Words I Have Needed to Look Up
September 20, 2012
This post is long overdue, I think, holding myself accountable to looking up unfamiliar words in books I’ve read.
epistemology (n) a branch of philosophy that investigates the origin, nature,methods, and limits of human knowledge. I see this word all the time and have to look it up, repeatedly. I confuse it with “epistolary.”
neap tide: (n) A tide that occurs when the difference between high and low tide is least; the lowest level of high tide. Neap tide comes twice a month, in the first and third quarters of the moon. (from Have His Carcase)
neurasthenic- having a nervous breakdown, or, I gather, prone to one, or just having had one. (Describes a scholar in an article I’m reading for school.)
iterative: (adj) Repeating
Omphaloskepsis: (n) navel-gazing.
Quisby: A wretch; an idle person. doing quisby: idling, not working.
Totipotent: (adj) In biology, having the potential for developing in variousspecialized ways in response to external or internal stimuli. As seen in Island Practice.
Plethoric: (adj) Adjective of plethora. Abundant. In the context I saw, in Sherlock Holmes, it was used to describe an agent… I think, meaning big and tall and heavy.
Valetudinarian: (n) An invalid, a person who is excessively concerned with his poor health or ailments. As seen in The Sign of the Four. Sort of like a 19th century hypochondriac.
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