rhizome

Borrowed from Ancient Greek ῥίζωμα (rhízōma). As philosophical metaphor, used by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari.

The corpus of Kafka's writing, they argue, is ‘a rhizome, a burrow’ (K 7)—an uncentered and meandering growth like crab grass, a complex, aleatory network of pathways like a rabbit warren. A rhizome, as Deleuze and Guattari explain in Rhizome: an Introduction (1976), is the antithesis of a root-tree structure, or ‘arborescence’, the structural model which has dominated Western thought from Porphyrian trees, to Linnaean taxonomies, to Chomskyan sentence diagrams.

1989, Ronald Bogue, Deleuze and Guattari, Psychology Press, →ISBN, page 107:

Critical theorists have often drawn from Deleuze and Guattari's notion of the rhizome when discussing the potential of the Internet. While the Internet may structurally appear as a rhizome, its day-to-day usage by millions via search engines precludes experiencing the random interconnectedness and potential democratizing function.

2008, A. Hess, “Reconsidering the Rhizome”, in Amanda Spink, Michael Zimmer, editors, Web Search: Multidisciplinary Perspectives, Springer Science & Business Media, →ISBN, page 35:

(philosophy, critical theory) A so-called “image of thought” that apprehends multiplicities.


Neptunian

From Latin Neptūnius (“of or pertaining to the Roman god Neptune”), from Neptūnus (“the Roman god Neptune”) (possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *nebʰ- (“to become damp, cloudy”)) + -ius (suffix forming adjectives from nouns); analysable as Neptune + -ian. The English word is cognate with French neptunien (“pertaining to the Roman god Neptune, pertaining to the sea, pertaining to Neptunism, Neptunian; proponent of Neptunism, Neptunist”), German Neptunier (“proponent of Neptunism, Neptunist”).

cog

Near-synonym: Poseidonian

The Tomb disburd'ning, whence the Ghoſt aroſe / Of great Achilles; Such when Thracian Foes / (The Prelude of thy Fates, Troy!) he o'rethrew, / And the white hair'd Neptunian Cycnus [i.e., Neptune's son] ſlew.

1679, Lucius Annaeus Seneca [i.e., Seneca the Younger], translated by Edward Sherburne, Troades: Or The Royal Captives. A Tragedy, Written Originally in Latin, […], London: Printed by Anne Godbid, and John Playford, for Samuel Carr, […], →OCLC, act II, scene i, page 21:

(Roman mythology) Of or pertaining to Neptune, the Roman god of fresh water and the sea, the counterpart of the Greek god Poseidon.


Neptunian

From Neptune (“eighth planet in the solar system”) + -ian.

suffix

The Sun represents a masculine principle—assertion, expression and spirit. Neptune touching it brings in the qualities of sensitivity and creativity as well as weakness, dissolution, dissipation and elusiveness. If we take the Sun to represent the image of father, the person's experience of father (the Sun) will be coloured by Neptune. The father will receive the Neptunian projection and the child with this aspect will be sensitive to the father's Neptunian side.

1987, Liz Greene, Howard Sasportas, “Your Inborn Images”, in The Development of the Personality: Seminars in Psychological Astrology, volume 1, Boston, Mass.: Red Wheel/Weiser, →ISBN, part 1 (The Stages of Childhood), pages 11–12:

(astrology) Pertaining to the astrological influence of the planet Neptune.


Neptunian

To a Neptunian the common satisfaction of life seems too banal, and he often seeks the hidden mysteries of life. The advanced soul however realises that life is a dream, and a divine dream at that.

1983, Shakuntala Devi, “Characteristics of the Planets”, in Astrology for You, New Delhi: Orient Paperbacks, published 2007, →ISBN, page 54:

Often the Neptunian cannot bring his or her fantasies to birth in form because the fantasy world remains a surrogate womb, static rather than flowing, a place of painless oblivion rather than a bridge between human and divine.

2000, Liz Greene, “Neptune and the Artist”, in The Astrological Neptune and the Quest for Redemption, 1st paperback edition, York Beach, Me.: Samuel Weiser, Inc., →ISBN, page 324:

(astrology) A person under the astrological influence of the planet Neptune.


mogwai

From Cantonese 魔怪 (mo1 gwaai3), 魔鬼 (mo1 gwai2).

(Chinese mythology) A kind of demon held to be harmful to humans.


Epicureanism

en-noun

Epicureanism (usually uncountable, plural Epicureanisms)

Epicureanisms (plural)
epicureanism (alternative)

From Epicurean + -ism. As a pejorative synonym of atheism, both from the philosophy's rejection of deontological morality and from Epicurus's specific belief that the Greek gods—if they did exist—did not concern themselves at all with mankind, its actions, or any system of reward or punishment for them. Doublet of epicurism.

(ethics) The philosophical belief that pleasure is the highest good, particularly as advocated by Epicurus with a focus on mental pleasures and on avoidance of pain (ataraxia) through moderation and common virtue.

epicureisme

system of philosophy based upon the teachings of Epicurus


alethiology

From Ancient Greek ἀλήθεια (alḗtheia, “truth”) + -λογία (-logía).

der

(logic) The branch of logic dealing with truth and error.


astrometeorology

(astrology) The practice of using astrology for weather forecasting.


disjunction

en-noun

disjunction (countable and uncountable, plural disjunctions)

From Old French disjunction, from Latin disjunctio.

(logic) The proposition resulting from the combination of two or more propositions using the or operator.

disjunkce

logic: proposition resulting from the combination of two or more propositions using the or operator


predicate calculus

(logic) The branch of logic that deals with quantified statements such as "there exists an x such that..." or "for any x, it is the case that...", where x is a member of the domain of discourse.


Jovian

en-adj

Jovian (comparative more Jovian, superlative most Jovian)

more Jovian (comparative)
most Jovian (superlative)

From Latin Iovis, genitive of Iuppiter, analysable as Jove + -ian.

Near-synonym: Zeusian

He did not admit of equals. But as a patron he was superb. With his Jovian air, his colossal condescension, his amused smile, his general suggestion of the god descending to the mortal, he could be quite overpowering in his amiability.

1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019:

(Roman mythology) Pertaining to the Roman god Jove or Jupiter (the counterpart of the Greek god Zeus); Jove-like; befitting Jupiter.


fey

en-noun

fey (countable and uncountable, plural fey or feys)

From Middle English faie, fei (“a place or person possessed with magical properties”), from Middle French feie, fee (“fairy", "fae”). More at fairy.


literal

literals (plural)
litteral (alternative obsolete)
lit. (alternative)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Mélange a trois-literal.wav

From Middle English literal, from Old French literal, from Late Latin litteralis, also literalis (“of or pertaining to letters or to writing”), from Latin littera, litera (“a letter”); see letter.

(logic) A propositional variable or the negation of a propositional variable. ᵂᵖ


pragmatism

pragmatism (countable and uncountable, plural pragmatisms)

/ˈpɹæɡmətɪzəm/

From Ancient Greek stem of πρᾶγμα (prâgma, “act”) + -ism.

Our conception of these practical consequences is for us the whole of our conception of the object, so far as that conception has positive significance at all. This is the principle of [Charles Sanders] Peirce, the principle of pragmatism.

1902, William James, “Lecture XVIII: Philosophy”, in The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature […] , New York, N.Y.; London: Longmans, Green, and Co. […], →OCLC, page 445:

(philosophy) The idea that beliefs are identified with the actions of a believer, and the truth of beliefs with success of those actions in securing a believer's goals; the doctrine that ideas must be looked at in terms of their practical effects and consequences.

pragmatisme

philosophical idea that beliefs are identified with the actions of a believer


ARV

alien reproduction vehicle
alien reproduction vehicle#English

(ufology) Initialism of alien reproduction vehicle.


becoming

becoming (usually uncountable, plural becomings)

/bɪˈkʊm.ɪŋɡ/

By tracing the turns from U.S. to Japan to China, we can see that becoming American, the classic ethnic American narrative, itself opens to further becomings and unbecomings and rebecomings that address mobility and ethnicization […]

(chiefly philosophy) The act or process by which something becomes.


truth value

(logic) A value indicating to what extent a statement is true; in classical logic, these are the values "true" and "false".


mutable

en-adj

mutable (comparative more mutable, superlative most mutable)

more mutable (comparative)
most mutable (superlative)

From Middle English mutable, from Old French mutable, from Latin mutabilis (“liable to change”). By surface analysis, muta- + -able.

(astrology) Being one of the signs Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius and Pisces, associated with adaptability, flexibility and sympathy.


Asgard

Learned borrowing from Old Norse Ásgarðr.

lbor

The gods built themselves castles in Asgard, and halls that shone with gold. It is recorded that there were twelve such heavenly palaces, but the poems differ from each other in describing them.

1884, M. W. Macdowall, Asgard and the gods, […] , page 48:

So, for instance, when the giant Hrungnir became tediously drunk and boastful, it was Freyja who, of all the Æsir in Asgard, was bold enough to keep serving him drink, but equally it was she whom he threatened to take away with him.

2007, Heather O'Donoghue, From Asgard to Valhalla: The Remarkable History of the Norse Myths, Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page 48:

(Norse mythology) The realm of the Æsir gods.


Álfheimr

(Norse mythology) home of the Ljósálfar (Light Elves) and one of the nine realms, also called Ljosalfheim.


trying

In a variety of places, O'Shaughnessy argues that there is an internal relation between trying and the events that tryings produce. For example, he argues that tryings are not independently specifiable except as would-be causes of physical events.

2006, Andrew Sneddon, Action and Responsibility, page 145:

When I write with others, the pauses and manyfold attempts to get at an idea mirror the cadence of a conversation or the tryings of finding a word that evades the tongue. That searching is such a beautiful thing.

(philosophy) The act by which one tries something; an attempt.


Helen

en-proper noun

Helen (countable and uncountable, plural Helens)

→ Danish: Helen

→ Estonian: Helen

→ Hawaiian: Helena

→ Norwegian: Helen

→ Swedish: Helen

From French Hélène, from Latin Helena, from Ancient Greek Ἑλένη (Helénē). Doublet of Elaine.

Evelyn De Morgan
Helen of Troy (painting)

Fools on both sides! Helen must needs be fair,
When with your blood you daily paint her thus.

c. 1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:

(Greek mythology) The daughter of Zeus and Leda, considered to be the most beautiful woman in the world; her abduction by Paris brought about the Trojan War.

Հեղինե

(Greek mythology) the daughter of Zeus and Leda


Ceres

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

Learned borrowing from Latin Cerēs, goddess of the bounty, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱer- (“to grow, to nourish”). More at create.

der

(Roman mythology) The Roman goddess of agriculture; equivalent to the Greek goddess Demeter.


antithesis

Borrowed from Latin antithesis, itself a borrowing from Ancient Greek ἀντίθεσις (antíthesis). By surface analysis, anti- + thesis.

(philosophy) The second stage of a dialectical process in which the thesis is negated.


malefic

In the previous condition of overcoming, it was notable that while the malefics could only maltreat by overcoming through a superior sign-based square, the benefics could bonify by overcoming through a superior square or trine.

2017, Chris Brennan, Hellenistic Astrology: The Study of Fate and Fortune, page 471:


AND

(logic) Alternative form of ∧, the conjunction operator.

(logic) The binary operator and, only true if both of two inputs is true. In infix notation.


AND

en-verb

AND (third-person singular simple present ANDs, present participle ANDing, simple past and past participle ANDed)

ANDs (present singular third-person)
ANDing (participle present)
ANDed (participle past)
ANDed (past)

If an internal node is encountered that contains a mask, the search key is logically ANDed with the mask and another search is made of the subtree...

2006, Gary R Wright, W Richard Stevens, The Implementation:

(logic, transitive) To combine (a value) with another value by means of this operator.


negation

en-noun

negation (countable and uncountable, plural negations)

From Middle English negacioun, from Old French negacion, from Latin negātiō (“a denial; negative word”).
Morphologically negate + -ion

der

You get the negation of a proposition if you insert "not" (or some equivalent expression) into it in such a way as to form a contradictory of it.

2001, Mark Sainsbury, chapter 1, in Logical Forms — An Introduction to Philosophical Logic, 2nd edition, Blackwell Publishing, →ISBN, §4, page 19:

(logic, countable) A proposition which is the contradictory of another proposition and which can be obtained from that other proposition by the appropriately placed addition/insertion of the word "not". (Or, in symbolic logic, by prepending that proposition with the symbol for the logical operator "not".)

Although some of the logicians working in term logic have very complicated treatments of negation, we can see the origin of the modern conception in the extensional tradition as well. In Boole and most of his followers, the negation of a term is understood as the set theoretic complement of the class represented by that term. For this reason, the negation of classical propositional logic is often called ‘Boolean negation’.

2011 July 20, Edwin Mares, “Propositional Functions”, in The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, retrieved 2012-07-15:

(logic) The logical operation which obtains such (negated) propositions.


Tailtiu

Tailte (alternative)
Tailltiu (alternative)
Talti (alternative)

(Irish mythology) A presumed goddess who was the survivor of the invasion of Tuatha Dé Danann and was the foster mother of Lugh.


Lugh

Borrowed from Irish Lugh, from Old Irish Lug, from Primitive Irish ᚂᚒᚌ (lug), from Proto-Celtic *Lugus.

(Irish mythology) A pre-Christian Irish deity represented in mythological texts as a hero and High King of the distant past: the son of Cian and Ethniu.

Samh-ildánach ()

Summer-multi-talented; skilled in many arts


Midir

Mider (alternative)
Midhir (alternative)

(Irish mythology) The son of the Dagda of the Tuatha Dé Danann who fell in love with Étaín, receiving Aengus's help to make her his new bride.


Étaín

(Irish mythology) The lover of Midir whose rejected first wife Fuamnach became jealous and cast three spells on her, turning her into a pool of water, then into a worm, and then into a fly.


Fuamnach

(Irish mythology) Midir's rejected first wife, who became jealous of Midir's lover Étaín, casting three spells on Étain, turning her into a pool of water, then into a worm, and then into a fly.


PAP

NPPV

non-invasive positive pressure ventilation

(philosophy) Initialism of principle of alternate possibilities.

participatory anthropic principle
w:participatory anthropic principle

(cosmology, epistemology) Initialism of participatory anthropic principle.


modus ponens

From Latin modus ponendo ponens (roughly, “mode where affirming affirms”).

1. If P, then Q.

2. P.

3. Therefore, Q.

(philosophy, logic) A valid form of argument in which the antecedent of a conditional proposition is affirmed, thereby entailing the affirmation of the consequent. Modus ponens has the form

肯定前件

a valid form of argument in which the antecedent of a conditional proposition is affirmed, thereby entailing the affirmation of the consequent


Triton

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

(Greek mythology) A god of the sea, son of Poseidon.


theosophy

en-noun

theosophy (usually uncountable, plural theosophies)

theosophies (plural)
theosophie (alternative archaic)
Theosophy (alternative)

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

From Medieval Latin theosophia, from Ancient Greek θεοσοφῐ́ᾱ (theosophĭ́ā, “knowledge of things divine”, from θεός (theós, “god”) + σοφῐ́ᾱ (sophĭ́ā, “wisdom”)); analogous to theo- + -sophy.

der

They have their own traditions of art and science. They do not […] discuss God or metaphysics or men. […] All their wisdom and theosophy, and all their grasp of beauty, truth or love, is in the singing. […] They look unloving enough, and so they are. Pitiless fallen angels.

1984 Oct, Tanith Lee, “Bite-Me-Not, or Fleur de Feu”, in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, volume 8, Davis Publications, →ISSN:

(philosophy, religion) Any doctrine of religious philosophy and mysticism claiming that knowledge of God can be attained through mystical insight and spiritual ecstasy, and that direct communication with the transcendent world is possible.


zodiacal

en-adj

zodiacal (comparative more zodiacal, superlative most zodiacal)

more zodiacal (comparative)
most zodiacal (superlative)

From Latin zōdiacus + -al. By surface analysis, zodiac + -al.

[…] in some passages of the Old Testament they think they discover the Zodiacal course of the Sun […]

1683, Thomas Browne, “Observations upon Several Plants Mention’d in Scripture”, in Certain Miscellany Tracts, London: Charles Mearn, page 3:

For several evenings the pale twinkling of the somber zodiacal stars lighted up the west side of the heavens for some time after the sun had set.

1912, Henryk Sienkiewicz, chapter 14, in Mary Webb Artois, transl., Through the Desert, New York: Benziger Brothers:

She knew by heart everyone’s Zodiacal sign.

1959, Muriel Spark, chapter 2, in Memento Mori, New York: New Directions, published 2000:

In the zodiacal procession of the poles, the 25,920-year cycle, Lascaux is the time of Virgo, and Virgo is associated with artistic excellence and discrimination.

1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 130:

(astronomy, astrology) Of or pertaining to the zodiac.


Uranian

Uranian (comparative more Uranian, superlative most Uranian)

more Uranian (comparative)
most Uranian (superlative)
Ouranian (alternative)
ouranian (alternative)
uranian (alternative)

Aphrodite Pandemos
Aphrodite Urania
Karl Heinrich Ulrichs
Louvre
Plato

From Latin Ūrania (“muse of astronomy in Greek mythology”) + -an (suffix forming agent nouns). Ūrania is derived from Ancient Greek Οὐρᾰνῐ́ᾱ (Ourănĭ́ā, “muse of astronomy”), from οὐράνιος (ouránios, “of or relating to the sky, celestial, heavenly”) (from οὐρανός (ouranós, “the sky; heaven, home of the gods; the universe”), probably ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁wers- (“rain”)) + -ιος (-ios, suffix forming adjectives meaning ‘pertaining to’).
The alternative form Ouranian is derived from Ancient Greek οὐράνιος (ouránios).
Adjective sense 2 (“homosexual”) and the noun sense (“a homosexual”) refer to Plato’s work Symposium (c. 385–370 B.C.E.), where the goddess Aphrodite, in her heavenly aspect Aphrodite Urania (see adjective sense 3) is described as inspiring a noble form of affection between older and younger men. Compare German Urning (“a homosexual, Uranian”), Urnigtum (“homosexuality”), also referring to Aphrodite Urania, coined by the German writer Karl Heinrich Ulrichs (1825–1895) in 1864. By the 1900s, the use of the word in this sense had largely been supplanted by homosexual (see further at that entry). The term is no longer mainstream and is almost never used in modern contexts, though it has enjoyed a slight revival as a term for "gay man" as an analogue to lesbian.

der

/jʊˈɹeɪnɪən/

For assuredly are there two Venuses; one, the eldest, the daughter of Uranus, born without a mother, whom we call the Uranian; the other younger, the daughter of Jupiter and Dione, whom we call the Pandemian;—of necessity must there also be two Loves, the Uranian and Pandemian companions of these goddesses. [...] [T]he attendant on the other, the Uranian, whose nature is entirely masculine, is the Love who inspires us with affection, and exempts us from all wantonness and libertinism.

a. 1822, Percy Bysshe Shelley, “The Banquet. Translated from Plato.”, in Mrs. Shelley [i.e., Mary Shelley], editor, Essays, Letters from Abroad, Translations and Fragments, … In Two Volumes, volume I, Philadelphia, Pa.: Lea and Blanchard, published 1840, →OCLC, page 86:

That this is indeed the general tendency of his [Pausanias of Athens'] speech is made clear by two remarks that follow immediately upon his differentiating the Pandemian from the Uranian gods. [...] But what is true for Aphrodite seems to be a contradiction in terms: she is both one and two and all gods must be praised—both Uranian and Pandemian—and yet only the Uranian ought to be praised [...].

2010, Steven Berg, “Pausanias: Noble Lies and the Fulfillment of Greekness”, in Eros and the Intoxications of Enlightenment: On Plato’s Symposium (SUNY Series in Ancient Greek Philosophy), Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, →ISBN, part 1 (Athens and Enlightenment), page 27:

(not comparable, Greek mythology, Roman mythology) Of Aphrodite Urania, the heavenly aspect of the Greek goddess of beauty and love Aphrodite and her Roman counterpart Venus, as contrasted with the earthly aspect known as Aphrodite Pandemos: heavenly, spiritual.

Graced by nurses (art's nurse highly grac'd him) / Who fed him with pure marrow of the Muses; / And when he list, with moisture to refresh him, / He drunke cleare Helicon: cleare from abuses, / He bent his mind to pure Vranian vses, / Vranianie him did to heau'n vpreare: / And made to man, him demi-god appeare.

1600, Cyril Tourneur, The Transformed Metamorphosis, [London]: Printed by Valentine Sims, […], →OCLC; republished in John Churton Collins, editor, The Plays and Poems of Cyril Tourneur: […] In Two Volumes, volume II, London: Chatto and Windus, […], 1878, →OCLC, page 213:

Actually, this little girl-child should have been as happy as a lark. But, she wasn't. This is because her Bengali genes had her continually wish to be a Sarasvati, or Uranian Muse, to all the males who came within her ambit – incessantly inspiring them to great works of Art or Scientific discoveries.

2007, Vivek Iyer, chapter 8, in Samlee’s Daughter: A Novel, Great Britain: Polyglot Publications, →ISBN, section I:

(not comparable, Greek mythology, dated) Relating to Urania, the Muse of astronomy.


indifference

en-noun

indifference (countable and uncountable, plural indifferences)

From Middle French indifférence, from Late Latin indifferentia.

"I call reason absolute reason, or reason insofar as it is conceived as the total indifference of the subjective and objective."

1801, FWJ Schelling, The Philosophical Rupture between Fichte and Schelling, page 145:

(philosophy) Self-identity defined through the negation of difference, non-difference.


Gordian knot

/ˈɡɔːdɪən ˈnɒt/

/ˈɡoʊɹdɪən ˈnɑt/

From the name of a legendary knot tied to a pole near the temple of Zeus in Gordium. It was prophesied that whoever loosed the knot would become ruler of all Asia. Alexander the Great solved the puzzle by slicing through the knot and took it as a sign of Zeus' favor. He then proceeded to conquer much of the known world.

(Greek mythology) The legendary knot tied to a pole near the temple of Zeus in Gordium.


petitio principii

/pɪˈtɪʃiˌəʊ prɪnˈkɪpiˌaɪ/

From Latin petītiō prīncipiī (literally “an assumption from the beginning”), calque of Ancient Greek τὸ ἐν ἀρχῇ αἰτεῖσθαι (tò en arkhêi aiteîsthai, “to assume from the beginning”).

uder

τὸ ἐν ἀρχῇ αἰτεῖσθαι

begging the question
begging the question

(philosophy, logic, uncountable) The logical fallacy of begging the question (i.e., "assuming the conclusion").

A somewhat similar objection has been made by Locke and others, to the effect that the ordinary demonstrative syllogism is a petitio principii.

1869, C. S. Pierce, “Grounds of Validity of the laws of Logic: Further Consequences of Four Incapacities.”, in Journal of Speculative Philosophy:

The Streitberg-Michels Theory is evidently a petitio principii. To explain ē in gēbum, it is from the outset taken for granted, for inadequate reasons of method, that the form must be a perfect. [italics original]

1938, E. Prokosch, A Comparative Germanic Grammar:

(philosophy, logic, countable) A particular argument which commits the fallacy of begging the question; a circular argument.


Eochaid Feidlech

(Irish mythology) The High King of Ireland in the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology, who deposed the former High King Fachtna Fáthach at the battle of Battle of Leitir Ruadh.


Fachtna Fáthach

(Irish mythology) The High King of Ireland in the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology who was deposed by Eochaid Feidlech at the Battle of Leitir Ruadh.


Fráech

From Middle Irish Fráech, from Old Irish Fróech, from fróech (“heather”), from Proto-Celtic *wroikos.

(Irish mythology) The Connacht hero in the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology who wooed Findabair and Treblann, but was drowned in a river in a duel with Cúchulainn.


Nera

(Irish mythology) A warrior of Connacht in the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology.


Trojan horse

the Trojan horse (canonical)
Trojan Horse (alternative)

(Greek mythology) The hollow wooden horse by which the Greeks allegedly gained access to Troy during the Trojan War.


cockatrice

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

First attested 1382 as Middle English cocatrice (“basilisk”), from Old French cocatriz, from Late Latin calcātrīx (“she who treads upon something”), from Latin calcō (“tread”), from calx (“heel, hoof”).

der

“Peace reigns in happy Luxor. The lion lies down with the lamb, and the child, if it will, may harmlessly put its hand into the cockatrice’s den.”

c. 1910, Joseph Walker McSpadden, The Spell of Egypt:

(mythology) A legendary creature about the size and shape of a dragon or wyvern, but in appearance resembling a giant rooster, with some lizard-like characteristics.


Hegelian

en-adj

Hegelian (comparative more Hegelian, superlative most Hegelian)

more Hegelian (comparative)
most Hegelian (superlative)

/hɪˈɡiːlɪən/

The Germanic Tribes had told the whole world in all possible tones carrying conviction, the gently persuasive, the coldly logical; in tones Hegelian, Nietzschean, warlike, pious, cynical, inspired, what they were going to do to the inferior races of the earth, so full of sin and all unworthiness.

1921, Joseph Conrad, “The Crime of Partition”, in Notes on Life & Letters, London: J. M. Dent & Sons, pages 165–166:

As events such as 9/11, the Afghan and Iraq wars and the 2008 financial crisis took their toll on liberalism’s self-confidence, Fukuyama’s work was denounced as the height of Hegelian hubris.

2022 March 8, Andrew Anthony, “Liberalism and Its Discontents by Francis Fukuyama review – a defence of liberalism… from a former neocon”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(philosophy) Of or pertaining to the philosophical system of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831).


Amata

From Latin amāta (“loved, beloved”); feminine perfect passive participle of amāre (“love”). It can also be interpreted as the feminine form of the saint's name Amātus.

(Roman mythology) The wife of Latinus and the mother of Lavinia.


drow

en-noun

drow (countable and uncountable, plural drow)

A Shetlandic and Orcadian alteration of trow, most likely influenced by an unattested Norn *drog (“malevolent [undead] being”). Trow is derived from Norn troll, or otherwise from Old Norse trǫll. L-vocalisation occurred in the early 15th century in Middle Scots, so "trolly knolls" probably became *trowie knowes around this time. The supposed Norn *drog would have been derived from Old Norse draugr.

der

(rare, mythology, countable) A trow; a member of a race of folkloric beings from Orkney and Shetland; cognate to the Scandinavian troll.


naturalist

естественик

person who studies nature or natural history

(philosophy) A person who believes in or advocates the tenets of philosophical or methodological naturalism.

натуралист

person who advocates philosophical naturalism


god-king

devaraja

Southeast Asian, Hindu-Buddhist divine monarch

(mythology, literally) A king who is of divine descent.


weaker

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

(logic) Said of one proposition with respect to another one: that the latter entails the former, but the former does not entail the latter.


shape-shifter

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

(fantasy, mythology, science fiction) Alternative form of shapeshifter


sea horse

sea horses (plural)
seahorse (alternative)
sea-horse (alternative)

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

From Middle English sehors (“walrus”), equivalent to sea + horse. Probably a calque of obsolete French cheval de mer or directly of Late Latin caballus marinus.

Instead, it seems to be a unique case that ends in the tail of a hippocamp or seahorse, although with one fin now missing. Ultimately, the form might have been inspired by bent-leg vases produced in Greece.

2013, Richard Daniel De Puma, Etruscan Art in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, page 107:


elemental

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

From Middle English elementall, from Medieval Latin elementālis; compare Old French elementel. By surface analysis, element + -al.

Incidentally, such beings may be said to have an existence of a sort upon the lower astral plane; they are elementals created by man's evil desires and unclean thoughts.

1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 115:

(mysticism, fantasy) A creature (usually a spirit) that is attuned with, or composed of, one of the classical elements: air, earth, fire and water or variations of them like ice, lightning, etc. They sometimes have unique proper names and sometimes are referred to as Air, Earth, Fire, or Water.


formalism

en-noun

formalism (countable and uncountable, plural formalisms)

/ˈfɔɹml̩ˌɪzm̩/

(philosophy of mathematics) The ontological view of mathematics as a mere collection of string manipulation rules.


kinesis

kinesis (usually uncountable, plural kineses)

Borrowed from Ancient Greek κίνησις (kínēsis, “motion, movement”).

bor+

(philosophy) The force driving life forward.


apotropaic

en-adj

apotropaic (comparative more apotropaic, superlative most apotropaic)

more apotropaic (comparative)
most apotropaic (superlative)

/ˌæpətɹəˈpeɪ.ɪk/

From Ancient Greek ἀποτρόπαιος (apotrópaios), from ἀπό (apó, “away”) and τρόπος (trópos, “turn”); thus meaning “causing things to turn away”, as in “turns away evil”.

A boring subtext, about the wisdom or otherwise of actually uttering Voldemort's name, meanwhile robs the apotropaic device of its force.

2007 August 12, Christopher Hitchens, “Harry Potter: The Boy Who Lived”, in New York Times:

In earlier generations scholars reacted by removing many of these objects from public view, putting them in the ‘Secret Cabinet’ of the museum at Naples or otherwise under wraps. […] More recently the fashion has been to deflect attention from their sexuality by referring to them as ‘magical’, ‘apotropaic’ or ‘averters of the evil eye’.

2010, Mary Beard, chapter 7, in Pompeii: The Life of a Roman Town:

Commonly known as ‘ritual protection marks’, or even ‘witch marks’, an apotropaic image or symbol is a marking that is thought to create a ‘protection’ for the individual that created it – or for the area or object into which it was inscribed.

2015, Matthew Champion, Medieval Graffiti: The Lost Voices of England’s Churches, London: Ebury Press, →ISBN, page 25:

(religion, mysticism) Intended to ward off evil.


quantify

en-verb

quantify (third-person singular simple present quantifies, present participle quantifying, simple past and past participle quantified)

quantifies (present singular third-person)
quantifying (participle present)
quantified (participle past)
quantified (past)

From Medieval Latin quantifico (introduced by Sir William Hamilton in logic).

The statement (#92;forallx#92;in#92;mathbb#123;R#125;)#92;,2x#61;x#43;x quantifies over the real numbers.

(logic) To relate a statement (called a predicate) to a given set using a quantifier—either for all (denoted ∀) or there exists (denoted ∃).


pro-choice

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

When I defend my pro-choice position in the debate over abortion in our country, I frequently refer to Romania, where pregnancy could be monitored on behalf of the state, and to China, where it could be forcibly terminated.

2003, Hillary Rodham Clinton, “Prague Summer”, in Living History, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 354:

But if past is prologue, it’s hard to predict what our prochoice Republican governor will do. […] “You’re totally prochoice and bipartisan,” Caroline says in the ad, as they sit together on a park bench surrounded by trees and grass.

2022 July 26, Shirley Leung, “Charlie Baker is ‘100% prochoice.’ He shouldn’t veto the new reproductive rights bill.”, in The Boston Globe:

(public policy, law, ethics) Supportive of a person's right to choose whether or not to have an abortion.

These cases help create and sustain an essentially pro-choice regime, at least with respect to passive euthanasia and arguably with respect to physician-assisted suicide as well.

1994, Tom Stacy, “Euthanasia and the Supreme Court's Competing Conceptions of Religious Liberty”, in Issues in Law and Medicine, volume 10, number 1, page 62:

Two other sites worthy of note are http://www.efn.org/~ergo/ (Pro-Choice) and http://www.euthanasia.com (Pro-Life).

1998, C. G. Prado, The Last Choice: Preemptive Suicide in Advanced Age, page 103:

Whether we are pro-choice on euthanasia or anti-euthanasia, we can all agree that leaving patients in pain is abhorrent, ethically, and morally reprehensible, and should be punished severely by the law.

2014, Margaret Somerville, Death Talk: The Case Against Euthanasia and Physician-Assisted Suicide, 2nd edition, McGill-Queen's University Press, →ISBN, →OCLC:

(public policy, law, ethics) Supportive of a person's right to choose whether or not to end their life by euthanasia.


beg the question

beg the question (third-person singular simple present begs the question, present participle begging the question, simple past and past participle begged the question)

begs the question (present singular third-person)
begging the question (participle present)
begged the question (participle past)
begged the question (past)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Sapaa-beg the question.wav

From Latin petitio principii, from Ancient Greek τὸ ἐν ἀρχῇ αἰτεῖσθαι (tò en arkhêi aiteîsthai, “to assume from the beginning”).

uder

τὸ ἐν ἀρχῇ αἰτεῖσθαι

The objection is that the argument begs the question, meaning that the premise, that God has all the virtues, assumes the conclusion, that God is benevolent.

1994, D. N. Walton, “Begging the question as a pragmatic fallacy.”, in Synthese, volume 100, number 1:

(philosophy, logic, law) To engage in the logical fallacy of begging the question (petitio principii).

olettaa johtopäätös todeksi

to engage in the logical fallacy of begging the question (petitio principii)


tortuous

en-adj

tortuous (comparative more tortuous, superlative most tortuous)

more tortuous (comparative)
most tortuous (superlative)

/ˈtɔːt͡ʃuːəs/

/ˈtɔɹt͡ʃuəs/

From Middle English tortuous, tortuose, from Anglo-Norman and Old French tortuos, from Latin tortuōsus, from tortus (“a twisting, winding”).

Infortunate ascendent tortuous.

1872, Walter William Skeat, Chaucer's A Treatise on the Astrolabe:

(astrology) Oblique; applied to the six signs of the zodiac (from Capricorn to Gemini) that ascend most rapidly and obliquely.


everlasting

everlasting (comparative more everlasting, superlative most everlasting)

more everlasting (comparative)
most everlasting (superlative)
ever-lasting (alternative)

finite

antonym(s) of “existing or continuing without end”

/ˌɛvɚˈlæstɪŋ/

/ˌɛvəˈlɑːstɪŋ/

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

From Middle English, equivalent to ever + lasting.

(philosophy) Existing with infinite temporal duration (as opposed to existence outside of time).

sempiternal

existing with infinite temporal duration


ichor

en-noun

ichor (countable and uncountable, plural ichors)

Sense 1 (“liquid said to flow in place of blood in the veins of the gods”) is borrowed from Medieval Latin ichor, from Ancient Greek ῑ̓χώρ (īkhṓr, “fluid running through the veins of gods, ichor; watery part of blood, lymph, serum; watery part of milk, whey; gravy; pus; naphtha”); further etymology unknown, probably from Pre-Greek.
Sense 2.4 (“fetid, watery discharge from a sore”) is from Middle English icor, icore [and other forms], from Medieval Latin ichor; see further above.

der

This ſaid, ſhe wip’d from Venus’ wounded Palm / The ſacred Ichor, and infus’d the Balm.

1716, Homer, translated by Alexander Pope, “Book V”, in The Iliad of Homer, volume II, London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintott […], →OCLC, page 40, lines 505–506:

With his protruded ſpear her gentle hand / He wounded, piercing through her thin attire / Ambroſial, by themſelves the Graces wrought, / Her inſide wriſt, faſt by her roſy palm. / Blood follow'd, but immortal; ichor pure, / Such as the bleſt inhabitants of heav'n / May bleed, nectareous; […]

1791, Homer, “[The Iliad.] Book V.”, in W[illiam] Cowper, transl., The Iliad and Odyssey of Homer, Translated into Blank Verse, […], volume I, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], →OCLC, page 121, lines 387–393:

He [Saint Peter] potter'd with his keys at a great rate, / And sweated through his apostolic skin: / Of course his perspiration was but ichor, / Or some such other spiritual liquor.

1822 October 15, Quevedo Redivivus [pseudonym; Lord Byron], “The Vision of Judgment”, in The Liberal. Verse and Prose from the South, 2nd edition, volume I, number I, London: […] John Hunt, […], published 1823, →OCLC, stanza XXV, page 11:

(Greek mythology) The liquid said to flow in place of blood in the veins of the gods.


Fenian Cycle

(Irish mythology) A body of prose and verse focusing on the exploits of the mythological hero Fionn mac Cumhail and his warriors the Fianna Éireann.

cicle fenià

a body of prose and verse focusing on the exploits of the mythological hero Fionn mac Cumhail and his warriors


Fianna Éireann

Meaning "Soldiery of Ireland", named after the mythological Fianna


Graces

From Latin Gratiae, from gratia (“grace”), from Ancient Greek χᾰ́ρῐς (khắrĭs, “grace, charity”).

<i class="Latn mention" lang="en">grace</i>, charity

(Greek mythology) Three sister goddesses in Greek mythology (Euphrosyne, Aglaia, and Thalia), in whom beauty was deified.


biofact

(philosophy, sociology, the arts) A hybrid of an artefact and a living entity, or between concepts of nature and technology.


monomyth

From mono- + myth. Borrowed by Joseph Campbell from Finnegans Wake.

Most male epics follow Joseph Campbell's monomyth pretty neatly; can we expect Barrett Browning to do the same? Is the monomyth a male construct, the “male-myth” rather than the unified myth that speaks for all, […]

2008, E. L. Risden, Heroes, Gods and the Role of Epiphany in English Epic Poetry, McFarland, →ISBN, page 143:

(mythology) A cyclical journey or quest undertaken by a mythical hero.

Joseph Campbell
The Hero with a Thousand Faces


phenomenology

en-noun

phenomenology (countable and uncountable, plural phenomenologies)

phenomenologies (plural)
phænomenology (alternative)

/fɪˌnɒmɪˈnɒləd͡ʒi/

/fɪˌnɑməˈnɑləd͡ʒi/

From phenomenon + -logy, from Ancient Greek φαινόμενον (phainómenon, “thing appearing to view”), hence "the study of what shows itself (to consciousness)". According to Martin Heidegger's Introduction to Phenomenological Research, "the expression “phenomenology” first appears in the eighteenth century in Christian Wolff’s School, in Lambert’s Neues Organon, in connection with analogous developments popular at the time, like dianoiology and alethiology, and means a theory of illusion, a doctrine for avoiding illusion." (p.3)

der

Writing, individuation, and civilization are all parts of one larger cultural phenomenology.

1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 196:

A similar and more influential use of the term can be found in William Whewell's Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences (1847), where phenomenology occurs in the context of the "palaetiological sciences" (i.e., sciences which deal wih more ancient conditions of things), as that branch of these studies which is to be followed by aetiology and theory. Among such phenomenologies Whewell mentions particularly phenomenological uranology, phenomenological geography of plants and animals, and even a phenomenological glossology.

1994, Herbert Spiegelberg, Karl Schuhmann, “Introduction”, in The Phenomenological Movement: A Historical Introduction, 3rd rev. and enlarged edition, Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, →DOI, →ISBN, page 8:

(philosophy) The study of structures of consciousness as experienced from the first-person point of view.

The process of questioning back displaces the emphasis in phenomenology from an inquiry into modes of givenness, which assumes that there can be a simple starting point, to an inquiry into modes of pregivenness.

1995, Anthony J. Steinbock, Home and Beyond: Generative Phenomenology After Husserl, page 83:

(philosophy) A movement based on this, originated about 1905 by Edmund Husserl.

fenomenologia

philosophy based on intuitive experience of phenomena

(medicine, philosophy of medical sciences) An approach to clinical practice which places undue reliance upon subjective criteria such as signs and symptoms, while ignoring objective etiologies in the formulation of diagnoses and in the compilation of a formal nosologies.


phenomenological

en-adj

phenomenological (comparative more phenomenological, superlative most phenomenological)

more phenomenological (comparative)
most phenomenological (superlative)

Phenomenological "things" are not commonsense objects or sense data but the phenomena in their presentation, grasped as intentional objects.

1956 Dec, Maurice Natanson, “The Schism between Theory and Ardent Empiricism”, in Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, volume 17, number 2, page 244:

I call my models "mechanistic" to distinguish them from classical models that are more phenomenological.

1991 Nov, David Tilman, “Phenomenology From the Natural Standpoint: A Reply to Van Meter Ames”, in The American Naturalist, volume 138, number 5, page 1284:

He [Martin Heidegger] was influenced by Edmund Husserl, a German thinker born in 1859 who was soon to become the leading figure of the phenomenological movement, dedicated to the description and investigation of our conscious experience without reference to its extramental causes and consequences.

2014 April 12, Michael Inwood, “Martin Heidegger: the philosopher who fell for Hitler [print version: Hitler's philosopher]”, in The Daily Telegraph (Review), London, page R10:

(philosophy) Of or relating to phenomenology, or consistent with the principles of phenomenology.


phenomenologist

(philosophy) A philosopher who practices, advocates, or specializes in the scholarly study of phenomenology.


anschauung

Borrowed from German Anschauung, from anschauen (“to look at”).


conjunct

From Latin conjunctus, the perfect past participle of conjungō. Doublet of conjoint. See conjoin.

Asserting a conjunction would be irrational if the epistemic grounds for one conjunct defeat those for the other, for example when the two conjuncts are logically inconsistent.

2007 July 14, Timothy Chan, “Belief, assertion and Moore’s Paradox”, in Philosophical Studies, volume 139, number 3, →DOI:


apotropaism

(religion, mysticism) The use of ritual or other magical means (including charms and/or incantations) to avert evil or bad luck.

apotropaïsme

the use of ritual or other magical means to avert evil or bad luck


discursive

discursive (comparative more discursive, superlative most discursive)

more discursive (comparative)
most discursive (superlative)

Borrowed from Middle French discursif, formed from the stem of Latin discursus and the suffix -if, and in part borrowed from Medieval Latin discursivus. By surface analysis, discourse + -ive.

(philosophy) Using reason and argument rather than intuition.

redenerend

using reason and argument rather than intuition


nativism

en-noun

nativism (countable and uncountable, plural nativisms)

(philosophy) The doctrine that some skills or abilities are innate and not learned.


Thomism

(philosophy, theology) The philosophy and theology of Thomas Aquinas.

թոմիզմ

the philosophy and theology of Thomas Aquinas


naiad

From Latin Nāïas, from Ancient Greek Νᾱϊάς (Nāïás, “naiad”), from νάω (náō, “to flow”).

(Greek mythology) A female deity (nymph) associated with water, especially a spring, stream, or other fresh water.


simplification

simplification (countable and uncountable, plural simplifications)


simurgh

simurghs (plural)
seemurgh (alternative)
simorg (alternative)
simorgh (alternative)
simurg (alternative)
Senmurv (alternative Middle Persian)
Senmurw (alternative Middle Persian)

(Iranian mythology) A gigantic winged benevolent creature.


emergent

en-adj

emergent (comparative more emergent, superlative most emergent)

more emergent (comparative)
most emergent (superlative)

/ɪˈmɜːd͡ʒənt/

/ɪˈmɝd͡ʒənt/

From Latin ēmergēns, present participle of ēmergō. The medical sense is a back-formation from emergency.

an emergent property

A high-level phenomenon is strongly emergent with respect to a low-level domain when the high-level phenomenon arises from the low-level domain, but truths concerning that phenomenon are not deducible even in principle from truths in the low-level domain.[…] A high-level phenomenon is weakly emergent with respect to a low-level domain when the high-level phenomenon arises from the low-level domain, but truths concerning that phenomenon are unexpected given the principles governing the low-level domain.

2008, David J. Chalmers, “Strong and Weak Emergence”, in Philip Clayton, Paul Davies, editors, The Re-Emergence of Emergence: The Emergentist Hypothesis from Science to Religion, →DOI:

(philosophy, epistemology, sciences) That arises at a higher level than that of its components and is not explainable by the behaviour of said components taken individually; having properties as a whole that are more complex than the properties contributed by each of the components individually.

эмердже́нтный

(philosophy, sciences) Having properties as a whole that are more complex than the properties contributed by each of the components individually.


epistemic

PIE word
 *h₁epi
From Ancient Greek ἐπιστήμη (epistḗmē, “knowledge; science”) + English -ic (suffix meaning of or pertaining to forming adjectives from nouns) (compare modern Greek επιστημικός (epistimikós, “relating to science, scientific”)). Ἐπιστήμη (Epistḗmē) is derived from ἐπῐ́στᾰμαι (epĭ́stămai, “to have knowledge of, know”) (from ἐπῐ- (epĭ-, prefix meaning ‘all over; on, on top of’) + ῐ̔́στημῐ (hĭ́stēmĭ, “to stand; to weigh”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *steh₂- (“to stand (up)”))) + -η (-ē, suffix forming action nouns).

der

Second, note the role of the respondent's epistemic state. It is a factor in determining the correct replies, but only when the propositum is irrelevant.

2008 July 1, Paul Vincent Spade, “Medieval Theories of Obligationes”, in Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, archived from the original on 2012-10-23:

This chapter describes the contours of the epistemic crisis in media and politics that threatens the integrity of democratic processes, erodes trust in public institutions, and exacerbates social divisions.

2018, Yochai Benkler, Robert Faris, Hal Roberts, “Epistemic Crisis”, in Network Propaganda: Manipulation, Disinformation, and Radicalization in American Politics, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →DOI, →ISBN:

(philosophy) Of or relating to cognition or knowledge, its scope, or how it is acquired.

epistemisk

of or relating to cognition or knowledge, its scope, or how it is acquired

[Robert] Audi considers whether [Roderick Milton] Chisholm might be able to incorporate into his epistemic system an internalist evidential grounding requirement addressing this question.

2000 July, Timm Triplett, “The Philosophy of Roderick M. Chisholm. Edited by Lewis Edwin Hahn. The Library of Living Philosophers, vol. 25. Chicago and La Salle, Ill.: Open Court Publishing Company, 1997. Pp. xviii, 738. [book review]”, in Richard Boyd et al., editors, The Philosophical Review, volume 109, number 3, Ithaca, N.Y.: Sage School of Philosophy, Cornell University, →ISSN, →JSTOR, →OCLC, page 452:

(philosophy) Of or relating to epistemology (“the branch of philosophy dealing with the study of knowledge”); epistemologic or epistemological.


Nordic

From French nordique, from nord (“north”).

Called “Nordics,” the aliens are human-like in appearance, of average height, and often have long, flowing hair. Contactees are typically struck by the beauty of the Nordics, as was Howard Menger (1959): “She seemed to radiate and glow,” Menger explains,

2007, Erich Goode, D. Angus Vail, Extreme Deviance, Pine Forge Press, page 41:

But the third most common alien is called a Nordic, or humanoid.

2012, Kelly Milner Halls, Alien Investigation: Searching for the Truth about UFOs and Aliens, Millbrook Press, page 45:

Known as Nordics, these extraterrestrials are said to have blond hair, blue eyes, and pale skin and are anywhere from 6 to 8 feet (183cm to 244cm) tall.

2012, Patricia D. Netzley, Extraterrestrial Life: Alien Encounters, Reference Point Press, page 33

(ufology, science fiction) A race of extraterrestrials similar in appearance to Nordic humans.


phenomenal

en-adj

phenomenal (comparative more phenomenal, superlative most phenomenal)

more phenomenal (comparative)
most phenomenal (superlative)
phænomenal (alternative)

From phenomenon + -al, after French phénoménal.

(philosophy) Of or pertaining to the appearance of the world, as opposed to the ultimate nature of the world as it is in itself.

fenomènic

philosophy: pertaining to the appearance of the world


ETV

en-noun

ETV (countable and uncountable, plural ETVs)

(ufology, countable) Initialism of extraterrestrial vehicle.


Phoebus

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

From Middle English Phebus, from Latin Phoebus, from Ancient Greek Φοῖβος (Phoîbos).

Mor. Miſlike me not for my complexion,
The ſhadowed liuerie of the burniſht ſunne,
To whom I am a neighbour, and neere bred.
Bring me the faireſt creature North-ward borne,
Where Phœbus fire ſcarce thawes the yſicles,
And let vs make inciſion for your loue,
To proue whoſe blood is reddeſt, his or mine.

c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i], page 167:

(Greek mythology) An epithet and synonym for Helios; Phoebus Helios, after his maternal aunt, Phoebe.

By Phœbus, here's a moſt neate fine ſtreete; is't not? I proteſt to thee, I am enamord of this ſtreete now, more then of halfe the ſtreetes of Rome, againe; tis ſo polite, and terſe; […]

1601, Ben Jonson, Poetaster or The Arraignment: […], London: […] [R. Bradock] for M[atthew] L[ownes] […], published 1602, →OCLC, Act III:

The heaven doth not contain so many stars,
So many leaves not prostrate lie in woods,
When autumn’s old and Boreas sounds his wars,
So many waves have not the ocean floods,
As my rent mind hath torments all the night,

17th century, William Drummond, Sextain I, in English Poetry, published 1907, page 162

And heart spends sighs, when Phœbus brings the light.

For she recalled the edict which decreed
If in one day she did not take or kill
The challenger (to this King Charles agreed),
She was his captive and must do his will.
Phoebus was soon to plunge his golden head
Into the western sea when of her skill
And strength the Maid at last began doubt,
While her fatigue was putting hope to rout.[…]

1991 August 29, Ludovico Ariosto, Orlando Furioso: Part Two (Orlando Furioso), Penguin UK, →ISBN, →OCLC:

(Greek mythology, Roman mythology) An epithet and synonym for Apollo; Phoebus Apollo.


kobold

kobold (plural kobolds or (rare) kobolde)

kobolds (plural)
kobolde (plural rare)
cobold (alternative)

Borrowed from German Kobold. Doublet of cobalt.

1904, Andrew Lang (collector), author and translator not identified, The Mermaid and the Boy, The Brown Fairy Book, page 176,
At this point a cock crew, and the youth jumped up hastily saying : 'Of course I shall ride with the king to the war, and if I do not return, take your violin every evening to the seashore and play on it, so that the very sea-kobolds who live at the bottom of the ocean may hear it and come to you.'

Movers, in the first chapter of his Phönizier, says that that group of deities called Dactyls, Cabiri, Corybantes, and Cyclopes, were similar to those old Germanic divinities now known as Kobolds.

2009, Robert Grant Haliburton, The Dwarfs of Mount Atlas: Collected Papers on the Curious Anthropology of Robert Grant Haliburton, page 75:

(German mythology) An ambivalent, sometimes vindictive, spirit that is capable of materialising as an object or human, often a child; a sprite.


nescience

nescience (countable and uncountable, plural nesciences)

From Latin nescientia, from the present participle of nescire.

The theory of nescience is but the obverse of the fact of science.

1895, J. G. Schurman, “Agnosticism”, in The Philosophical Review, volume 4, number 3, page 244:

(philosophy) The doctrine that nothing is actually knowable.


gorgon

From Middle English gorgon, from Latin Gorgō, from Ancient Greek Γοργώ (Gorgṓ), from γοργός (gorgós, “terrible”). Possibly from the same root as the Sanskrit word "garğ" (गर्जन), which is defined as a guttural sound, similar to the growling of a beast, thus possibly originating as an onomatopoeia.

(Greek mythology) A vicious female monster from Greek mythology with sharp fangs and hair of living, venomous snakes. One of the three sisters: Medusa, Stheno and Euryale


Nidhogg

Learned borrowing from Old Norse Níðhǫggr (“Malice Striker”)

lbor

(Norse mythology) a dragon who lives in Niflheim (world of ice and the dead), feeding upon the roots of Yggdrasil and bodies of the damned.


tabula rasa

en-noun

tabula rasa (usually uncountable, plural tabulae rasae or tabulæ rasæ)

tabulae rasae (plural)
tabulæ rasæ (plural)

/ˈtæbjʊlə ˈɹɑːzə/

/ˈtæbjʊlə ˈɹeɪzə/

From Latin tabula (“wax-covered writing tablet”) + rāsa, feminine singular of rāsus (“scraped, erased, cleaned (of text)”).

ubeskrevet blad

the idea that the mind comes into the world as a blank state

We all admit now that the Child does not come into the world with a mental tabula rasa of entire forgetfulness but on the contrary as the possessor of vast stores of sub-conscious memory, derived from its ancestral inheritances; we all admit that a certain grace and intuitive insight and even prophetic quality, in the child-nature, are due to the harmonization of these racial inheritances in the infant, even before it is born; and that after birth the impact of the outer world serves rather to break up and disintegrate this harmony than to confirm and strengthen it.

1920, Edward Carpenter, Pagan and Christian Creeds, New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., published 1921, page 173:

(philosophy, epistemology) A mind, as of a newborn, free of any impressions, notions, ideas, etc.; a blank slate.


apraxia

en-noun

apraxia (usually uncountable, plural apraxias)

From Ancient Greek ἀπραξία (apraxía, “inaction”), from ἀ- (a-, “without”) + πρᾶξις (prâxis, “activity”) + -ία (-ía, abstract noun suffix).

confix

But how does the skeptic live without knowledge or at least belief? It seems that the skeptical challenges, though theoretically unimpeachable, have objectionable practical consequences. Call this the apraxia problem for skepticism.

2020 June 9, Kelly Arenson, The Routledge Handbook of Hellenistic Philosophy, Routledge, →ISBN:

(philosophy) The state of total inaction caused by holding global skepticism.


facticity

en-noun

facticity (usually uncountable, plural facticities)

From fact + -icity, possibly modelled on German Faktizität which first appeared in the writings of the German philosopher Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762–1814).

For as sure as the absolute knowledge (in the infinite facticity—actual existence—of each single knowledge) is only in the absolute form of the For-itself, so sure each knowledge goes also beyond itself; or, viewed from another point, is in its own Being absolutely outside of itself, and encircles itself entire.

1869 August, J[ohann] G[ottlieb] Fichte, “New Exposition of the Science of Knowledge. Translated from the German …”, in A[dolph] E[rnst] Kroeger, transl., edited by W[illia]m T[orrey] Harris, The Journal of Speculative Philosophy, volume III, number 2 (number 10 overall), St. Louis, Mo.: E. P. Gray; F. Roeslein, →OCLC, 1st part (Knowledge Posits Itself as a Power of Formal Freedom of Quantitating Determined through an Absolute Being), page 113:

In particular, we cannot choose the circumstances of our birth and our entire bodily condition. These "facticities" appear to us as having no foundation or justification. Why is one person born blind and another born with perfect vision? Facticities are thus contingent, they present themselves as simply "there."

1985, Joseph S. Catalano, “The Immediate Structures of the For-itself”, in A Commentary on Jean-Paul Sartre’s “Being and Nothingness”, Midway Reprint edition, Chicago, Ill., London: University of Chicago Press, →ISBN, part II (Being-for-itself), section II (The Facticity of the For-itself), page 100:

The dynamics of affective motivation change the immanently given fact (Tatsache) into a processional facticity which originally contains within itself its own temporalizing dynamics. If, as [Friedrich] Nietzsche contended early on, there are no facts but only interpretations of them, facticity is inhabited by an originary plasticity.

1998, Natalie Depraz, “Imagination and Passivity. Husserl and Kant: A Cross-relationship.”, in Natalie Depraz, Dan Zahavi, editors, Alterity and Facticity: New Perspectives on Husserl, Dordrecht: Springer Science+Business Media, →DOI, →ISBN, page 45:

The ownmost possibility of be-ing itself which Dasein (facticity) is, and indeed without this possibility being "there" for it, may be designated as existence. It is with respect to this authentic be-ing itself that facticity is placed into our forehaving when initially engaging it and bringing it into play in our hermeneutical questioning.

1999, Martin Heidegger, “Hermeneutics”, in John van Buren, transl., Ontology—The Hermeneutics of Facticity (Studies in Continental Thought), Bloomington, Indianapolis, Ind.: Indiana University Press, →ISBN, § 3 (Hermeneutics as the Self-interpretation of Facticity), page 12:

[Martin] Heidegger replaces spirit—the principle of subjectivity—with the principle of facticity, which binds the activity of philosophizing to factical life, that is to say, to Dasein.

2003, Thomas Schwarz Wentzer, “Hegel’s Challenge to the Early Heidegger”, in Dan Zahavi, Sara Heinämaa, Hans Ruin, editors, Metaphysics, Facticity, Interpretation: Phenomenology in the Nordic Countries (Contributions to Phenomenology; 49), Dordrecht, Boston, Mass.: Kluwer Academic Publishers, →ISBN, page 232:

(uncountable, specifically, philosophy) In existentialism, the state of being in the world without any knowable reason for such existence, or of being in a particular state of affairs which one has no control over.


nectar

nectar (countable and uncountable, plural nectars)

From Latin nectar, from Ancient Greek νέκταρ (néktar, “nourishment of the gods”), from Proto-Indo-European *neḱ- (“perish, disappear”) + *-tr̥h₂ (“overcoming”), from *terh₂- (“to overcome, pass through, cross over”).

der

They pourd in soveraine balme and Nectar good, / Good both for erthly med'cine and for hevenly food.

1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto IV”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

(chiefly mythology) The drink of the gods.


natality

en-noun

natality (countable and uncountable, plural natalities)

From French natalité. Philosophical usage introduced by Hannah Arendt.

(philosophy) The human ability to create new ideas, institutions and frameworks out of nothing.


modality

modality (countable and uncountable, plural modalities)

(logic) The classification of propositions on the basis on whether they claim possibility, impossibility, contingency or necessity; mode.

(astrology) That whether a zodiac sign is cardinal, fixed or mutable


genii

On the 11th Century glass bowl above, the painted figures—winged genii, nude athletes and brawny soldiers—resemble mythological characters but may be only lighthearted mimicry of ancient Greek or Roman subjects.

1980, Colin Thubron, Seafarers: The Venetians, page 40:

plural of genius
(Roman mythology) Guardian spirits.


golden age

/ˈɡəʊl.dən eɪd͡ʒ/


dolour

dolour (countable and uncountable, plural dolours)

From Middle English dolour (“physical pain, agony, suffering; painful disease; anguish, grief, misery, sorrow; grieving for sins, contrition; hardship, misery, trouble; cause of grief or suffering, affliction”) [and other forms], from Anglo-Norman dolour, Old French dolour, dolor, dulur (“pain”) (modern French douleur (“pain; distress”)), from Latin dolor (“ache, hurt, pain; anguish, grief, sorrow; anger, indignation, resentment”), from doleō (“to hurt, suffer physical pain; to deplore, grieve, lament”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *delh₁- (“to divide, split”)) + -or (suffix forming third-declension masculine abstract nouns). The English word is a doublet of dol.

der

Supposedly, utilitarians are able to add and subtract hedons (units of pleasure) and dolors (units of pain) without any signs of cognitive or affective distress […]

1986, Rosemarie Tong, Ethics in Policy Analysis (Occupational Ethics Series), Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, →ISBN, page 16:

(countable, economics, ethics) In economics and utilitarianism: a unit of pain used to theoretically weigh people's outcomes.


positivism

en-noun

positivism (countable and uncountable, plural positivisms)

Borrowed from French positivisme, from positif (“positive”). Equivalent to positive + -ism.

The goal of positivism is to construct an objective, empirical and systematic foundation for knowledge. Given the above five tenets, it follows that positivists would hold that the world is composed of ‘facts’, or ‘sense data’ (or ‘atoms’).

1980, David Held, Introduction to Critical Theory, University of California Press, →ISBN, page 164:

History, and its literary expression, narrative, were not scientific, and so did not deserve the attention that true sciences did. Only science could yield positive knowledge—hence the passion for positivism, and the origin of the term.

2012, Lydia Pyne, Stephen J. Pyne, The Last Lost World, Penguin, →ISBN:

(philosophy) A doctrine that states that the only authentic knowledge is scientific knowledge, and that such knowledge can only come from positive affirmation of theories through strict scientific method, refusing every form of metaphysics.


spiritualism

spiritualism (countable and uncountable, plural spiritualisms)

/ˈspɪɹɪt͡ʃuəlɪzəm/

/ˈspɪɹɪt͡ʃəlɪzəm/

From spiritual + -ism.
In Allan Kardec's 1857 book The Spirits Book (Le Livre des Esprits in original French), in which a distinction between spiritism and spiritualism is defined.

belief that dead communicate with the living

What is called spiritualism should, I think, be called a mental species of materialism.

1880, R. H. Hutton, “Preface”, in Theological essays:

(philosophy) A doctrine, opposing materialism, that claims transcendency of the divine being, the altogether spiritual character of reality and the value of inwardness of consciousness.

espiritualisme

the philosophic doctrine, opposing materialism


peregrine

en-adj

peregrine (comparative more peregrine, superlative most peregrine)

more peregrine (comparative)
most peregrine (superlative)

From Middle English peregrin, borrowed from Old French peregrin, from Latin peregrīnus (“foreign”). Doublet of pilgrim.

(astrology, of a planet) Lacking essential debility.


bleen

Blend of blue + green; coined by American philosopher Nelson Goodman in 1955 to illustrate concepts in the philosophy of science

coinage

(philosophy) Of an object, blue when first observed before a specified time or green when first observed after that time.

bert

of an object blue that is first blue, then green


humanitarian

en-adj

humanitarian (comparative more humanitarian, superlative most humanitarian)

more humanitarian (comparative)
most humanitarian (superlative)

From humanity + -arian (suffix indicating an advocate of or believer in something), possibly modelled after Unitarian (“Christian who does not believe in the doctrine of the Trinity; pertaining to Unitarianism”) (see noun sense 2 and verb sense 2).

suffix

By the study of natural laws, Humanitarian philosophers know how to distinguish those thoughts, desires and actions which are rewarded, from those that are corrected, and Humanitarian philosophers are thus, next to the God of Nature, the safest guides and greatest benefactors of mankind; for, not a single individual, still less Society, can improve without the Humanitarian philosophy, as it alone is based on the only infallible criterion.

1876, Joachim Kaspary, Natural Laws; or The Infallible Criterion, London: J. A. Brook & Co., […], →OCLC, pages 3–4:

(philosophy, historical) Synonym of humanist (“relating to humanism”)


humanitarian

Therefore, Humanitarians alone devote their present lives to create heavens within themselves and others, and a real paradise upon earth, because they do not waste their time with Pagan delusions, Sceptical doubts, and Atheistical selfishness, but live happily in the present by preparing for themselves and others happier future human lives upon our improveable globe.

1876, Joachim Kaspary, Natural Laws; or The Infallible Criterion, London: J. A. Brook & Co., […], →OCLC, page 136:

(philosophy, historical) Synonym of humanist (“a person who believes in the philosophy of humanism”)


prolepsis

en-noun

prolepsis (countable and uncountable, plural prolepses)

From Latin prolepsis, from Ancient Greek πρόληψις (prólēpsis, “preconception, anticipation”), from προλαμβάνω (prolambánō, “take beforehand, anticipate”).

der

Point (1) seems to imply that one may have a false judgement because of a mismatch between different criteria for truth. For example, my sensation is paired with a prolepsis of a horse, therefore I make an assertion that ‘there is a horse’, which upon further inspection may turn out to be a cow.

2017, Attila Németh, Epicurus on the Self, page 42:

(philosophy, epistemology) A so-called "preconception", i.e. a pre-theoretical notion which can lead to true knowledge of the world.


Apophis

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

From Ancient Greek Ἄποφις (Ápophis), a borrowing from Egyptian ꜥꜣpp altered after ὄφις (óphis, “snake”).

(Egyptian mythology) An evil snake-god who tries to devour the sun every night.

أبوفيس

an evil snake-god who tries to devour the sun every night


ekstasis

en-noun

ekstasis (countable and uncountable, plural ekstases)

ekstases (plural)
ecstasis (alternative)

Ancient Greek ἔκστασις (ékstasis, “displacement, cession, trance”)

uder

[1914], 1995, Holden E Sampson, The True Mystic http://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&hl=en&id=Qqm7RQvTQ3sC&pg=PA28&lpg=PA28&sig=5lVGuxEcsuYip2s9t2xgSTWp4nc
In Psychics the strange phenomenon of “Katalepsis” experienced by developed “trance-mediumship” bears so close a resemblance, physically, to Ekstasis, that the two are often taken for one and the same thing.

In no wise is it possible for the State of Ekstasis to be attained by Mankind except as the prelude to Initiation in the Divine Mysteries. When the Initiations have been fully accomplished, to the Seventh Golden Gate, there is no further need for the Processes requisite to induce the State of Ekstasis.

1918, Holden Edward Sampson, Theou Sophia:

We find ourselves then in the presence of two human ekstases: the ekstasis which throws us into being-in-itself and the ekstasis which engages us in non-being.

1956, Hazel E. Barnes, Being and Nothingness, translation of original by Jean-Paul Sartre:

Conversely, expecting is, as we say, ecstatic. The ecstasy mentioned here, stepping out itself (ἔκστασις) is to some extent a raptus [rapture]. [...] And we therefore call these three basic phenomena the ecstases of temporality.

1984, Michael Heim, The Metaphysical Foundations of Logic, translation of original by Martin Heidegger:

This is a double but infinite responsibility, infinitely redoubled, split in two (dé-doublée), shared and parcelled out; an infinitely divided responsibility, dissemintated, if you will, for one person, for only one---all alone (this is the condition of responsibility)---and a bottomless double responsibility that implicitly describes an intertwining of temporal ekstases; a friendship to come of time with itself where we meet again the interlacing of the sameand the altogether other ('Grundlick-Anderes') which orientates us in this labyrinth.

1994, George Collins, The Politics of Friendship, Verso, translation of original by Jacques Derrida, published 2005, page 73:

2002, Angela Dalle Vacche, “Unexplored Connections in a New Territory,” in The Visual Turn, Angela Dalle Vacche ed. http://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&hl=en&id=mrxLuyQ1GjYC&pg=PA21&lpg=PA21&sig=LX0CsBvZonTHzR-w7F2suuDhwck
Eisenstein’s discussion of Serov’s portrait associates ekstasis with an “expulsion of meaning.” By contrast, the filmmaker’s handling of Vasily Surikov’s large canvas, La Bojara Morozova (1887), is an example of ekstasis as expressive conversion from the visual to the acoustic.

(mysticism, philosophy) The state of being beside oneself or rapt out of oneself.


being-in-itself

(philosophy, existentialism, phenomenology) The self-contained and fully realized being or existence of objects.


nihilate

en-verb

nihilate (third-person singular simple present nihilates, present participle nihilating, simple past and past participle nihilated)

nihilates (present singular third-person)
nihilating (participle present)
nihilated (participle past)
nihilated (past)

From Latin nihilō (“I reduce to nothing”).

(philosophy) The action of consciousness, which is the origin of negation in facticity.


Fimbulwinter

(Norse mythology) One of the signs of the onset of the end of this world, the final, three-year-long winter (with no intervening summers); it marks the coming of the Ragnarok, the battle that will end the world.

fimbulvinter

in Norse mythology, the long winter signifying the coming of Ragnarok


idealist

From French idéaliste, from Late Latin idealis (“ideal”), from Latin idea (“idea”), equivalent to ideal + -ist.

(philosophy) One who adheres to idealism.

իդեալիստ

(philosophy) one who adheres to idealism


plenitude

en-noun

plenitude (countable and uncountable, plural plenitudes)

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

From Middle English plenitude, that borrowed from Anglo-Norman plenitude, Middle French plenitude, and their source, Latin plēnitūdō.

(philosophy) The metaphysical idea that the universe contains everything that is possible.


Pleiad

(Greek mythology) Any one of the Pleiades.


oread

From Latin Orēas, Orēadis, from Ancient Greek Ὀρειάς (Oreiás), from ὄρος (óros, “mountain”).

The imprisoned ringlets are emancipated; 'fresh as the oread from the forest fountain,' you descend—you breathe the incense of the chocolate—not more I hope—and grow conversational and confidential over the green tea, which, with a fragrance beyond all the violets of April, rises to your lip, 'giving and taking odours.'

1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XI, in Romance and Reality. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 92:

(Greek mythology) A mountain nymph; an anthropomorphic appearance of the spirit of a mountain.


close encounter

close encounter (plural close encounters)

(ufology) A supposed observation, or observation of evidence, of extraterrestrial beings or their craft.

contato imediato

observation of extraterrestrials or their craft


Sisyphus

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

Indeed, I have looked upon the fable of Sisyphus as an allegory, and that his wife was the stone which so perpetually rolled back upon his hands, effectually retarding his weary progress up-hill.

1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “A Proposal of Marriage”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 132:

(Greek mythology) Son of Aeolus and Enarete, and king of Ephyra, as tragic figure doomed eternally to roll a boulder up a hill in Tartarus, a part of Hades.


mythopoetic

en-adj

mythopoetic (comparative more mythopoetic, superlative most mythopoetic)

more mythopoetic (comparative)
most mythopoetic (superlative)

(mythology) Given the quality of a myth or a poem, used typically in opposition to a purely factual account.


subsumption

en-noun

subsumption (countable and uncountable, plural subsumptions)

(logic) The premise of a syllogism that contains the minor term.


Apple Isle

From apple + isle.
* (Avalon): Translation of Latin Insula Pomorum (“Island of Apples”), Geoffrey of Monmouth's alternative name for Insula Avallonis.
* (Tasmania): A reference to Tasmania's former status as an important apple grower and exporter. Possibly influenced by a supposed resemblance of the map of Tasmania to the shape of an apple.

uder

The journey involved a quest for the mysterious Avalon, the Apple Isle — home of immortality and hidden wisdom.

2002, Sheena Morgan, The Real Halloween: Ritual and Magic for the New Millennium, page 67:

He is equally at home over and under the waves, bringing some chosen ones, like Connla and Bran and the great King Cormac, to visit him in the Apple Isle, the Land of Promise.

2004, Eithne Massey, Legendary Ireland: A Journey through Celtic Places and Myths, page 139:

How can we, who have heard the Voice of the Lady of the Apple Isle, fulfill this calling?

2010, Jhenah Telyndru, Avalon Within: A Sacred Journey of Myth, Mystery, and Inner Wisdom, page 5:


subsist

en-verb

subsist (third-person singular simple present subsists, present participle subsisting, simple past and past participle subsisted)

subsists (present singular third-person)
subsisting (participle present)
subsisted (participle past)
subsisted (past)

From Latin subsistō (“halt, stop”), from sub (“below”) + sistō (“stand, place”). Compare consist, desist, exist, insist, persist.

Remember Man! "the Univerſal Cauſe / Acts not by partial, but by gen’ral Laws ; / And makes what Happineſs we juſtly call / Subſiſt not in the Good of one, but all.

1734, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Man. […], epistle IV, London: Printed for J[ohn] Wilford, […], →OCLC, page 63, lines 33–36:

Subject to section 5(1), copyright subsists only by virtue of this Act.

2021, Parliament of Singapore, “Copyright Act 2021”, in Republic of Singapore Government Gazette, Acts Supplementᵂⁱᵏⁱˢᵒᵘʳᶜᵉ, page 76:

(chiefly philosophy) To have ontological reality; to exist.


nebris

From Latin nebris, from Ancient Greek νεβρίς (nebrís), earlier νεβρός (nebrós, “fawn”).

(Greek mythology) The skin of a fawn, as worn by Dionysus, and as worn in his honor by his male followers and female followers (maenads) and other votaries in Ancient Greece. It has also been shown as a panther or fox skin in different contexts.


anamnesis

en-noun

anamnesis (countable and uncountable, plural anamneses)

From Ancient Greek ἀνάμνησις (anámnēsis, “remembrance”), verbal noun of ἀναμιμνήσκω (anamimnḗskō), from ἀνα- (ana-) + μιμνῄσκω (mimnḗiskō, “call to mind”).

affix

1990, Stewart Umphrey, Zetetic Skepticism, Longwood Academic, page 13,
There are also reasons for thinking that Socratic anamnesis, inquiry and learning are quite unlike anamnesis, inquiry and learning as ordinarily understood.

(epistemology, Platonism) The recollection of innate knowledge acquired before birth, according to Plato’s theory of epistemology.


modal

en-adj

modal (comparative more modal, superlative most modal)

more modal (comparative)
most modal (superlative)

From Middle French modal, from Medieval Latin modālis (“pertaining to a mode”), from Latin modus (“mode”). Compare to French, Spanish, and Portuguese modal and Italian modale. By surface analysis, mod(e) + -al.

der

(logic) Of, or relating to the modality between propositions.

modaal

logic: of or relating to the modality between prepositions


Brigid

/ˈbɹɪ.d͡ʒɪd/

From Irish Brighid, from Old Irish Brigit, from Proto-Celtic *Brigantī (“high, exalted”).

The pagan Brigid was part of the Tuatha Dé Danann – a race of dieties who are said to have inhabited Ireland before the Milesians, from whom today’s Irish people are descended. Raised among druids, Brigid was the daughter of an enslaved woman and the Dagda, chief of the gods.

2024 February 5, Katy Hessel, “Move over Saint Patrick: why the world should be celebrating beer-brewing Brigid”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(Irish mythology) The goddess of the Sacred Flame of Kildare and the patron goddess of the Druids. Daughter of Dagda of the Tuatha Dé Danann.


Dagda

The Middle Irish name Dagda means “Good God” or “Shining God”, from Old Irish Dagdae, from Proto-Celtic *Dago-deiwos, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰagʰo- (“shining”) (< *dʰegʷʰ- (“to burn”)) + *deywós (“divinity”).

Raised among druids, Brigid was the daughter of an enslaved woman and the Dagda, chief of the gods.

(Irish mythology) An important god in Irish mythology, portrayed as a father figure, king, and druid.


militant

From Middle French militant, from Latin mīlitāns, present participle of mīlitāre (“to serve as a soldier”).

(specifically, communism) someone who supports the Trotskyist political view expressed in the newspaper Militant.

троцкист

one who supports a Trotskyite political view


transitivity

en-noun

transitivity (countable and uncountable, plural transitivities)

From French transitivité.
Morphologically transitive + -ity

The hypothetical syllogism inference rule states the transitivity of implication.

(mathematics, logic) The property of being transitive.


domicile

domiciles (plural)
domicil (alternative archaic)

Inherited from Middle English domicelle, domicylie, from Middle French domicile and directly from Latin domicilium.

(astrology) The zodiac sign over which a planet (a term which in astrology includes the Sun and Moon) is considered to have especially strong influence; the planet is called the sign's ruling planet or sign ruler.


manas

From Sanskrit मनस् (manas, “mind”). Doublet of mind.

(philosophy, chiefly theosophy) The mind; that which distinguishes man from the animals.


Sylvia

Feminine form of a Medieval form of Silvius, from Latin silva (“forest”). In myths, Rhea Silvia was the mother of famous twins Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome. 6th-century saint Silvia was the mother of the pope Gregory the Great.

(Roman mythology) Short for Princess Rhea Silvia, the mother of Romulus and Remus, founders of Rome.


Silvius

From Latin Silvius, from silva (“forest”).

(Roman mythology) The son of Ascanius and his wife.


arborescent

en-adj

arborescent (comparative more arborescent, superlative most arborescent)

more arborescent (comparative)
most arborescent (superlative)

/ɑːbəˈɹɛsənt/

/ɑːɹbəˈɹɛsənt/

From Latin arborēscēns, present active participle of arborēscō (“become a tree”). First attested around 1675. The philosophical sense refers to the way genealogy trees are drawn.

Gilles Deleuze criticizes the Chomsky hierarchy of formal languages, which he considers a perfect example of arborescent dualistic theory.

Deleuze and Guattari think, for instance, that metaphysics is an example of arborescent thinking, which is a model of thought like an erect tree, because it has been shaped by arboreal metaphors from the moment of its origin. They explain, "Arborescent systems are hierarchical systems with centers of significance (sic) and subjectification, central automata like organized memories. In the corresponding models, an element only receives information from a higher unit, and only receives a subjective affection along preestablished paths."

2000, Carl Olson, Zen and the Art of Postmodern Philosophy: Two Paths of Liberation from the Representational Mode of Thinking, Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, →ISBN, page 193:

One [metaphor] in particular – the "arborescent schema" – emerges as perhaps the most long-held, dominant approach and way of thinking in such areas as philosophy, psychoanalysis, social criticism, and everyday life. It is, in plain, a tree-like representation of the world, which gathers concepts and images that encourage our minds to think of the world in terms of trees and their component parts. […] Deleuze and Guattari draw attention to the arborescent schemas in philosophy and other areas and show how these foundational ideas are rarely challenged, even though they limit the manoeuvrability of thought and violently organize all subsequent lines of inquiry. […] The problem with arborescent thinking is that thoughts must begin from the trunk, and refer back to it; they cannot pop up elsewhere.

2012, Karen R. Foster, Dale C. Spencer, Reimagining Intervention in Young Lives: Work, Social Assistance, and Marginalization, Vancouver, B.C.: University of British Columbia Press, →ISBN, page 19:

René Descartes once likened the structure of philosophy to a tree: […] Building on Descartes' insight, Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari have argued that Western humanist tradition in general is modeled on a treelike structure, or what they term an "arborescent" structure. A tree organizes its parts according to a principle that arises out of its own interiority and self-sufficiency: it germinates from a solitary seed or acorn and shoots forth what will become its trunk. Its whole canopy of branches above is integrated downwards into this trunk, and all of its roots below are similarly integrated upward into the same trunk. Considered as a model of Western knowledge, the trunk of this arborescent structure represents human rationality. Rationality is the highest value in an arborescent structure because it is rationality that organizes and integrates all forms of knowledge into a unified, coherent system, […]

2012, B[radley] H[udson] McLean, Biblical Interpretation and Philosophical Hermeneutics, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 268:

(philosophy) Marked by insistence on totalizing principles, binarism and dualism (as opposed to the rhizome theory).

arborescente

marked by insistence on totalizing principles, binarism and dualism


Uathach

(Irish mythology) The daughter of Scáthach and later the lover of Cúchulainn (after a duel with Cochar Crufe).


Cethern

(Irish mythology) In the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology, an Ulster warrior (son of Fintan) who assists Cúchulainn in the Táin Bó Cúailnge.


Táin Bó Cúailnge

(Irish mythology) The central tale in the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology.


Cú Roí

The first element is apparently cú (“hound”); the second probably means "battlefield", making the whole term "hound of the battlefield".

(Irish mythology) A king of Munster and sorcerer who was killed by Cúchulainn and avenged by his son, Lugaid mac Con Roí, who was subsequently killed by Conall the Victorious.


Clymene

(Greek mythology) A nymph married to Iapetus, mother of Prometheus, Epimetheus, Menoetius and Atlas.


Flidais

(Irish mythology) A woodland goddess whose chariot is drawn by deer.


Mesgegra

Mes Gegra (alternative)
Mes Gedra (alternative)

Conall the Victorious
Conall the Victorious

(Irish mythology) The king of Leinster during the events of the Ulster Cycle. He was killed by Conall the Victorious.


Mórrígan

the Mórrígan (canonical)
Morrígan (alternative)
Morrigu (alternative)

From Irish Mór-Ríoghain ("great queen"), from Middle Irish Morrígan.

(Irish mythology) An Irish mythological figure widely considered to be a goddess, and usually interpreted as a triple goddess.


Macha

(Irish mythology) The wife of Nemed. She died only twelve days after arriving in Ireland.


Donn Cuailnge

(Irish mythology) The Brown Bull of Cooley: an extremely fertile stud bull over whom the Táin Bó Cúailnge was fought.


salvage

en-verb

salvage (third-person singular simple present salvages, present participle salvaging, simple past and past participle salvaged)

salvages (present singular third-person)
salvaging (participle present)
salvaged (participle past)
salvaged (past)

From Old French salver (see also save, from a variant form), from Late Latin salvare (“to make safe, secure, save”), from Latin salvus (“safe”) with the English suffix -age.

der

Prove or disprove, and salvage if possible.

(transitive, logic) To modify (a false proposition) to create a true proposition.


Hyperborea

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From Ancient Greek ὑπερβόρεος (huperbóreos), i.e. ὑπέρ (hupér, “over”) + βόρειος (bóreios, “northern”).

(Greek mythology) the land of sunshine and plenty, beyond the northern wind, home to the hyperboreans, a race of giants

Hyperborea

The mythical land of sunshine and plenty


sylph

First attested in 1657. From New Latin sylphes, coined by Paracelsus in the 16th century. The coinage may derive from Latin sylvestris (“of the woods”) and nympha (“nymph”). Ultimately from the root silva (“woods, forest”). Related to sylvan.
More at Wikipedia.

Her heart fluttered with expectation—her step was buoyant with hope, and she sprung into the carriage with the lightness of a sylph.

Necromancy meant originally the conjuring up the souls of the dead, and later included the conjuring of all sorts of inhuman spirits such as sylphs, giants, and djinn.

1941, Rupert Gleadow, Magic and Divination, page 125:

(mythology) An invisible being of the air.


nihilation

From Latin nihilō (“I reduce to nothing”).


Tyr

From Old Norse Týr, from Proto-Germanic *Tīwaz, from Proto-Indo-European *dyew- (“god”). Doublet of Tiw.

(Norse mythology) The Norse god of war, identifiable with Tiu or Tiw.


casuist

From French casuiste, from Spanish casuista, from Latin casus (“case”).

(ethics) A person who resolves cases of conscience or moral duty.


Cassandra

From Ancient Greek Κασσάνδρα (Kassándra).

And so when Cassandra foretold the evils that were to come upon Troy, even her own people would not credit her words.

1897, Michael Clarke, The Story of Troy, page 30:

(Greek mythology) A prophetess who was daughter of King Priam of Troy and his queen Hecuba. She captured the eye of Apollo and was granted the ability to see the future; however, she was destined never to be believed.


objecthood

(philosophy, grammar) The condition of being an object.


Lebor Gabála Érenn

The title translates as The Book of the Taking of Ireland.

(Irish mythology) A loose collection of poems and prose narratives recounting the mythical origins and history of an Irish race from the creation of the world down to the Middle Ages.


compresence

en-noun

compresence (countable and uncountable, plural compresences)

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The properties of redness and juiciness have compresence in apples.

(philosophy) The state of existing together concurrently.


ataraxy

ataraxy (usually uncountable, plural ataraxies)

From Middle French ataraxie, from Ancient Greek ἀταραξία (ataraxía, “impassiveness”), from ἀ- (a-, “not”) + ταράσσω (tarássō, “I disturb”). Doublet of ataraxia.

der

When the Pyrrhonians say, that ataraxy is the chiefe felicitie, which is the immobilitie of judgement, their meaning is not to speake it affirmatively[…].

1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 12, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:

Youth all around prancing, vociferating, mocking; callow and alien youth, having to be looked after and studied and taught, as though nothing but it mattered, term after term—and now, all of a sudden, in mid-term, peace, ataraxy, a profound and leisured stillness.

1911, Max Beerbohm, chapter 21, in Zuleika Dobson, New York: John Lane, published 1912, page 319:

There was no longer any need for fortitude: he felt nothing at present and there was no point in artificial ataraxy.

I was nonplussed, I stared at my teacher, never before had his swollen face seemed so replete with indifference, stone ataraxy.

(philosophy) Ataraxia; freedom from mental disturbance; imperturbability, dogged indifference.


Auster

For a Tempeſt. Take Eurus, Zephyr, Auſter and Boreas, and caſt them together in one Verſe. Add to theſe of Rain, Lightning, and of Thunder (the loudeſt you can) quantum ſufficit. Mix your Clouds and Billows well together till they foam, and thicken your Deſcription here and there with a Quickſand. Brew your Tempeſt well in your Head, before you ſet it a blowing.

1714 June 10, [Alexander Pope], The Guardian, volume I, number 78, London: Printed for J[acob] Tonson, at Shakespear's-Head over-against Catherine-street in the Strand, page 332:

(Roman mythology) The god of the south wind.


Cimmerian

/sɪˈmɪəɹ.ɪ.ən/

From the Latin Cimmerius, from Ancient Greek Κιμμέριος (Kimmérios, “pertaining to the Cimmerii”) + -an.

The city, there, of the Cimmerians stands
With clouds and darkness veil’d, on whom the sun
Deigns not to look with his beam-darting eye,

1791, Homer, translated by William Cowper, The Odyssey of Homer:

On their mysterious shores were the improbable homes of impossible peoples. The Great Sea, the Broad Sea, the Boundless Sea; the Ethiopians, "dwelling far away, the most distant of men," and the Cimmerians, "covered with darkness and cloud," where "baleful night is spread over timid mortals."

1900, Jack London, The Shrinkage of the Planet:

(Greek mythology) Any of the mythical people supposed to inhabit a land of perpetual darkness.

Κιμμέριος

any of the mythical people supposed to inhabit a land of perpetual darkness


maat

Learned borrowing from Egyptian mꜣꜥt (“truth, righteousness, justice”).

lbor

(philosophy, historical) The ancient Egyptian concept of justice, order, and harmony.


subaltern

en-adj

subaltern (comparative more subaltern, superlative most subaltern)

more subaltern (comparative)
most subaltern (superlative)

From Middle French subalterne, from Late Latin subalternus, from Latin sub- + alternus, from alter.

(logic) Asserting only a part of what is asserted in a related proposition.

alisteinen

asserting only a part of what is asserted in a related proposition


subaltern

(logic) A subaltern proposition; a proposition implied by a universal proposition.


Entscheidungsproblem

Unadapted borrowing from German Entscheidungsproblem.

ubor

‘The Entscheidungsproblem,’ Rudy said. ‘Meaning?’ Alan explained, ‘Hilbert wanted to know whether any given statement could, in principle, be found true or false.’

Turing was attending Max Newman's lectures on the foundations of mathematics when the Entscheidungsproblem first attracted his attention.

2012, George Dyson, Turing's Cathedral, Penguin, published 2013, page 279:

(mathematics, logic) A decision problem of finding a way to decide whether a formula is true or provable within a given system.


Horus

From Late Latin Hōrus, from Ancient Greek Ὧρος (Hôros), from Egyptian ḥr.

(Egyptian mythology) The ancient Egyptian falcon-headed god of the sun, sky, war, and kingship.


Isis

Learned borrowing from Latin Īsis from Ancient Greek Ἶσις (Îsis), from Egyptian st-t:H8-B1 (ꜣst).

Grant me profane kiss / Oh Isis, mother ov all / Thy lips like morphine / Teasing my slumbering heart

2009, Behemoth, Defiling Morality ov Black God:

(Egyptian mythology) An ancient Egyptian goddess, the wife of Osiris and mother of Horus, worshiped as the ideal mother and wife and as the matron of nature and magic; also worshiped by (some) Greeks during the Hellenistic period and featured in Greek mythology, and by Romans involved in what was categorized as the Cult of Isis.


fascinum

Here are some brides of ten compelled to seat themselves on the fascinum, the virile ivory in the temples of classical scholarship.

Today people use a four-leaf clover, the pompom from a European sailor’s hat, the fascinum (winged phallus, some of which were found in the ruins of Pompeii and seemed to have done little good there), and so on.

1988, Leonard R. N. Ashley, The Amazing World of Superstition, Prophecy, Luck, Magic & Witchcraft, Random House Value Publishing, →ISBN, page 107, →ISBN:

(historical, occult) An ivory phallus used in certain ancient erotic rites.


hamadryad

en-noun

hamadryad (plural hamadryads or hamadryades)

hamadryads (plural)
hamadryades (plural)

From Latin Hamadryas, from Ancient Greek Ἁμαδρυάς (Hamadruás), from ἅμα (háma, “together”) + δρῦς (drûs, “tree”).

af

The hamadryades have gone, like the golden fancies of which they were engendered—morning dreams of a young world scarce awake, but full of freshness and beauty. Yet often will the thought, or rather the fancy, come across me, that this wailing but most musical noise—heard in the dim evening, when every tree has a separate sound like a separate instrument, and every leaf a differing tone like the differing notes—is the piteous lament of some nymph pent within the gray and mossy trunk whence she may never more emerge in visible loveliness.

1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XVIII, in Romance and Reality. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 301:

The various supports, rafters, braces and plates are of pandanus logs of a rich oily brown, and make one think of a sylvan cathedral where hamadryads might very well dance, where Syrinx might be chased by Pan, Daphne by Apollo, and various other heathen rites take place in the dark hours before the dawn.

1929, Robert Dean Frisbee, The Book of Puka-Puka, Eland, published 2019, page 106:

(Greek mythology) A wood-nymph who was physically a part of her tree; she would die if her tree were felled.


hyperborean

hyperboreans (plural)
Hyperborean (alternative)

/hʌɪ.pəˈbɔː.ɹɪən/

From Late Latin hyperboreanus, cognate with Classical Latin hyperboreus, from Ancient Greek ὑπερβόρεος (huperbóreos), composed of ὑπέρ (hupér, “over”) + βόρειος (bóreios, “northern”). See also Ὑπερβόρεοι (Huperbóreoi).

The Hyperboreans venerated Apollo over the other gods.

(Greek mythology, usually capitalised) One of a race of people living in the extreme north, beyond the north wind.

Hyperboréen

(Greek mythology), one a race of people living in the extreme north


hypostasis

en-noun

hypostasis (countable and uncountable, plural hypostases or hypostaseis)

hypostases (plural)
hypostaseis (plural)

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From Ecclesiastical Latin hypostasis, from Ancient Greek ὑπόστασις (hupóstasis, “sediment, foundation; substance, existence, essence”), from ὑπό (hupó, “under”) + στάσις (stásis, “standing”). Morphologically hypo- + -stasis.

bor

(philosophy) The underlying reality or substance of something.

(linguistics) A relationship between a name and a known quantity, as a cultural personification (i.e. objectification with personality) of an entity or quality.

(psychology) Referring to the hypostatic model of personality; i.e., asserting that humans present themselves in many different aspects or hypostases, depending on the internal and external realities they relate to, including different approaches to the study of personality.

Rašnu, the "Judge", appears to be the hypostasis of the idea embodied in the common noun rašnu, "judging, one who judges".

1975, Mary Boyce, History of Zoroastrianism, volume I, Brill, page 59:

The One, Intellect and Soul, then, are the three transcendent sources – or hypostases – of existence.

1999, John Gregory, editor, The Neoplatonists: A Reader, page 13:

as far as we know, Porphyry did not consider the divine intellect to be a hypostasis clearly distinct from the Soul, but he often designated it ‘hypercosmic soul’.

2006, George E. Karamanolis, Plato and Aristotle in agreement?, page 320:


inanition

en-noun

inanition (countable and uncountable, plural inanitions)

From Middle English inanicioun, borrowed from Old French inanition, itself borrowed from Late Latin inānītio, from inānīre (“to make empty”), from inānis (“empty, vain”); see inane.

There bending over her, with eyes bathed in tears, she watched the progress of her beloved Rosilia's melancholy disorder; she beheld her, pale, exhausted, either in listless inanition, or haunted with the dreadful idea that mental derangement or death would terminate her sufferings!

1838, [Letitia Elizabeth] Landon (indicated as editor), chapter XIII, in Duty and Inclination: […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 186:

I had forced into his hand the means to carry on decently the serious business of life, to get food, drink, and shelter of the customary kind while his wounded spirit, like a bird with a broken wing, might hop and flutter into some hole, to die quietly of inanition there.

1900, Joseph Conrad, chapter 17, in Lord Jim, Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood, page 196:

"Well, who is; but who has good music, and amuses people on Sunday evenings, when the whole of New York is dying of inanition."

1920, Edith Wharton, chapter X, in The Age of Innocence, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:

It was a small celebration: not much money to spend, and an enormous inanition eating away the faith.

1939, Graham Greene, chapter 4, in The Lawless Roads, Penguin, published 2006, page 91:

(philosophy) A spiritual emptiness or lack of purpose or will to live, akin to nausea in existentialist philosophy.


jural

Then this action would have become legitimized and transformed into the social structure, changing the jural nature of the tree-focused social isolate.

1988, Derek Freeman, George N. Appell, T. N. Madan, Choice and morality in anthropological perspective:

(philosophy) Of or pertaining to moral rights and obligations.