words

Verbum

Interesting, inspiring and strange words I stumble through.

English

anamnesis

"lost of forgetfulness"

  1. The ability to recall past events; recollection.
  2. (medicine) The medical history of a patient.
  3. (rhetoric) The mention of the past; quotation of exemplary authors from memory to establish one's authority.

synesthesia

"taste of colors"

  1. a sensation produced in one modality when a stimulus is applied to another modality, as when the hearing of a certain sound induces the visualization of a certain color.
  2. the condition marked by the experience of such sensations

syncope

"a missing beat"

  1. loss of consciousness resulting from insufficient blood flow to the brain : FAINT
  2. the loss of one or more sounds or letters in the interior of a word (as in fo'c'sle for forecastle)

nystagmus

"involuntary eye movement"

  1. a congenital or acquired persistent, rapid, involuntary, and oscillatory movement of the eyeball, usually from side to side.

sprezaatura

"the art of performing a difficult task so gracefully, that it looks effortless"

  1. graceful conduct or performance without apparent effort
  2. studied carelessness, especially as a characteristic quality or style of art or literature.

vulpes

"true foxes"

  1. A genus of foxes, giving name to the Vulpinæ, whose type species is the common red fox, Canis vulpes of earlier naturalists, now Vulpes vulgaris or V. fulvus.
  2. A genus of Carnivora including the foxes.
  3. foxes

yearn

"to have a strong, often melancholy desire"

  1. to long persistently, wistfully, or sadly yearns to make a difference
  2. to feel tenderness or compassion

coda

"any concluding part"

  1. Music. a more or less independent passage, at the end of a composition, introduced to bring it to a satisfactory close.
  2. Ballet. the concluding section of a ballet, especially the final part of a pas de deux.
  3. a concluding section or part, especially one of a conventional form and serving as a summation of preceding themes, motifs, etc., as in a work of literature or drama.
  4. anything that serves as a concluding part.
  5. Phonetics. the segment of a syllable following the nucleus, as the d-sound in good.

petrichor

"the smell of the incoming rain"

  1. a distinctive scent, usually described as earthy, pleasant, or sweet, produced by rainfall on very dry ground

phenotype

"composite observable characteristics or traits of an organism"

  1. The observable characteristics or traits of an organism that are produced by the interaction of the genotype and the environment : the physical expression of one or more genes
  2. The observable characteristics or traits of a disease

equinox

"one of the two times in a year when the sun crosses the plane of the earth's equator, and day and night are of equal length"

  1. the time when the sun crosses the plane of the earth's equator, making night and day of approximately equal length all over the earth and occurring about March 21 (vernal equinox or spring equinox) and September 22 (autumnal equinox).
  2. either of the equinoctial points.

solstice

"the brightest day"

  1. either of the two points on the ecliptic at which its distance from the celestial equator is greatest and which is reached by the sun each year about June 21 and December 21
  2. the time of the sun's passing a solstice which occurs about June 21 to begin summer in the northern hemisphere and about December 21 to begin winter in the northern hemisphere

zaibatsu

"Japanese business conglomerate"

  1. a great industrial or financial combination of Japan.

axiom

"statement that is taken to be true, to serve as a premise or starting point"

  1. a statement accepted as true as the basis for argument or inference one of the axioms of the theory of evolution
  2. an established rule or principle or a self-evident truth cites the axiom "no one gives what he does not have"
  3. a maxim widely accepted on its intrinsic merit

deacon

"a subordinate officer in a Christian church"

  1. a Roman Catholic, Anglican, or Eastern Orthodox cleric ranking next below a priest
  2. one of the laymen elected by a church with congregational polity to serve in worship, in pastoral care, and on administrative committees
  3. a Mormon in the lowest grade of the Aaronic priesthood

proselyte

" new convert (as to a faith or cause)"

  1. a person who has converted from one opinion, religion, or party to another, especially recently.

chimera

"single organism composed of cells with more than one distinct genotype"

  1. (in Greek mythology) a fire-breathing female monster with a lion's head, a goat's body, and a serpent's tail.
  2. a thing that is hoped or wished for but in fact is illusory or impossible to achieve.
  3. an organism containing a mixture of genetically different tissues, formed by processes such as fusion of early embryos, grafting, or mutation.
  4. a cartilaginous marine fish with a long tail, an erect spine before the first dorsal fin, and typically a forward projection from the snout.

gideon

"lumberjack in Hebrew"

  1. an early Hebrew hero noted for his defeat of the Midianites
  2. a member of an interdenominational organization whose activities include the placing of Bibles in hotel rooms

terracotta

"type of earthenware, is a clay-based unglazed or glazed ceramic"

  1. a glazed or unglazed fired clay used especially for statuettes and vases and architectural purposes (as for roofing, facing, and relief ornamentation)
  2. a brownish orange

cronostase

"where the second hand of an analog clock appears to stay still for longer than normal when looking at it for the first time"

  1. is a type of temporal illusion in which the first impression following the introduction of a new event or task-demand to the brain can appear to be extended in time

ziggurat

"a type of massive pyramidal structure"

  1. an ancient Mesopotamian temple tower consisting of a lofty pyramidal structure built in successive stages with outside staircases and a shrine at the top

mise en abyme

"self-reflection in a literary work, a work of art, etc."

  1. placement at the escutcheon's center
  2. depiction of the escutcheon itself within an escutcheon
  3. image within an image
  4. story within a story

caesious

"from latin caesius, probably from caelum (sky)."

  1. bluish or grayish green

senesce

"growing and senescing leaves"

  1. to grow old
  2. wither

bafflegab

"unintelligible jargon"

  1. Obscure, pompous, or incomprehensible language, such as bureaucratic jargon.

obdormition

"there is a word even for what comes after obdormition: paresthesia"

  1. numbness of an extremity due to pressure on the sensory nerve.

apollo

"he is an Apollo, filled with goodness and innocence."

  1. a strikingly handsome young man.

vagrant

"outsider."

  1. one who has no established residence and wanders idly from place to place without lawful or visible means of support
  2. one (such as a prostitute or drunkard) whose conduct constitutes statutory vagrancy
  3. WANDERER, ROVER
  4. an animal wandering outside its normal geographic range

metonymy

"the word crown to refer to monarchy."

  1. a figure of speech in which someone or something is referred to by the name of something associated.

homeoteleuton

"the ‘b’ rhyme in the first stanza is more homeoteleuton than true rhyme."

  1. a repetition of the same or similar endings in a sequence of words.

basilect

"the constant babble of thousands of beings speaking hundreds of languages, patois, pidgin, and favored dialects blended together to create a rich basilect brew"

  1. the least prestigious variety of a language.

heterophemy

"Hyacinth’s nervousness results in a classic case of heterophemy: his disrupted mental condition leads him ‘to speak without thinking'."

  1. the use of a word different from the one intended.

malapropism

“dance a flamingo (instead of flamenco ).”

  1. the mistaken use of a word in place of a similar-sounding one, often with unintentionally amusing effect

endonym

"Germany’s endonym is Deutschland, because that’s what Germans call their country."

  1. a name used internally to refer to a place, people, language, etc.

picaro

"from Spanish pícaro (rogue)."

  1. A rogue; an adventurer.

eidolon

"From Greek eidos (form, idea)."

  1. An idealized form.
  2. A phantom.

baedeker

"after the German publisher Karl Baedeker who founded a company that published travel guidebook."

  1. a guidebook.

zephyr

"after zephyrus, the god of the west wind in greek mythology."

  1. a wind blowing from the west.
  2. a gentle breeze.
  3. a soft and light garment, fabric, or yarn.
  4. anything having a soft, fine quality.

chosisme

"a book of short meditations on everyday objects, a contemporary exercise in happy chosisme."

  1. a literary style which focuses on description of objects, not on interpretation, plot, characterization, etc.

paremiography

"it is a sub-field of paremiology, the study of proverbs."

  1. the writing or collecting of proverbs.
  2. a collection of proverbs.

obelus

"*marks"

  1. a sign (- or ÷) used in ancient manuscripts to indicate a spurious or doubtful word or passage.
  2. a sign (†) used to indicate reference marks. Also known as obelisk or dagger.

daedal

"beautiful complex art."

  1. ingenious; skillful; intricate; artistic.

cenotaph

"empty tomb"

  1. a tomb or a monument erected in honor of a person or group of persons whose remains are elsewhere.

kalopsia

"beautiful illusion"

  1. the delusion of things being more beautiful than they are.

French

flâneur

"the flâneur is a vagrand, but a vagrand who reflects."

  1. an idler or lounger.
  2. wander detached from society with no other purpose than to be an acute observer of industrialized, contemporary life.

Portuguese

ermo

"inabitado, afastado e melancólico"

  1. que está só ou desacompanhado; solitário.
  2. lugar desabitado, deserto.

prolixo

"que usa palavras em excesso"

  1. que usa palavras em demasia ao falar ou escrever; que não sabe sintetizar o pensamento.
  2. cansativo por estender-se demais no tempo; que tende a arrastar-se.

inefável

"inexprimível, indizível"

  1. que não se pode nomear ou descrever em razão de sua natureza, força, beleza; indizível, indescritível.
  2. que causa imenso prazer; inebriante, delicioso, encantador.

misantropia

"aversão ao ser humano e à natureza humana no geral"

  1. ódio pela humanidade.
  2. falta de sociabilidade.

anacrônico

"contrário de moderno"

  1. que não obedece a sucessão normal do tempo; contrário à cronologia.
  2. que está em desacordo com os usos e costumes de uma época.

esbornia

"busca incessante pelo prazer e/ou pela falta de regras"

  1. festa ou encontro festivo em que predominam o hedonismo e o desregramento; farra, pândega.
  2. orgia sexual.

homúnculos

"clone, golen, cópia humanóide"

  1. homem pequeno.
  2. indivíduo insignificante e/ou de caráter mesquinho, vil.
  3. (alquimia) criação de vida humana artificial a partir de materiais inanimados.
  4. (psicologia) é a representação diagramática proporcional do corpo animal em relação às partes destes, representadas no córtex somestésico e motor.

triáde

"três coisas"

  1. Designação de conjunto composto por três indivíduos, três objetos ou três deuses; trio, trilogia ou trindade;
  2. (Música) Denominação atribuída a acorde constituído por um trio de notas;
  3. (Botânica) Grupo composto por três órgãos idênticos;
  4. (Literatura) Designação de criação pertencente à lírica grega segmentada em três partes distintas (denominadas por estrofe, antístrofe e epodo).