Excellent Words
Long words, excellent words
I can hear them now
~ Peter Gabriel - This is the Picture
Being a non-native English speaker, I'm always striving to expand my foreign vocabulary by collecting various interesting words/phrases from books and other reading/listening materials. I usually write them down in a personal notebook and gradually move them to this page.
C
Carceral: relating to a prison. You probably know a similar word: ,,incarceration''.
Circumvolution: A winding movement, especially of one thing round another.
Cloister: Klasztor.
Collective Effervescence: Spontaneus participation in the same action.
Confinement: Imprisonment, restraint, restriction.
D
De Jure: Practices, which are legally recognized.
Defenestration: The act of throwing someone or something out of a window.
Defunct: Zmarły, zlikwidowany (?).
Deterrence: Odstraszenie.
F
Fulcrum: The point on which a lever turns or is supported. The most important part of an activity or a situation.
G
Gestalt: From German: shape, figure, form.
H
Hapax Legomenon: a word with a special meaning used for a special occasion/a word or an expression that occurs only once within a context.
I
Incessant: Continual, unceasing, permanent, perpetual.
L
Liminality: todo: write.
Locus: The place where something happens or the central area of interest in something.
Languid: Lacking force or quickness of movement.
M
Merveilles: French word for wonders/miracles.
Modus vivendi: Way of life - coexistance of conflicting parties.
N
Noblesse oblige: Szlachectwo zobowiązuje.
Non sequitur: Błąd formalny.
P
Persona non grata: person not welcome (in some place, institution).
Petrichor: Specific ,,earthy'' scent produced when rain falls on dry soil.
Putrefaction: Rot, decay.
Pyrrhic victory: victory that inflicts such a devastating toll on the victor that it is tantamount to defeat.
Portmanteau: Blend word, a word formed by combining sounds and meanings of two or more words.
R
Raison d'être: Purpose for existence.
Rejuvenate: To make younger.
Rhizome: A nonlinear network that ,,connects any point to any other point'', used to describe concepts such as structures of language and knowledge, social relationships, etc. Used in opposition to hierarchical models.
Reverie: A state of thinking about pleasant things, almost as though you are dreaming. Daydreaming..
S
Semantic Satiation: Psychological phenomenon in which repetition causes a word or phrase to temporarily lose meaning for the listener, who then perceives the speech as repeated meaningless sounds.
Subterfuge: Fraud, deception, swindle.
Subversive: Rebelling against authority/governement/tradition/etc.
Sybarite: A person who is self-indulgent in their fondness for sensuous luxury.
Synesthesia: Perceptual phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory leads to involuntary experiences in a second sensory.
Schlaraffenland: A land of plenty in medieval myth, an imaginary place of extreme luxury.
Salient: Something that projects outward or upward from its surroundings.
Sonification: Sonification is the use of non-speech audio to convey information or perceptualize data.
T
Tantrum: Intense emotional outburst. Commonly used wording: temper tantrum.
V
Veritable: Real, true, authentic, very.
Y
Yakamoz: Turkish word, meaning 'the reflection of moonlight on water'.
Similar lists lists: