word of the day: weltgeist

The word of the day is weltgeist:

German: world spirit (http://translation.babylon.com/german/to-english/)

"You’ll read “Orlando,” because you heard it has a sex-changing time-traveller in it. Your English teacher will tell you witheringly that, for that reason, it’s very minor Woolf. Give it a few years. The movie will come out, and his opinion will look foolish and rote. You know and I know that your minor vanguardism wasn’t planned, but there’s no harm in being pleased by this unlikely Weltgeist, this Cunning of Geekdom."

 - China Miéville, "Forward thinking", 4 & 11 June 2012 The New Yorker

word of the day: infra dig

The word of the day is infra dig:

Etymology:  Colloquial abbreviation of Latin infrā dignitātem beneath (one's) dignity: the source of the expression is obscure.

Beneath one's dignity; unbecoming one's position; not consistent with dignity; undignified. (OED)

"You can be insular, too, in truth—it wouldn’t kill you to start reading and appreciating some non-S.F. There can be a philistinism within this field that is philistinely denounced as infra dig."

 - China Miéville, "Forward thinking", 4 & 11 June 2012 The New Yorker

word of the day: quiddity

The word of the day is quiddity:

Etymology:  < Middle French quiddité (14th cent.; French quiddité ) and its etymon post-classical Latin quidditas (12th cent.; frequently from 13th cent. in British sources) < classical Latin quid (see quid n.¹) + -itās -ity suffix.

 1.a. Chiefly Philos. The inherent nature or essence of a person or thing; what makes a thing what it is. (OED)

"No matter how rumpty-tum her diction, nothing can domesticate the freakish Land of Topsy-Turvy, dilute the glacial awe of the Land of Ice and Snow, or still the fear invoked by the fucking Land of Smack—an entire world whose quiddity is pain."


 - China Miéville, "Forward thinking", 4 & 11 June 2012 The New Yorker

word of the day: rumptytum

The word of the day is rumptytum:

 

Etymology:  Imitative of the sound of a drum roll.

A. int.  Used as a meaningless refrain or to represent a regular rhythmic sound.  

B. n.  Rhythmic repetitiveness, esp. in music or verse; an instance of this.  

C. adj.  Esp. of music or verse: repetitive, trivial, commonplace.

"No matter how rumpty-tum her diction, nothing can domesticate the freakish Land of Topsy-Turvy, dilute the glacial awe of the Land of Ice and Snow, or still the fear invoked by the fucking Land of Smack—an entire world whose quiddity is pain."


 - China Miéville, "Forward thinking", 4 & 11 June 2012 The New Yorker

word of the day: alterity

The word of the day is alterity:

 

Etymology:  < Middle French alterité (French altérité ) state of being different, otherness (a1481, subsequently from 1697; 1270 in Old French in a philosophical context in sense ‘change, alteration’) or its etymon post-classical Latin alteritat-, alteritas state of being different, otherness (4th cent.) < classical Latin alter other (see alter n.) + -itās -ity suffix, after ancient Greek ἑτερότης. 

The fact or state of being other or different; diversity, difference, otherness; an instance of this. (OED)

"You’ll come to realize why Blyton is a controversial figure (for entirely understandable reasons, such as her use of racist terms and figures like the golliwog), but what strikes you at this first reading is the disparity between her tone of comfortable and sedate fabulism and the shocking alterity she depicts."


 - China Miéville, "Forward thinking", 4 & 11 June 2012 The New Yorker

word of the day: irruption

The word of the day is irruption:

 

Etymology:  < Latin irruptiōn-em, n. of action < irrump-ĕre 

1. The action of bursting or breaking in; a violent entry, inroad, incursion, or invasion, esp. of a hostile force or tribe. spec. An abrupt local increase in the numbers of a species of animals.

2. Confused with eruption n.  (OED)

"Several early pages are taken up by a musical score, but Chapter 13 is the revelation. It is structured by Jack Gaughan’s full-page illustrations, around and through which words must find their way. The images are the engine, organizing what language there is, invoking awe and, on the last page, an irruption of sudden textless terror. This is how you’ll discover modernism and its typographical games—not through concrete poetry but in this nastily visionary S.F. dystopia."


 - China Miéville, "Forward thinking", 4 & 11 June 2012 The New Yorker

word of the day: numinous

The word of the day is numinous:

Etymology:  < classical Latin nūmin-, nūmen numen n. + -ous suffix.

1.a. Of or relating to a numen; revealing or indicating the presence of a divinity; divine, spiritual. Also as n.

 b. In extended use: giving rise to a sense of the spiritually transcendent; (esp. of things in art or the natural world) evoking a heightened sense of the mystical or sublime; awe-inspiring. Also as n.

 2. Psychol. Relating to the experience of the divine as awesome or terrifying; designating that which governs the subject outside his or her own will. Also as n. Cf. numinosum n.  (OED)

"This is where you learn the vertigo of knowing something a protagonist doesn’t. For you, the tradition of the glimpsed numinous starts here."

 - China Miéville, "Forward thinking", 4 & 11 June 2012 The New Yorker

word of the day: batrachian

The word of the day is batrachian:

Etymology:  prop. batrachīa, modern Latin, < Greek βατράχεια (sc. ζῳ̑α animals), neuter plural of βατράχειος, adj. < βάτραχος frog.

A. adj.  Of or pertaining to the Batrachia, esp. frogs and toads.
B. n.  An animal of the order Batrachia.  (OED)


"Your dapper batrachian hero sits on his lily pad."

 - China Miéville, "Forward thinking", 4 & 11 June 2012 The New Yorker