Archive
Category: Words
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pleonasm
noun The use of more words than necessary to describe something. Often tautological. “The two of them are both the same” is a pleonasm, as is “killed dead”. Read more →
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grammatolatry
noun The worship of words or letters. An avid reader, John was as prone to grammatolatry as anyone. Read more →
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parisology
noun the deliberate use of equivocal or ambiguous terms Lawyers are masters of the art of parisology. Read more →
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catachresis
noun strained or paradoxical use of words either in error (as `blatant’ to mean ‘flagrant’) or deliberately (as in a mixed metaphor: ‘blind mouths’) Alexander Pope’s Peri Bathous, Or the Art of Sinking in Poetry: “Masters of this [Catachresis] will say, Mow the beard, Shave the grass, Pin the plank, Nail my sleeve. From whence… Read more →
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endonym
EHN-doh-nim noun A name used by a community to refer to itself or its language, as distinct from a name given to them by outsiders. Deutschen is an endonym of the people known in English as German and Mapuche is an endonym of the people known to outsiders as Araucanios. Antonym: exonym. Read more →
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exonym
EK-soh-nim noun 1. A name used by foreigners for a place, as Florence for Firenze. 2. A name used by foreigners to refer to a people or social group that the group itself does not use, as Germans for Deutsche. Synonym: xenonym. Antonym: endonym. Vienna is an exonym of Wien. Read more →
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autocephaly
/ˈɔtəˌsɛfəli/ noun 1. Having its own head; independent of episcopal or patriarchal jurisdiction, as certain Eastern European churches. 2. Subordinate to no superior authority; self-governing. From the Greek kephalos meaning ‘head’ (ie, self-headed). Cf autonomous, from nomos, menaing ‘law’ (ie, self-legislated). The Orthodox Church in America was granted autocephaly by the Patriarch of Moscow in… Read more →
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pari passu
PAIR-ee-PASS-oo; PAIR-ih-PASS-oo, adverb At an equal pace or rate. What are the rights in respect of voting attached to [a class of shares] … which are to be unalterable save with the necessary consents of the holders? The only right of voting which is attached in terms to the shares of that class is the… Read more →
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calumny
KAL-uhm-nee, noun 1. A false accusation of a crime or offence, intended to injure another’s reputation. 2. Malicious misrepresentation; slander. Be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow // thou shalt not escape calumny. (Shakespeare, Hamlet) Read more →
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persiflage
PUR-suh-flahzh, noun Frivolous or bantering talk; a frivolous manner of treating any subject, whether serious or otherwise; light raillery. From the Latin sibilare, ‘to hiss (at), to whistle’. Spare me your unrelenting persiflage, Jim! Read more →