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, pernament, 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.
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.
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'.
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