Vocab Flashcards
Perfidy
Treacherousness, faithlessness. In war, raising the white flag to deceive and breaking truces.
Palimpsest
A manuscript that has been written on more than once; reused paper
Anschaulichkeit
Visualization through pictures or mechanical models
Anschauung
Intuition gained from pictures or past visualization
Thema
Thesis
Corpuscular
Pertaining to small particles.
Corpuscles
Small particles.
Inchoate
In beginning stages; imperfectly formed; undeveloped
Phantasmagoria
A fantastic sequence of loosely associated events or scenes. Feverish association as if a dream.
prägnanz
The law of simplicity; the brain’s tendency to simplify complex shapes into intuitive components. Freud.
Perfunctory
Done routinely and with little care.
Cathexis
Nexus of emotional investment.
Opprobium
Something that brings disgrace
Polemic
A deliberately controversial argument; a tactic used to deliberately undermine the opponent.
Abrogate
To abolish by decree or official act
Concomitant
Contemporary; attendant
Fifth column
A clandestine subversive organization working within a country to further an invading enemy’s military and political aims.
la mission civilisatrice
The rationale for imperialism describing a policy of ‘education’ or ‘Westernization’ towards natives.
Vivication
Level of vitality; awakeness
Opprobium
Disgrace from shameful conduct.
Quisling
A traitor
Kissingen Dictation
Otto von Bismarck’s dictation asserting fear of secret coalitions and the goal to form alliances with adjacent European powers.
ff.
A notation used in older books. A citation from the book itself.
Civis Romanus sum
“I am a Roman citizen”. A quote from Cicero calling for special Roman rights.
Parataxis
A pitched battle.
Desultory
Moving from one thing to another, disconnected, sporadic and random.
Katalepsis
Possession; the moment when terror takes over the mind
Arosis
Harrowing; a flurry of insults designed to harangue
Andreia
Manly valor
Krypteia
Secret society sp. Spartan.
ius ad bellum
Justification for war
Casus foederis
Reason for alliance
Abjure
To repudiate
Belles lettres
“Beautiful words”- writing that is an end to itself.
Nonperiel
Unrivaled
Jouissance
The painful result of transgressing pleasure regulation. Lacan.
Objet petit a
The unattainable object of desire. Lacan
Phreatic
Relating to or denoting underground water beyond saturation (under the water table)
Stalagmite
Floor of cave
Sine qua non
Absolutely indispensable.
Madrassah
A Muslim school for kids in Bangladesh and Pakistan
Exigency
An urgent need
Meliorism
The belief that progress can be tangible and that humans may contradict ‘the law of the animals’.
Gnosis
Knowledge
Ataraxia
Absence of fear
Epicureanism
A movement dictating that there is no higher power and that one’s best aims is to live in a state of modest pleasure.
Peremptory
(Of a person’s mannerisms) Brisk, brusque, demanding immediate attention.
Ebullient
Enthusiastic and full of energy
Amphibology
An ambiguous statement
Holon
A subassembly that is in of itself complete.
Latifunda
A large landed estate.
Seignurial
Manorial
Querie
Rural uprising
Millenerialism
The belief that there is a coming fundamental change to society.
Strident
Creaking, harsh, grating
Truculent
Defiant; quick to fight
Nominative (declension)
The subject of the sentence- that which is doing the action
Vocative (declension)
A subject being addressed - direct address
Accusative (declension)
The subject of the action. In English, we have me/him/her/us
Genitive (declension)
A noun modifying another noun indicating attributional transfer (his/hers, King’s Road)
Dative (declension)
Indicating the beneficiary of an action (Marcus got Jennifer a drink)
Ablative (declension)
Indicating motion away from something
Locative (declension)
Indicates location of something.
Voluble
Speaking fluently, easily, without stopping.
Fatuous
Silly; pointless
Placket
An opening or slit in a garment
Prurient
Having or encouraging obsessive tendencies about having sex
Jejune
Naive, superfluous, and simplistic
Oleagnous
Having properties of oil
emollient
Soft and smooth
Gelid
Icy; fridgid
Redolent
Suggestive of or reminiscent of, fragrant and sweet smelling
Urbane
Polite, elegant
Bolide
Usually a very bright meteor, but refers to any exploding body as bright as the moon.
Saturnine
Slow and gloomy
Pullutate
To sprout, germinate, or freely reproduce.
Semipiternal
Eternal
Ostler
Someone who takes care of mules, horses, or trains
Theopneustia
Breath of god
Marmoreal
Like marble
Telluric
Of the earth
Libertine
Someone who deliberately spurns social mores, especially in the sense of responsibility or sexual restraint. Hedonism as a philosophy.
Lothario
An unscrupulous seducer of women.
Misprision
Improper performance of official duty; concealment of felony by a third party; seditious conduct
Moribund
Approaching death
Catachresis
The misapplication of a word or phrase, as the use of blatant to mean flagrant; the use of a strained figure of speech.
Esurient
Hungry, ravenous, eager
Esurine
Causing hunger, eating or corroding
Salutary
Beneficial to health, wholesome
Missal
Liturgical book for the celebration of mass
Abeyance
The state of being temporarily set aside or in suspension.
Oneiric
Relating to dreams
Propitation
The act of gaining or regaining goodwill
facile
Easy; do-able
Inimical
Cold, antagonistic, acting like an enemy
Garret
Attic or watchtower, usually with steepled roof
Efface
To wipe out, erase, or render onesself invisible.
Emic and etic
Insider’s and outsider’s perspective, respectfully, used as archaeocultural study. For instance, cultural meanings vs cultural behaviors.
Extradiegetic
The part of a story that is outside the story (e.g. narrator)
Diegetic
Level of a story that has characters, plot, and action.
Metadiegetic
The ‘meta’ part of a story, a tale in a tale.
Paratext
Text around “the text” in the form of author’s notes, translation remarks, and marginalia.
Deneument
The final act of a play when the plot becomes realized, the outcome
Autocthon
Something that has not moved from where it was made; aboriginal
Endonym
A native name for a group of people. Also known as autonym.
Exonym
A non-native name for a group of people. Also known as xenonym.
Epigram
A short, concise idea expressing a single statement.
Teleology
Explanation of phenomena by the purposes they serve rather than their causes
Indigence
A state of extreme poverty
Epicure
Someone of refined taste; used to sensuous living.
Facile
Easy; superficial
Atavist
Relating to or characterized by an appeal to the ancients
euhemerize
When a historical figure is turned into a mythological figure
Anthropoathism
The attribution of human emotions to a god
Enthymeme
An argument where one’s point is not explicitly stated
Syllogism
A rhetorical statement of the structure A->B, B->C, therefore A->C.
Confute
To decisively refute.
