Sublime
An inspiration engine for ideas
agnostic : unknowable.
agoraphobia : fear of unfamiliar situations in public.
agrarian : agre = acre, of the land.
Amalthea’s horn : a myth about abundance / having everything you desire. Zeus’s nurse fed goat milk to an infant, snapped off it’s horn, and promised that Zeus will have a pampered life.
amaranth : a fadeless flower.
Amaurote : Thomas Moore
WIP definitions:
Aganippe : In Greek legend, a fountain of Boetia at the foot of Mount Helicon, dedicated to the MUSES because it imparted poetic inspiration. Hence the Muses are sometimes called Aganippides. Also the NYMPH of this fountain.
ages: Hesiod (8th century BC): golden, silver, brazen, heroic, iron (also planets) — Shakespeare's 7 ages in A
Dictionary dump (unformatted): a/an : “A was modified from the Egyptian hieroglyph representing the eagle. In Hebrew it was an ox, and in Greek it was a “symbol of a bad AUGURY in the sacrifices.” The distinction between a/an happened around the 1300s. aardvark : South African “earth pig” aaron’s serpent : “something so powerful as to swallow up mi
... See moreAllusionist 172. A Brief History of Brazilian Portuguese — The Allusionist
The Allusionisttheallusionist.org
Both Are True
botharetrue.substack.com
Two other dictionary projects: The Devil’s Dictionary (1906) by Ambrose Pierce and The Devil’s Financial Dictionary (2016) by Jason Zweig. I’m more interested in the original; all the definitions are satirical and he wrote it over decades. It has around 1,600 words in the unabridged version.
exaptation : when a trait arises through evolution, but then is later co-opted for a different use. For example, the tongue evolved for eating, but later become fundamental for speech. The word is about surveying what exists and questions what new combinations are possible.
nickelodeon : the name of a theatre in 1888, and by 1909 it meant “motion p
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... See moreSublimity refers to a certain type of elevated language that strikes its listener with the mighty and irresistible power of a thunderbolt. A sublime passage can be heard again and again with equal pleasure.