixed)

more fixed (comparative)
most fixed (superlative)

gul (gheg)

not changing, not able to be changed, staying the same

(astrology) Being one of the signs Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, and Aquarius, associated with stability, permanence, and preservation.


cyclops

en-noun

cyclops (plural cyclops or cyclopes or cyclopses)

cyclops (plural)
cyclopes (plural)
cyclopses (plural)

Borrowed from Latin cyclōps, from Ancient Greek Κύκλωψ (Kúklōps, “Cyclops”).

der

(Greek mythology, Roman mythology) A one-eyed giant from Greek and Roman mythology.


Aeneas

From Latin Aenēās, from Ancient Greek Αἰνείας (Aineías).

Æneas (alternative obsolete)
Eneas (alternative)

(Greek mythology) A Trojan hero and the legendary ancestor of Romans.


converse

From Latin conversus (“turned around”), past participle of converto (“turn about”).

All trout are fish, but the converse, that all fish are trout, is not true.

(logic) Of a proposition or theorem consisting of a statement of the form "If A is true, then B is true", the statement "If B is true, then A is true" which need not be equivalent to the first one.


tautology

en-noun

tautology (countable and uncountable, plural tautologies)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-tautology.wav

From Late Latin tautologia, from Ancient Greek ταὐτολογία (tautología) from ταὐτός (tautós, “the same”) + λόγος (lógos, “explanation”). By surface analysis, tauto- + -logy.

propositional variable
propositional variable

(countable, logic, propositional logic) A statement that is true for all truth values of its propositional variables.

(countable, logic, first-order logic) A statement that is true for all truth values of its Boolean atoms.


Amazon

From Middle English, from Latin, from Ancient Greek Ἀμαζών (Amazṓn); perhaps Ionian Greek pronunciation of Old Persian *hamazan- (“warrior”), as the Amazon women were known warriors. A popular folk etymology, of Ancient Greek provenance, claims that the word derives from ἀ- (a-, “not”) + μαζός (mazós, “breast”), referencing the belief that Amazons cut off their right breast so that it would not hinder their ability to fire a bow or throw a spear.

When, therefore, one envisions a matriarchy, one should not conjure up visions of a gang of Amazons lopping off breasts and testicles to rule by force of arms.

1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 149:

(Greek mythology) A member of a mythical race of female warriors inhabiting the Black Sea area.


anima

Borrowed from Latin anima (“a current of air, wind, air, breath, the vital principle, life, soul”), sometimes equivalent to animus (“mind”), both from Proto-Indo-European *h₂enh₁- (“to breathe, blow”); see animus. Cognate with Ancient Greek ἄνεμος (ánemos, “wind”), Old English anda (“anger, envy, zeal”). More at onde.

der

[W]e cannot chuse but admire the exceeding vividness of the governing faculty or Anima of the Insect, which is able to dispose and regulate so the motive faculties, as to cause every peculiar organ, not onely to move or act so quick, but to do it also so regularly.

1665, Robert Hooke, Micrographia, section XXXVIII:

(chiefly philosophy) The soul or animating principle of a living thing, especially as contrasted with the animus.


universal quantifier

en-noun

universal quantifier (plural universal quantifiers)

(logic) The operator, represented by the symbol ∀, used in predicate calculus to indicate that a predicate is true for all members of a specified set. Verbal equivalents include "for each" and "for every".


existential quantifier

existential quantifier (plural existential quantifiers)

(logic) The operator, represented by the symbol ∃, used in predicate calculus to indicate that a predicate is true for at least one member of a specified set. Verbal equivalents include "there exists" and "there is".


golem

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-golem.wav

bor

גולם \ גֹּלֶם

(mythology) A humanoid creature made from clay, animated by magic.


ghoul

Portuguese: ghoul

From Persian غول (ġul) from Arabic غُول (ḡūl). Compare French goule, of the same origin.

The other chamber had shown a pack of ghouls and witches over-running the world of our forefathers, but this one brought the horror right into our own daily life!.

From my laboratory in the Castle east
To the master bedroom, where the vampires feast
The ghouls all came from their humble abodes
To get a jolt from my electrodes
They did the Mash
They did the Monster Mash.

1962, “Monster Mash”, Bobby "Boris" Pickett and Lenny Capizzi (lyrics), performed by Bobby (Boris) Pickett and The Crypt-Kickers:

(mythology) A demon said to feed on corpses.


each

eaches (plural)
aich (alternative)
aitch (alternative)
eache (alternative)
eatch (alternative)
eatche (alternative)
ech (alternative)
eche (alternative)
eich (alternative)
etch (alternative)
eych (alternative)
eyche (alternative)
yeach (alternative)

From Middle English eche, elche, ilch, from Old English ǣlċ, contraction of ǣġhwelċ, from Proto-West Germanic *aiwgahwalīk (“each, every”). Compare Scots ilk, elk (“each, every”), Saterland Frisian älk (“each”), West Frisian elk, elts (“each”), Dutch elk (“each”), Low German elk, ellik (“each”), German Low German elk, elke (“each, every”), German jeglicher (“any”). By surface analysis, Old English ā + which.

surf

In one embodiment, there is an additional charge when ordering products as an “each” compared to the unit cost of the item when ordered by the case.

1999, William S. Paasche, Thomas D. Kerker, System and method for managing recurring orders in a computer network, US Patent 7359871 (PDF version), page 50:

An each, piece, single item, or individual item package.

2007, David E. Mulcahy, Eaches or Pieces Order Fulfillment, Design, and Operations Handbook (Series on resource management), Auerbach Publications, →ISBN, page 385:

The commonly used term “each” means that each individual item is one unit.

2012, Arthur V. Hill, “unit of measure”, in Barry Render, editor, The Encyclopedia of Operations Management, FT Press, →ISBN, page 373:

Amour-propre would be able to take an interest in assuming the standpoint of reason, then, if applying 'each' to oneself in rational deliberation were simultaneously bound up with publicly establishing oneself as an 'each'

2008, Frederick Neuhouser, Rousseau's theodicy of self-love, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 238:

(operations, philosophy) An individual item: the least quantitative unit in a grouping.


universism

https://web.archive.org/web/20061012073457/http://open-site.org/Society/Religion/Universism/
Universism is a modern rational religious philosophy that began in 2003 with princples laid out by Ford Vox. Universists choose their beliefs according to the dictates of their own life experience and reason.

http://www.themystica.com/mystica/articles/u/universism.html
Universism is a philosophy of The Universist Movement. Universism, though not a definitive philosophy, is a progressive, naturalistic worldview in which all meaning and purpose is understood through personal reason and experience; thus, being a religion of reason.

https://web.archive.org/web/20070209081744/http://www.bbc.co.uk/berkshire/faith/05/universist.shtml
What Universism argues against is individuals believing that their truths apply to others - all of us are equals in terms of these enormous, world-shaping metaphysical questions.

(philosophy) a movement advocating personal reason and experience and over faith and dogma


aegis

aegises (plural)
aegides (plural)
ægis (alternative)
egis (alternative)

Borrowed from Latin aegis, from Ancient Greek αἰγίς (aigís, “goatskin; shield of Athena”), probably from αἴξ (aíx, “goat”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eyǵ- (“goat”).
The plural form aegides (IPA⁽ᵏᵉʸ⁾: /ˈiːd͡ʒɪdiːz/) is borrowed from Latin aegides, from Ancient Greek αἰγῐ́δες (aigĭ́des).

IPA

IPA⁽ᵏᵉʸ⁾: /ˈiːd͡ʒɪdiːz/

The goat Amalthea, which had suckled Jove, being dead, that god is said to have covered his buckler with the skin thereof, whence the appellation Aegis, from αιξ, αιγις, a she-goat. Jupiter afterwards restoring the goat to life, covered it with a new skin, and placed it among the stars. This buckler, which was the work of Vulcan, he gave to Minerva, who having killed the Gorgon Medusa, nailed her head to the middle of the Aegis, which henceforth possessed the faculty of converting to stone all who beheld it, as Medusa herself had while alive.

1790, “AEGIS”, in Bell’s New Pantheon; or, Historical Dictionary of the Gods, Demi-gods, Heroes, and Fabulous Personages of Antiquity: … In Two Volumes, volume I, London: Printed by and for J[ohn] Bell, […], →OCLC, page 20, column 1:

Herodotus, as proof of this origin of Minerva, says, that the Greeks had taken from the Libyan women, the dress and the ægis with which her statues were represented: this dress was of leather: the ægis, as its name implies, was simply a goatskin died red and worn over the shoulders like a mantle: the extremity of it was cut into shreds or tassels, which the lively fancy of the Grecian artists converted into serpents.

1822, James Millingen, Painted Greek Vases, from Collections in Various Countries: […] (Ancient Unedited Monuments; series 1), London: [s.n.], →OCLC, page 3:

The robe and aegides of the statues of Minerva the Greeks have made in imitation of the Lybians, for except that the robe among the Lybians is of leather and the fringes of the aegis are not serpents but strips of leather, the adorning is entirely the same. And the very name is an acknowledgement that the vesture of the palladium is derived from Lybia, for the Lybian women put around the robe their goat skins tasselled and stained with madder (ἐρευθεδάνω) and from these goat skins, (ἐχ δὲ τῶν αἰγἑων τουτἑων) the Greeks have taken the word aegis.

1837, F. M. Hubbard, quoting Herodotus, “Article III. An Inquiry into the Commerce of Ancient Egypt.”, in B[ela] B[ates] Edwards, editor, The American Biblical Repository, volume X, number 27, New York, N.Y.: Gould & Newman, publishers and printers, Boston, Mass.: Perkins & Marvin and Crocker & Brewster, Cincinnati, Oh.: Truman & Smith, →OCLC, page 49:

In her right hand Minerva bore a beaming lance, and in her left a buckler, called the Egis. The Egis of Minerva had embossed upon it the head of Medusa.

1849, [Eliza Robbins], “Minerva”, in Elements of Mythology; or, Classical Fables of the Greeks and Romans: […], 11th improved edition, Philadelphia, Pa.: Published and for sale by Hogan & Thompson […], →OCLC, page 57:

Cattle grazed where now is the Forum Romanum, and the Capitol, now glittering with gold, was covered then with brambles; nevertheless a god already dwelt there, even Jupiter himself, whose right hand had oft been seen to shake the aegis and summon the storm-clouds.

1934 November, Theodor Haecker, “Leader and Mission”, in A[rthur] W[esley] Wheen, transl., Virgil, Father of the West (Essays in Order; no. 14), London: Sheed & Ward, →OCLC, page 65:

(Greek mythology, Roman mythology) A mythological shield associated with the Greek deities Zeus and Athena (and their Roman counterparts Jupiter and Minerva) shown as a short cloak made of goatskin worn on the shoulders, more as an emblem of power and protection than a military shield. The aegis of Athena or Minerva is usually shown with a border of snakes and with the head of Medusa in the center.


retrograde

en-adj

retrograde (comparative more retrograde, superlative most retrograde)

more retrograde (comparative)
most retrograde (superlative)

The adjective is derived from Middle English retrograd, retrograde (“of a planet: appearing to move in a direction opposite to the order of the zodiac signs, retrograde; unfortunate”), from Middle French retrograde and Old French retrograde (“of a celestial object: appearing to move backwards; moving backwards; reverse; palindromic; opposed to change”) (modern French rétrograde), and from their etymon Latin retrōgradus (“of a celestial object: appearing to move backwards”) (compare Late Latin retrōgradus (“reverse; palindromic”)), from retrō (“back, backwards; behind; before, formerly”) + gradus (“pace, step”). By surface analysis, retro- + -grade.
The adverb and noun are derived from the adjective.

cog

/ˈɹɛtɹə(ʊ)ɡɹeɪd/

/ˈɹɛtɹəˌɡɹeɪd/

retrògrad

reverting to an inferior or less developed state — see also declining, regressing

Mercury retrograde

The inauspicious connotations of Mercury retrograde are actually quite old, evidenced in an ancient branch of astrology known as horary astrology.

2018 March 22, Wilder Davies, “Mercury Is Entering Retrograde Again. This Is Why So Many People Care”, in Time:

(also astrology, often postpositive) Of a celestial body: seeming to move across the sky in the opposite direction from its ordinary movement.

ретрограден

of a celestial body: seeming to move across the sky in the opposite direction from its ordinary movement


retrograde

/ˈɹɛtɹə(ʊ)ɡɹeɪd/

/ˈɹɛtɹəˌɡɹeɪd/

A movement backwards or opposite to the intended or normal motion.

(astrology) The apparent movement of a planet across the sky in the opposite direction from its ordinary movement.


retrograde

en-verb

retrograde (third-person singular simple present retrogrades, present participle retrograding, simple past and past participle retrograded)

retrogrades (present singular third-person)
retrograding (participle present)
retrograded (participle past)
retrograded (past)

From Middle French retrograder (“to (cause to) go back, return; to (cause to) move backwards; of a celestial object: to show retrograde motion; to date to an earlier period”) (modern French rétrograder), and from its etymon Latin retrōgradī (“to go or step back or backwards; of a celestial object: to show retrograde motion”) (compare Late Latin retrogradare, retrogradari, retrogredere), from retrō (“back, backwards; behind; before, formerly”) + gradior (“to step, walk; to advance, go”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gʰredʰ- (“to go; to walk”)).

der

/ˈɹɛtɹə(ʊ)ɡɹeɪd/

/ˈɹɛtɹəˌɡɹeɪd/

(astrology, astronomy) Of a celestial body, especially a planet: to show retrogradation; to seem to move across the sky in the opposite direction from its ordinary movement.

perääntyä

of a celestial body: to show retrogradation


motion

en-noun

motion (countable and uncountable, plural motions)

Inherited from Middle English mocioun, mocion, from Anglo-Norman motion, Middle French motion, and their etymon Latin mōtiō (“movement, motion”), related to movēre, from Proto-Indo-European *m(y)ewh₁- (“to move”).

der

perpetual motion machine of the first kind

perpetual motion machine of the second kind

I say, it is no uneven jot, to pass from the more faint and obscure examples of Spermatical life to the more considerable effects of general Motion in Minerals, Metalls, and sundry Meteors, whose easie and rude shapes may have no need of any Principle of Life, or Spermatical form distinct from the Rest or Motion of the particles of the Matter.

1662, Henry More, An Antidote Against Atheism, Book II, A Collection of Several Philosophical Writings of Dr. Henry More, p. 53

κίνησις κίνησις

(philosophy) from κίνησις (kinesis); any change. Traditionally of four types: generation and corruption, alteration, augmentation and diminution, and change of place.


Keb

(Egyptian mythology) Alternative form of Geb


theodicy

theodicies (plural)
theodicity (alternative)

Borrowed from French théodicée, from Ancient Greek θεός (theós, “god”) + δίκη (díkē, “justice”), coined by German mathematician and philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz in his 1710 work Essais de Théodicée sur la bonté de Dieu, la liberté de l’homme et l’origine du mal (Essays of Theodicy on the Goodness of God, the Freedom of Man and the Origin of Evil), commonly known as Théodicée.

lang

Essais de Théodicée sur la bonté de Dieu, la liberté de l'homme et l'origine du mal

2000 [Kluwer Academic], Charles Seymour, A Theodicy of Hell, 2010, Springer, Softcover reprint, page 195,
In general, my theodicy of hell is more congenial to those denominations with less rigidly defined doctrinal systems.
Does this mean I have allowed theodicy to encroach on theology, contrary to my avowed purpose?

Distilling the characteristic features of the theodicies of the world religions, Weber identified five varieties or forms that the answers to this problem take, which in his view speaks to the varieties of forms that religion itself takes: a messiah who initiates the end of the world as we know it, the transmigration of souls, a universal day of judgment, predestination, or dual divinities of good and evil.

2002, Kevin J. Christiano, William H. Swatos, Peter Kivisto, Sociology of Religion: Contemporary Developments, Rowman & Littlefield (Altamira Press), page 129:

God was now nothing more than a distant cause of causes; what mattered was matter, and man acting in nature. The theodicy, the master-narrative, had become secularized.

2003, Roy Porter, Flesh in the Age of Reason, Penguin 2004, page 388:

(theology, philosophy) A justification of a deity or of particular attributes of a deity; specifically, a justification of the existence of evil and suffering in the world; a work or discourse justifying the ways of God.


cyclopean

en-adj

cyclopean (comparative more cyclopean, superlative most cyclopean)

more cyclopean (comparative)
most cyclopean (superlative)
Cyclopean (alternative)
cyclopian (alternative)


wyvern

wyverns (plural)
wivern (alternative)
wiver (alternative)
wyver (alternative)

Alteration of Middle English wyver (“viper”), borrowed from Old Northern French wivre, from Latin vīpera (“viper; snake, serpent”). Doublet of weever and viper.

The jargon of heraldry, its griffins, its moldwarps, its wyverns, and its dragons.

1814 July 7, [Walter Scott], Waverley; or, ’Tis Sixty Years Since. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC:

Notions of freedom are tied up in drink / Our ideal life contains a tavern / Where man may sit and talk of or just think / All without fear of the nighted wyvern, / Or yet another tavern where it appears.

1940-54 The Collected Poetry of Malcolm Lowry, "WE SIT UNHACKLED DRUNK AND MAD TO EDIT", UBC Press,1992, p.222

(heraldry, mythology, fantasy) A draconian creature possessing wings, only two legs and usually a barbed tail.


iff

A rectangle is a square iff all four of its sides have the same length.

(mathematics, logic) Short for if and only if.


hippocampus

en-noun

hippocampus (plural hippocampi or hippocampuses)

hippocampi (plural)
hippocampuses (plural)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-hippocampus.wav

From Late Latin hippocampus, from Ancient Greek ἱππόκαμπος (hippókampos, from ῐ̔́ππος (hĭ́ppos, “horse”) + κάμπος (kámpos, “sea-monster”)). The anatomy sense is so named from its resemblance to the seahorse.

der

(mythology) A mythological creature with the front head and forelimbs of a horse and the rear of a fish.


duce

Borrowed from Italian duce. Doublet of doge, duc, duke, and dux.

(fascism) an authoritarian leader, especially Benito Mussolini


left-handed

From Middle English left handyd, lyfthonded, equivalent to left + handed.

On the other hand, nearly all magic tends in time to the left-handed path; as being a devious means of attaining desires unobtainable by ordinary methods.

1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 23:

(occult, of magic) Performed with the intention of doing harm or in transgression against convention or taboo; following the left-hand path


hypothetical

en-adj

hypothetical (comparative more hypothetical, superlative most hypothetical)

more hypothetical (comparative)
most hypothetical (superlative)

/ˌhaɪpəˈθɛtɪkəl/

[ˌhaɪpəˈθɛɾɪkəɫ]

From Ancient Greek ὑποθετικός (hupothetikós).

(philosophy) conditional; contingent upon some hypothesis/antecedent


werewolf

werewolves (plural)
warwolf (alternative)
wehrwolf (alternative)
were wolf (alternative)
were-wolf (alternative)
werwolf (alternative)

From Middle English werwolf, from Old English werewulf, from Proto-West Germanic *werawulf, from Proto-West Germanic *wer (“man”) + *wulf (“wolf”). By surface analysis, were- + wolf. Cognate with Dutch weerwolf, Low German Warwulf, German Werwolf, Danish varulv, Swedish varulv, and even possibly Finnish vironsusi.
Compare also French garou, in loup-garou, French dialectal gairou, varou (“werewolf”), Medieval Latin gerulphus, garulphus (“werewolf”), all from Germanic, probably Frankish *werawulf.

Near-synonym: dogman

(mythology) A person who is transformed or can transform into a wolf or a wolflike human, often said to do so during a full moon.


inclusive or

(logic, computing) A logical connective joining two or more predicates that yields the logical value "true" when at least one of the predicates is true.


exclusive or

exclusive ors (plural)
exclusive-or (alternative)
XOR (alternative)
xor (alternative)
EOR (alternative)
eor (alternative)

Exclusive disjunction
exclusive disjunction

(logic, computing) Exclusive disjunction: the use of or to indicate that of two predicates, one is true and one is false (without specifying which is which); contrasted with inclusive or, which does not imply that one must be false.

(logic, computing, more generally) Exclusive disjunction: the use of or to indicate that of two or more predicates, an odd number are true (without specifying which or how many); contrasted with inclusive or, which indicates only that one or more is true.

exclusive disjunction
exclusive disjunction

(logic, computing) An exclusive disjunction; the result of applying the above-described exclusive or to two or more predicates; contrasted with an inclusive or, which is the result of applying an inclusive or.


connective

From connect + -ive, modeled after French connectif, from New Latin connectivus, from connectō (“I connect”); compare connect, connexive, connectivum, connection.

Condition iii) ensures that the truth-rules for the sentential connectives and quantifiers are satisfied within one and the same valuation νₛ.

2008 October 8, Holger Andreas, “Another Solution to the Problem of Theoretical Terms”, in Erkenntnis, volume 69, number 3, →DOI:

(logic) A function that operates on truth values to give another truth value.


positive

positive (comparative more positive, superlative most positive)

more positive (comparative)
most positive (superlative)
+ve (alternative)

From Old French positif, from Latin positivus, from the past participle stem of ponere (“to place”). Compare posit.

positiivinen

New Age jargon: good, desirable, healthful, pleasant, enjoyable

[I]f the privation be good, it followes not the former condition was evill, but lesse good; for the flower or blossome, is a positive good, although the remove of it to give place to the fruit, be a comparative good.

1597, Francis [Bacon], “Of the Colours of Good and Evill, a Fragment”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland […], published 1632, →OCLC:

1885, Marcellin Berthelot, Les Origines de l'Alkimie as quoted in M. M. Pattison Muir, A History of Chemical Theories and Laws, 1907.
Chemistry is not a primitive science, like geometry or astronomy; it is constructed from the debris of a previous scientific formation; a formation half chimerical and half positive...

(chiefly philosophy) Actual, real, concrete, not theoretical or speculative.


ouroboros

en-noun

ouroboros (plural ouroboroi or ouroboroses)

ouroboroi (plural)
ouroboroses (plural)
uroboros (alternative)

From Ancient Greek οὐροβόρος (ourobóros, “tail-devouring”, a compound of οὐρά (ourá, “tail”) + -βόρος (-bóros, “-devouring”, which is derived from the verb βιβρώσκω (bibrṓskō, “to eat up”))).

af

which is derived from the verb <i class="Polyt mention" lang="grc">βιβρώσκω</i> (bibrṓskō, “to eat up”)

bor

The alchemists were fond of picturing their opus as a circulatory process, as a circular distillation or as the uroboros, the snake biting its own tail, and they made innumerable pictures of this process.

1968 [1951], R. F. C. Hull, transl., Aion […] (The Collected Works of C. G. Jung), 2nd edition, volume 9.2, Princeton University Press, translation of original by C. G. Jung, →ISBN, page 264:

Khepera eating his own seed is a model of Romantic creativity, where the self is isolated and sexually dual. Khepera bent over himself is a uroboros, the serpent eating its own tail, a magic circle of regeneration and rebirth. The uroboros is the prehistoric track of natural cycle, from which Judaism and Hellenism make a conceptual break.

1990, Camille Paglia, Sexual Personae, Yale University Press, →ISBN, page 41:

One myth speaks of Ouroboros, a serpent-like creature that survived and regenerated itself by eating only its own tail. By neither taking from nor adding to its environment, this creature was said to be completely environmentally benign and self-sufficient.

2004, Adrian Bejan et al., Porous and Complex Flow Structures in Modern Technologies, Springer Science & Business Media, →ISBN, page 121:

First, the snake has not caught its tail—the ouroboros figure is uncompleted. Blake executed fully formed ouroboros figures for the verso of this Night Thoughts page and for a later passage (6:690-92), and was familiar with numerous full ouroboros figures from contemporary and earlier sources […]

2013, Jackie DiSalvo, G. A. Rosso, Christopher Z. Hobson eds., Blake, Politics, and History, Routledge, →ISBN:

(mythology) A serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail, a representation of the continuous cycle of life and death.

أوربوروس

a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail


obtain

en-verb

obtain (third-person singular simple present obtains, present participle obtaining, simple past and past participle obtained)

obtains (present singular third-person)
obtaining (participle present)
obtained (participle past)
obtained (past)
obtain (infinitive)
obtain (first-person present singular)
obtained (first-person past singular)
obtain (present second-person singular)
obtainest (archaic present second-person singular)
obtained (past second-person singular)
obtainedst (archaic past second-person singular)
obtains (present singular third-person)
obtaineth (archaic present singular third-person)
obtained (past singular third-person)
obtain (plural present)
obtained (past plural)
obtain (present subjunctive)
obtained (past subjunctive)
obtain (imperative present)
obtaining (participle present)
obtained (participle past)
obtein (alternative obsolete)
obteyn (alternative obsolete)

From Middle English obteinen, from Anglo-Norman obtenir, optiner et al., and Middle French obtenir, from Latin obtinēre (“to gain, achieve, succeed, possess”), from ob- + tenēre (“to hold”).

der

Even though the Pervaise confession had never come to light, no reasonable doubt could obtain; for the act in question […] was on a par with countless other acts committed by the oligarchs, and, before them, by the capitalists.

1908 February 19, Jack London, chapter 17, in The Iron Heel, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., →OCLC:

In connection with the various courses of practical instruction, the companies maintain signalling schools fitted with standard railway equipment in which the staff can be given instructions under conditions exactly similar to those which obtain in signal boxes.

1942 July-August, T. F. Cameron, “How the Staff of a Railway is Recruited”, in Railway Magazine, page 207:

But the hostage situation no longer obtains, and so Uncle Enzo feels it important to stop Rife now, […]

1992, Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash, New York: Bantam Books, →ISBN, page 460:

(intransitive, philosophy) To exist or be the case; to hold true, be in force.

olla

''(archaic in English)'' to exist or be the case; to hold true, be in force


einherjar

From Old Norse einherjar (plural, literally “lone fighters”) (rarely attested singular einheri).

bor

(Norse mythology) The warriors who died fighting bravely and were brought by valkyries to Valhalla, where they feast and prepare for Ragnarok.


per se

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-per se.wav

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-per se.wav

Borrowed from Latin per sē (“by itself”), from per (“by, through”) and sē (“itself, himself, herself, themselves”).

bor+

Everything not applying per se in one of these two senses is called an accident.

1988, J. van Rijen, Aspects of Aristotle’s Logic of Modalities, page 137:

Peter is per se alive, endowed with intellect, and the faculty of laughter, the artist is per se one who fashions objects. But Peter is per accidens a sufferer from influenza

a. 2005, Jacques Maritain, An EPZ Introduction to Philosophy, A&C Black, →ISBN, page 153:

Thus, unless there exists some being that exists per se, the origination of esse in a chain of composites itself remains unexplained and quite mysterious. And the existence of a being that exists per se is affirmed through a denial of an infinite regress of essence-esse composites causing other such composites.

2015, Gaven Kerr, Aquinas's Way to God: The Proof in De Ente et Essentia:

Aquinas rejects this position, because then God would not be per se necessary, but would be necessitated by his own divine nature to create. Hence to be per se necessary, God must be free to create.

2022 October 15, Gaven Kerr, Collected Articles on the Existence of God, BoD – Books on Demand, →ISBN, page 218:

(philosophy) As the principle of its own determination and positing itself.


per se

Hence, God would have to be the immediate per se cause of some natural motions, but not of all. But no known natural motion is without a natural motion as its immediate per se cause.

1980, Mortimer Adler, How to Prove There Is a God: Mortimer J. Adler's Writings and Thoughts About God, Open Court, →ISBN, page 197:

Before stating at 74b5ff. that the connection between the subject and predicate of the premisses of scientific inferences must not be accidental but per se, he introduces the technical terms 'about all' ( 'kata pantos' ) and 'per se' (' kath' hauto ') in order to clarify the meaning of this proviso.

The per se cause of the house is the building skill and the craftsman who exercises it, while the per accidens cause is the fair-skinned or the artistic man. Alexander says: 'Aristotle says that just as anything that exists is one thing per se and another per accidens (by “being what it is per se” he means the substance, and by "what is per accidens" he means the attributes of the substance), so a cause is one thing per se and another per accidens.

2014, Barrie Fleet, Simplicius: On Aristotle Physics 2, page 97:

They hold to the impossibility of an actual per se infinity, because in a per se series the effects have a dependence on their causes, in which case if the series were infinite, the ultimate effect would be dependent on an infinite chain of causes; and since an infinity cannot be traversed, the being of such an effect would never be explained.

(philosophy) Positing itself and being a principle of its own determination.


giant

giants (plural)
giaunt (alternative obsolete)

/ˈd͡ʒʌɪ.ənt/

[ˈd͡ʒəɪ̯(ə)nt]

From Middle English geaunt, geant, from Old French geant, gaiant (Modern French géant) from Vulgar Latin *gagās, gagant-, from Latin gigās, gigant-, from Ancient Greek γίγας (gígas, “giant”) Cognate to giga- (“1,000,000,000”). Displaced native Old English ent. Compare Modern English ent (“giant tree-man”).

Any of the gigantes, the race of giants in the Greek mythology.

(mythology, fantasy) Specifically:
A jotun.


axiom

Oxford University Museum of Natural History

From Middle French axiome in the 15th century, from Latin axiōma (“axiom; principle”), from Ancient Greek ἀξίωμα (axíōma, “that which is thought to fit, a requisite, that which a pupil is required to know beforehand, a self-evident principle”), from ἀξιόω (axióō, “to think fit or worthy, to require, to demand”), from ἄξιος (áxios, “fit, worthy”, literally “weighing as much as; of like value”), from ἄγω (ágō, “to weigh (down)”).

der

Neither can I reconcile this opinion of yours, with your argument brought from reaſon; if the axiom there laid down by you be true, it follows that, when matter began to exiſt in the divine mind, either matter became of the nature of the divine mind, i.e. active and intelligent, or elſe the divine mind became of the nature of matter, i.e. inert and unintelligent: this is a hard dilemma; have we not reaſon to ſuſpect that axiom?

1748 January, R. M., “To the Gent. who Signs Verax, V[olume] 17 p[age] 573. In Answer to His Defence of Mr Lyttelton's Expression, that Matter is not Inherent in the Deity.”, in “Sylvanus Urban” [pseudonym; Edward Cave], editor, The Gentleman's Magazine, and Historical Chronicle, volume XVIII, London: Printed by Edw[ard] Cave, at St John's Gate, →OCLC, page 15, column 2:

Theoretical philosophy Plato divides into three branches, Theological, Physical, and Mathematical. On Theology, the fundamental doctrine of Plato, as of all other ancient philosophers, is, that from nothing nothing can proceed. This universal axiom, applied not only to the infinite efficient, but to the material cause, Plato, in his Timæus, lays down as the ground of his reasoning concerning the origin of the world.

1837, William Enfield, “Chapter VIII. Of the Academic Sect. Section I. Of Plato and His Philosophy.”, in The History of Philosophy, from the Earliest Periods: Drawn from Brucker's Historia Critica Philosophiæ, London: Printed for Thomas Tegg and Son, 73, Cheapside; R[ichard] Griffin and Co., Glasgow; Tegg and Co., Dublin; also, J. and S. A. Tegg, Sydney and Hobart Town, →OCLC, book II, pages 128–129:

Any publicity, runs the axiom, is good publicity.

1963 February, “Nobody runs this railway, mate”, in Modern Railways, page 73:

"As above, so below" is an axiom from Hermetic mysticism, and in this Hermetic vision of physiology the tongue is connected through the spinal column to the penis.

1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 16:

Can we then find axioms as self-evident as those of Arithmetic, on which we can build as on a sure foundation, which could be shaken only by a scepticism which should attack the whole fabric of our knowledge?

1999, Bertrand Russell, edited by Charles R. Pigden, Russell on Ethics: Selections from the Writings of Bertrand Russell, London, New York, N.Y.: Routledge, →ISBN:

William Dwight Whitney
w:William Dwight Whitney

Benjamin E[li] Smith
w:Benjamin Eli Smith

w:Webster's Dictionary#Webster's New International Dictionary 1909

(philosophy) A seemingly self-evident or necessary truth which is based on assumption; a principle or proposition which cannot actually be proved or disproved.

aksiomë

philosophy: supposed self‐evident or necessary truth

[…] Geometry, an excellent Logic, as you obſerve, where the definitions are clear, where the Poſtulata cannot be refuſed, nor the Axioms denied; […]

1734 April 10, “Philalethes Cantabrigiensis” [pseudonym; James Jurin], Geometry No Friend to Infidelity: Or, A Defence of Sir Isaac Newton and the British Mathematicians, in a Letter to the Author of The Analyst, London: Printed for T. Cooper at the Globe in Ivy-Lane, →OCLC, page 28:

The axioms read as follows. For every composable pair f and g the composite f#92;circg goes from the domain of g to the codomain of f. For each object A the identity arrow 1#95;A goes from A to A. Composing any arrow with an identity arrow (supposing that the two are composable) gives the original arrow. And composition is associative.

1992, Colin McLarty, “Rudimentary Structures in a Category”, in Elementary Categories, Elementary Toposes (Oxford Logic Guides; 21), Oxford: Clarendon Press; New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 13:

(logic, mathematics, proof theory) A fundamental assumption that serves as a basis for deduction of theorems; a postulate (sometimes distinguished from postulates as being universally applicable, whereas postulates are particular to a certain science or context).


Averroism

The first concerns the problem that Latin Averroism presented to Western philosophy in connection with its doctrine that there is only one mind for all human beings—a doctrine that has come to be called monopsychism.

2014, Markus Führer, Echoes of Aquinas in Cusanus's Vision of Man, page 115:

(philosophy) The tenets of the Averroists, having to do with the doctrine of monopsychism.


kitsune

(Japanese mythology) A Japanese fox spirit, often but not exclusively female, said to have powers such as shape-shifting, and whose power is symbolized by increase in number of tails.


tanuki

tanuki (plural)
tanukis (plural)
tanooki (alternative)

Borrowed from Japanese 狸(たぬき) (tanuki, “raccoon dog”).

(Japanese mythology) A folkloric figure in the form of a tanuki, regarded as a shapeshifter and renowned for its enormous scrotum and testicles.


lycanthropy

en-noun

lycanthropy (usually uncountable, plural lycanthropies)

lycanthropies (plural)
lycanthropia (alternative)

From Ancient Greek λυκανθρωπία (lukanthrōpía), from λυκάνθρωπος (lukánthrōpos, “wolfman”). By surface analysis, lycanthrope + -y.

uder

(mythology) The state of being a lycanthrope (or werewolf), a person who can shapeshift between the form of a human being and a wolf, often said to happen involuntarily during a full moon; werewolfdom.

On one hand, Jacques is quite glad that he doesn’t have classic lycanthropy. Turning into a squirrel tends to cause fewer problems than turning into a wolf.

2014, Marijn Haverbeke, “4: Data Structures: Objects and Arrays”, in Eloquent JavaScript, 2nd Ed.: A Modern Introduction to Programming, No Starch Press, →ISBN, page 60:

(mythology, by extension) The state of being a person who can shapeshift between the form of a human being and an animal, whether or not it is a wolf.


Ahti

(Egyptian mythology) A goddess in Egyptian mythology.


orc

→ Catalan: orc

→ Czech: ork

→ Danish: ork

→ Dutch: ork

→ Estonian: örk

→ Finnish: örkki

→ French: orc

→ Georgian: ორკი (orḳi)

→ Greek: ορκ (ork)

→ Hungarian: ork

→ Icelandic: orki

→ Japanese: オーク (ōku)

→ Korean: 오크 (okeu)

→ Latvian: orks

→ Lithuanian: orkas

→ Marathi: ऑर्क (ŏrka)

→ Norwegian: ork, orc

→ Polish: ork

→ Portuguese: orc

→ Romanian: orc

→ Russian: орк (ork)

→ Serbo-Croatian: ork / орк

→ Swedish: ork

→ Ukrainian: орк (ork)

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine
J. R. R. Tolkien
orc

Probably from Italian orco (“man-eating giant”); later revived by J. R. R. Tolkien, partly after Old English orc, which he took to mean "demon". Both are from Latin Orcus (“the underworld; the god Pluto”). Doublet of ogre and Orcus.
Sense 2 is a semantic loan from Ukrainian орк (ork, “evil monstrous humanoid creature; orc”) or Russian орк (ork), both from the English word and possibly under the influence of Russian у́рка (úrka, “criminal”, prison slang). Popularized in English in 2022, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

m+

Who at one stroke didst pare away three heads from off the shoulders of an Orke, begotten by an Incubus.

1656, Samuel Holland, Don Zara del Fogo, I.1:

The chief exploit of the hero, Beowulf the Great, is the destruction of the two monsters Grendel and his mother; both like most of the evil beings in the old times, dwellers in the fens and the waters; and both, moreover, as some Christian bard has taken care to inform us, of "Cain's kin," as were also the eotens, and the elves, and the orcs (eótenas, and ylfe, and orcneas).

1834, "The National Fairy Mythology of England" in Fraser's Magazine for Town and Country, Vol. 10, p. 53

There was a flash like flame and the helm burst asunder. The orc fell with cloven head.

1954, JRR Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring:

(fantasy, mythology) A mythical evil monstrous humanoid creature, usually quite aggressive and often green.


Charon

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-Charon.wav

Charon
Charon (disambiguation)
Charon (moon)
Edmond Hamilton
NASA

From Ancient Greek Χάρων (Khárōn). The name of the moon was coined by American astronomer James W. Christy in 1978, in reference to a fictional moon of Pluto in a novel by Edmond Hamilton but also influenced by its similarity to Char, a pet name for Charlene, his wife's name — hence the alternative American pronunciation, which is used at NASA.

coin

(Greek mythology) The ferryman of Hades, who rowed the shades of the dead across the river Styx.


proof

en-noun

proof (countable and uncountable, plural proofs)

→ Russian: пруф (pruf), пру́фы (prúfy)

desc

⇒ Russian: пруфли́нк (pruflínk, literally “proof + link”)

From Middle English proof, from Old French prove, from Late Latin proba (“a proof”), from Latin probō (“to prove”); see prove; compare also the doublet probe.

the proof of the pudding is in the eating

(countable, logic, mathematics) A sequence of statements consisting of axioms, assumptions, statements already demonstrated in another proof, and statements that logically follow from previous statements in the sequence, and which concludes with a statement that is the object of the proof.


kite

kites (plural)
kight (alternative)
kyte (alternative)

The noun is from Middle English kyte, kīte, kete (“a kite endemic to Europe, especially the red kite (Milvus milvus)”), from Old English cȳta (“kite; bittern”), from Proto-West Germanic *kūtijō, diminutive of Proto-Germanic *kūts (“bird of prey”), from Proto-Indo-European *gewH-d- (“to cry, screech”). The English word is cognate with Scots kyt, kyte (“kite; bird of prey”), Middle High German kiuzelīn, kützlīn (“owling”) (modern German Kauz (“owl”)). Possibly a doublet of coot.
Sense 3 (“lightweight toy”) is from the fact that it hovers in the air like the bird.
The verb is derived from the noun.

der

Frequently a kite formation is created by one of the planets in the trine by its opposition to another planet, which allows expulsion and redirection of the pent-up energy associated with a closed circuit.

1992, Erin Sullivan, Retrograde Planets: Traversing the Inner Landscape (Contemporary Astrology), London: Arkana Publishing, →ISBN, pages 144–145:

(astrology) A planetary configuration wherein one planet of a grand trine is in opposition to an additional fourth planet.

leija

astrology: certain planetary configuration


puck

From Middle English pouke, from Old English pūca (“goblin, demon”), from Proto-West Germanic *pūkō, from Proto-Germanic *pūkô (“a goblin, spook”), of uncertain origin.
Cognate with Old Norse púki (“devil”) (dialectal Swedish puke). Doublet of pooka.

inh

(mythology, literature) The mischievous fairy-like creature from English folklore, like Puck from Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream".

Robin Goodfellow

a small being, human in form who is playful and has magical powers


demonstration

en-noun

demonstration (countable and uncountable, plural demonstrations)

→ Dutch: demonstratie (semantic loan)

→ German: Demonstration (semantic loan)

desc

→ Japanese: デモンストレーション (demonsutorēshon)

From Middle English demonstracioun, from Old French demonstration, from Latin demonstrationem, from demonstrare (“show or explain”), from de- (“of or concerning”) + monstrare (“show”).
Morphologically demonstrate + -ion

He read the proposition. […] So he reads the demonstration of it, which referred him back to such a proposition,; which proposition he read.

a. 1697, John Aubrey, Brief Lives, s.v. Thomas Hobbes

If, then, proof from the basic truth is more accurate than proof not so derived, demonstration which depends more closely on it is more accurate than demonstration which is less closely dependent.

2021 September 21, Aristotle, The Complete Works of Aristotle. Illustrated: Logic, Universal Physics, Human Physics, Animal Physics, Metaphysics, Ethics and Politics and other, Strelbytskyy Multimedia Publishing:


zombie

zombies (plural)
zombi (alternative)
zomby (alternative rare)
zumbi (alternative uncommon)

First attested in 1871.
From a Bantu language. Compare Kongo nzambi (“god”), zumbi (“fetish”), and Kimbundu nzumbi (“ghost”) (see Portuguese zumbi), and Caribbean folklore's jumbee (“a spirit or demon”).
Origin from Spanish sombra (“shadow, phantom”) has also been suggested.
May have come through Louisiana Creole [Term?]. See also French zombi (1832).

(philosophy) A hypothetical being that is indistinguishable from a normal human being except in that it lacks conscious experience, qualia, or sentience.


Medusa

From Middle English Medusa, Meduse, from Latin Medūsa, from Ancient Greek Μέδουσα (Médousa), from μέδω (médō, “rule over”).

1895, Adolf Furtwängler, Eugenie Strong (editor and translator), Masterpieces of Greek Sculpture: A Series of Essays on the History of Art, 2010, →ISBN, page 201,
On an Attic vase of the middle of the fifth century the head of Medusa in the hand of Perseus is represented as that of a beautiful woman free from any distortion. This led us to conclude (supra, p. 158) that Medusa must have been so represented at Athens in the greater arts even previous to this vase, for the vase-painters never invent such bold novelties for themselves.

It will be suggested here that the myth of Perseus, involving the decapitation of Medusa, is a narrative version of ritual.

2000, Nannó Marinatos, The Goddess and the Warrior: The Naked Goddess and Mistress of the Animals in Early Greek Religion, page 62:

But their depictions of Perseus are remarkably different and demonstrate the ambiguity of Medusa that was seeping into Victorian iconography. In later, Roman versions of the myth, for example Ovid's Metamorphoses, Perseus slays the sea monster with his sword instead of using Medusa’s head to petrify the monster.

2001, Dennis Berthold, “Melville's Medusas”, in Sanford E. Marovitz, Athanasios C. Christodoulou, editors, Melville "Among the nations": Proceedings of an International Conference, Volos, Greece, July 2-6, 1997:

(Greek mythology) The youngest and only mortal of the three gorgon sisters, killed by Perseus.

Medusa (Rubens)
Medusa (disambiguation)
Rubens


denial

en-noun

denial (countable and uncountable, plural denials)

The denial of "There might be X" is the null, "False, there is no X."


Ragnarok

/ˈɹæɡ.nəˌɹɒk/

/ˈɹæɡ.nəˌɹɔk/

Borrowed from Old Norse ragnarǫk (modern Icelandic ragnarök), from regin (“gods”) + rǫk (“fate, judgment”).

Ragnarök (alternative)
ragnarök (alternative)

Wilhelmina weeps, now and then, with her good Sonsfeld; hopes nevertheless there will be some dawn to this ragnarök, or general ‘twilight of the gods.’

1858, Thomas Carlyle, chapter VIII, in History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Called Frederick the Great, volume II, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, book VII, page 274:

And all that is before them and the whole civilised world, would be long centuries of anarchy such as the world has not seen for ages—a true Ragnarok, a twilight of the very gods, an age such as the wise woman foretold in the old Voluspà.

1902, Charles Kingsley, “Ancient Civilisation”, in Historical Lectures and Essays, Macmillan and Co.:

But this heaven was not to last forever. Some day would come Ragnarok, or the Twilight of the Gods, when all creation would be destroyed, and all the Gods and men save Alfadur perish. Surtur, after killing the last of these Gods, would burn up the world.

1916 February, H. P. Lovecraft, “The Teuton's Battle-Song”, in United Amateur:

(Norse mythology) A series of future events culminating in a battle, fought between the Æsir and einherjar on one side, and the forces of Surtr, Loki, and Loki's children on the other, in which all of creation is burned down and almost all life is extinguished.


sign

sign (countable and uncountable, plural signs)

From Middle English signe, sygne, syng, seine, sine, syne, from Old English seġn (“sign; mark; token”) and Old French signe, seing (“sign; mark; signature”); both from Latin signum (“a mark; sign; token”); root uncertain. Doublet of signum. Partially displaced native token.

teken

a fact that shows that something exists or may happen

Your sign is Taurus? That's no surprise.

merkki

astrological sign — see also astrological sign


autonomy

autonomy (countable and uncountable, plural autonomies)

Borrowed from Ancient Greek αὐτονομῐ́ᾱ (autonomĭ́ā, “freedom to use its own laws, independence”), from αὐτόνομος (autónomos, “living under one's own laws, independent”) + -ῐ́ᾱ (-ĭ́ā, “-y, -ia”, nominal suffix). By surface analysis, auto- (“self”) + -nomy (“a system of rules or laws about a particular field”).

surf

(philosophy, uncountable) The capacity to make an informed, uncoerced decision.


Aryan

General American, Mary–marry–merry merger

From Sanskrit आर्य (ā́rya, “noble; noble one”) + -n. The Sanskrit word is from Proto-Indo-Iranian *áryas (the original Indo-Iranian autonym). Borrowed into English in the 19th century, at first as a term for the Indo-Iranian languages, and later partly extended to the Indo-European languages and peoples following a theory by Friedrich Schlegel that connected the Indo-Iranian words arya/ā́rya with German Ehre (“honor”) and some older Germanic names, thus assuming that it was the original Indo-European autonym meaning "the honorable people". The original meaning of the Indo-Iranian autonym and its possible Indo-European origin/cognates are disputed (see the Wikipedia article for further details).
The same Proto-Indo-Iranian root is the ultimate source of the country name Iran.

der

This short sketch of the changes that take place among those races that are only the depositories of a culture also furnishes a picture of the development and the activity and the disappearance of those who are the true founders of culture on this earth, namely the Aryans themselves.

1925–26, Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, translation from German to English by James Murphy, 1939

(theosophy, Germanic mysticism, Nazism) A member of a race defined variously as comprising people of Germanic descent, in the narrowest sense, or all non-Jewish Caucasians, in the broadest sense


rack

en-verb

rack (third-person singular simple present racks, present participle racking, simple past and past participle racked)

racks (present singular third-person)
racking (participle present)
racked (participle past)
racked (past)
rack (infinitive)
rack (first-person present singular)
racked (first-person past singular)
rack (present second-person singular)
rackest (archaic present second-person singular)
racked (past second-person singular)
rackedst (archaic past second-person singular)
racks (present singular third-person)
racketh (archaic present singular third-person)
racked (past singular third-person)
rack (plural present)
racked (past plural)
rack (present subjunctive)
racked (past subjunctive)
rack (imperative present)
racking (participle present)
racked (participle past)

From Old English reċċan (“to stretch out, extend”).

inh

Foꝛ when we heare one racke the name of God,/Abiure the ſcriptures, and his Sauiour Chꝛiſt...

1589–1592 (date written), Ch[ristopher] Marl[owe], The Tragicall History of D. Faustus. […], London: […] V[alentine] S[immes] for Thomas Bushell, published 1604, →OCLC, signature B2, recto:

(obsolete, occult) To alternately concatenate two words to magical effect.


axiology

en-noun

axiology (countable and uncountable, plural axiologies)

From Ancient Greek ἄξιος (áxios, “worthy”) + -λογία (-logía, “study of”).

(uncountable, philosophy) The study of value(s), as regards origin, nature, functions, types, and interrelations; value theory.

axiologie

particular value theory of a philosopher


immortality

immortality (countable and uncountable, plural immortalities)

/ˌɪmɔːˈtæləti/

/ˌɪmɔːɹˈtæləti/

From Middle English immortalitee, immortalite, from Old French immortalité, from Latin immortālitās.
Morphologically immortal + -ity.

خُلُود

condition of not being susceptible to death

In Greek mythology, Tithonus was granted immortality but not eternal youth.

In the little, as in the great things of life, are to be found the type and sign of our immortality. Every hope that looks forward is pledge of the hereafter to which it refers. Who rests content with the present? None. We have all deep within us a craving for the future.

1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “The Marriage Morning”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 201:

His one desire was to become the father of a man like himself, and it held him with a grip he only partially understood, for it was the first great desire, the first great passion of his life. Falling in love was a mere physical triviality, like warm sun or cool water, beside this divine hope of immortality: "I continue."

1905, E. M. Forster, Where Angels Fear to Tread, chapter 4

(religion, mythology, biology) The condition of being immortal.

The condition of being immortal.
Never dying

You have to salute Gerrard's bravery in accepting the challenge of trying to turn Rangers around given that he has zero experience in senior management. Immortality beckons if he does it.

2018 May 4, Tom English, “Steven Gerrard: A 'seriously clever or recklessly stupid' Rangers appointment”, in BBC Sport:

The condition of being immortal.
Being remembered forever


eternity

eternity (countable and uncountable, plural eternities)

eternities (plural)
æternity (alternative archaic)
æternitie (alternative obsolete)

sempiternity

antonym(s) of “existence outside of time”

From Middle English eternyte, from Old French eternité, from Latin aeternitās. Displaced native Old English ēcnes.

We sometimes speak of eternity in contradistinction to time; and often say, "through time and into eternity;" and again "from eternity to eternity," which is simply another form of expressing the same idea, and "pass through time into eternity." in other words, time is a short period allotted to man in his probationary state—and we use the word time in contradistinction to the word eternity, merely for the accommodation of man in his finite sphere, that we may comprehend and learn to measure periods.

1879, Erastus Snow, “Rest Signifies Change, etc.”, in Brigham Young, editor, Journal of Discourses, volume 21, published 1881:

(uncountable, philosophy, theology) Existence outside of time.