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December 14, 2008 • 1

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Grad School Vocab

the tendency to perceive meaningful connections between unrelated things. Originally invented to describe schizophrenic thought patterns, but can also be applied to conspiracy theorists, QAnon, etc. It is related to pareidolia, a type of apophenia involving the perception of images or sounds in random stimuli. A sad word, I think, in that it reflects our […]

desuetude (n)

The state of disuse. Pronounced DES-wee-tude. A very fancy way of saying “unused.” Etymology: early 17th century (in the sense ‘cessation’): from French, from Latin desuetudo, from desuet- ‘made unaccustomed’, from the verb desuescere, from de- (expressing reversal) + suescere ‘be accustomed’. A word I sort of like, because it has mnemonic de-“use”tude scrambled into the middle, and that makes the word, which […]

hypolipsos (adj)

meaning “rear end rubbed smooth,” or more simply, “buttless;” deriving from the myth of Theseus, who got his butt stuck to a cursed rock in hell, and had to leave some of it behind in the process of getting unstuck. Origin: Greek mythology. Anyonym: thicc. In a sentence: Kamala Harris spanked Pence so thoroughly in […]

adhocracy (n)

A system of government formed ad hoc, as needed, impromptu, to suite the needs of a given moment or problem. Generally unelected, adhocracies get the job done, but only when there is a job that needs doing, and generally because no one else wants to do it. A more palatable flavor of anarchy. adj. adhocratic; […]

scripturient (adj)

scripturient—possessed by a violent desire to write, incessantly. (Not a disease I have.) Related: graphomania; epeolatry; graphophilia. In early use especially: that produces an abundance of trivial or inferior writing; characterized by this.

chronophage (n)

a time-eater. tempus edax rerum literally “time eater”, from the Greek χρόνος [chronos] “time,” and εφάγον [ephagon] “I ate.” Also the name of the horrifying grasshopper escapement on the Corpus Clock: Re-discovered this word in a book review. Internet trolls are chronophages, as are social media platforms: “In these concern trolls and reply guys, Seymour’s […]

apposite (adj)

apposite (adj) – apt in the circumstances or in relation to something. An ironic word, given that it is apt to make your reader think the opposite.

Machicolation

A machicolation (French: mâchicoulis) is a floor opening between the supporting corbels of a battlement, through which stones or other material, such as boiling water or boiling cooking oil, could be dropped on attackers at the base of a defensive wall. The word derives from the Old French word machecol, mentioned in Medieval Latin as […]

jamais vu (n)

jamais vu (noun), Fr. — “Often described as the opposite of déjà vu, jamais vu involves a sense of eeriness and the observer’s impression of seeing the situation for the first time, despite rationally knowing that he or she has been in the situation before. Jamais vu is sometimes associated with certain types of aphasia, […]

Maslow’s Hammer (n)

A phrase coined by Abraham Maslow in his 1966 book The Psychology of Science where he described the phenomenon: I suppose it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail. or, more popularly “if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a […]

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