kodawari (拘り) or (こだわり): obsession, fixation, hangup, determination, fastidiousness, pickiness about (trait, style, etc.) Think: Ahab, White Whales, monomania, dissertations. It’s also related to a passion for ramen (sidenote: this is where I get my ramen), which is not unrelated. Apparently ramen only became a major American culinary obsession in the mid-1990s, and took off when Momofuku opened in 2004. Before that time, […]

lucubrate (v)

From Latin lūcubrātus, perfect passive participle of lūcubrō (“work by candlelight”), from lūx (“light”). “To burn the midnight oil.” “To make a deadline.” lucubrate (third-person singular simple present lucubrates, present participle lucubrating, simple past and past participle lucubrated) (rare) To work diligently by artificial light; to study at night. 1991 December, K. Boo, “The organization woman”, in The Washington Monthly, volume 23, issue 12, page 44: Instead, as Oklahoma’s tenure committee lucubrated over Hill’s future, […] To work […]

parergon

1. A piece of work that is supplementary to or a byproduct of a larger work. 2. Something that is an accessory to a main work or subject; embellishment. 3. Work undertaken in addition to one’s principal work.” Read as: deadly distraction. Life-threatening. MENACE. Read also as: side-job, paramour, passion project, sidechick. (also might get […]

plenary (n)

related: colloquium, workshop, symposium. This is a placeholder post, I’ll return to this later.

ultracrepidarianism (n)

Ultracrepidarianism is the habit of giving opinions and advice on matters outside of one’s knowledge. Cf. “bloviating”; Cf. “mansplaining”; Cf. “fundamentally“; Cf. “thought-try” Cf. “Marxist Glam” Cf. “prolix” Etymology (Wiki): The term ultracrepidarian was first publicly recorded in 1819 by the essayist William Hazlitt in an open letter to William Gifford, the editor of the […]

decathect (v)

The word of the day for Dictionary.com, January 16, 2018. to withdraw one’s feelings of attachment from (a person, idea, or object), as in anticipation of a future loss: He decathected from her in order to cope with her impending death. Related to imposter syndrome. Decathect is an extremely rare word in English, used only in Freudian psychology. It is formed from the common prefix de-, signifying privation or removal, and the very rare verb cathect “to invest emotional energy.” Cathectis a derivative of the adjective cathectic (from Greek kathektikόs “capable of holding or retaining”), from the noun káthexis “holding, possession,retention.” The English noun cathexis is an arcane translation or partial translation of Sigmund Freud’s Besetzung, a common, ordinary word in German meaning “(military) occupation, cast (of a play),” from the verb besetzen “to occupy, stock, fill.” Decathect entered English in the 20th century.

haecceity (n)

Latin: “thisness” From Wikipedia: “Haecceity” (/hɛkˈsiːɪti, hiːk-/; from the Latin haecceitas, which translates as “thisness”) is a term from medieval scholastic philosophy, first coined by followers of Duns Scotus to denote a concept that he seems to have originated: the discrete qualities, properties or characteristics of a thing that make it a particular thing. Haecceity […]

autological (adj.)

From German autologisch, from Ancient Greek αὐτός (autós, “self”) + λόγος (lógos, “word”). An autological word (also called homological word or autonym) is a word that expresses a property that it also possesses (e.g. the word “short” is short, “noun” is a noun, “English” is English, “pentasyllabic” has five syllables, “word” is a word). The […]

paradigm (n)

Very commonly “paradigm shift” or “paradigmatically.” The OED provides us many definitions, for example: “A conceptual or methodological model underlying the theories and practices of a science or discipline at a particular time; (hence) a generally accepted world view.” and “paradigm shift n. a conceptual or methodological change in the theory or practice of a […]

farniente (n)

French for idleness, or literally, do-nothing. Originally from Rousseau, who rejoices in idleness, or his “precious far niente.” Heinrich Meier in On the Happiness of the Philosophic Life, claims the phrase “refers to an activity of a unique sort… a ‘delightful and necessary pursuit of a man who has devoted himself to idleness.” Meier notes that Rousseau’s first use […]

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Evander Price

a waystation of thought-tries

Dead White Men

Pale Blue Dot – Carl Sagan (Review)

Norman Mailer’s Lego Utopia

William Empson – 7 Types of Ambiguity

Richard Henry Dana – Two Years Before the Mast

Piet Hein’s Squircle

Methinks we are too much like oysters..

Leo Steinberg: Other Criteria

John Andrew Rice: Rector of Black Mountain College

Josef Albers as Teacher

John Erskine – "The Moral Obligation to Be Intelligent"

Manhatta

Lionel Trilling: Kindred Spirit