Qareens

Qareens, according to Islamic literature, are spirits. Qareens are unique to each individual. Qareen literally means 'constant companion'. The companion can be either good or evil.

Psychomachia

The Psychomachia (Battle for Mansoul) by the Late Antique Latin poet Prudentius is probably the first and most influential "pure" medieval allegory, the first in a long tradition of works as diverse as the Romance of the Rose, Everyman, and Piers Plowman.

In slightly less than a thousand lines, the poem describes the conflict of vices and virtues as a battle in the style of Virgil's Aeneid. Christian faith is attacked by and defeats pagan idolatry to be cheered by a thousand Christian martyrs.

Augurine

Augurine is not really a word, but I think it would be a good word for the little angels and demons that appear on a character's shoulder in a cartoon to give either good or bad guidance, known as a shoulder angel. It's a portmanteau of Augur, a priest who studied omens and gave guidance, and figurine.

Dämmerung

Dämmerung:

The German word for twilight.

Verfremdungseffekt

The distancing effect (German: Verfremdungseffekt) is a theatrical and cinematic device coined by playwright Bertolt Brecht "which prevents the audience from losing itself passively and completely in the character created by the actor, and which consequently leads the audience to be a consciously critical observer." Brecht's term describes the aesthetics of his epic theatre.

The term of Verfremdungseffekt is rooted in the Russian Formalist notion of the device of making strange or "priem ostranenie", which literary critic Viktor Shklovsky claims is the essence of all art. Not long after seeing a performance by Mei Lanfang's company in Moscow in the spring of 1935, Brecht coined the German term to label an approach to theater that discouraged involving the audience in an illusory narrative world and in the emotions of the characters. Brecht thought the audience required an emotional distance to reflect on what is being presented in critical and objective ways, rather than being taken out of themselves as conventional entertainment attempts to do.

The proper English translation of Verfremdungseffekt is a matter of controversy. The word is sometimes rendered as defamiliarization effect, estrangement effect, distantiation, alienation effect, or distancing effect. In Brecht and Method, Fredric Jameson abbreviates Verfremdungseffekt as "the V-effekt"; many scholars similarly leave the word untranslated.

octopodes

British plural form of octopus.

Khoikhoi

The Khoikhoi ("people people" or "real people") or Khoi, in standardised Khoekhoe/Nama orthography spelled Khoekhoe, are a historical division of the Khoisan ethnic group, the native people of southwestern Africa, closely related to the Bushmen (or San, as the Khoikhoi called them). They had lived in southern Africa since the 5th century AD. When European immigrants colonized the area in 1652, they practised extensive pastoral agriculture in the Cape region, with large herds of Nguni cattle. The European immigrants labeled them Hottentots, in imitation of the sound of the Khoisan languages, but this term is today considered derogatory.

DXing

DXing is the hobby of tuning in and identifying distant radio or television signals, or making two way radio contact with distant stations in amateur radio, citizens' band radio or other two way radio communications. Many DXers also attempt to receive written verifications of reception (sometimes referred to as "QSLs" or "veries") from the stations heard. The name of the hobby comes from DX, telegraphic shorthand for "distance" or "distant".

Ruthian

Ruthian, From "Babe" Ruth, holder of the record for number of home runs in a season from 1919 to 1961, and for home runs in a career from 1921 to 1974.

Goy

Goy (Hebrew: גוי‎, regular plural goyim גוים or גויים) is a Hebrew biblical term for "nation". By Roman times it had also acquired the meaning of "non-Jew". The latter is also its meaning in Yiddish.

Brachiation (from "brachium", Latin for "arm") is a form of arboreal locomotion in which primates swing from tree limb to tree limb using only their arms.

Gerund

Gerund: a verbal that ends in -ing and functions as a noun.

Michelada

The Michelada or cerveza preparada is a term loosely defining a Mexican alcoholic beverage made with beer, lime juice and assorted sauces, spices, peppers, tomato juices or Clamato. It is served in a chilled salt rimmed glass. There are numerous variations of the beverage throughout Mexico and Latin America. A common variation includes Clamato or Tomato juice.

Topsite

Topsite is a term used by the warez scene to refer to high-speed FTP servers used by release groups and couriers for distribution, storage and archiving of warez releases. Topsites have very high-bandwidth Internet connections, commonly supporting transfer speeds of hundreds to thousands of megabits per second; enough to transfer a full DVD in minutes. Topsites also have very high storage capacity; a total of many terabytes is typical.

Standardization

Standardization or standardisation is the process of developing and agreeing upon technical standards. A standard is a document that establishes uniform engineering or technical specifications, criteria, methods, processes, or practices.

Homeopathy

Homeopathy (also spelled homoeopathy or homœopathy) is a form of alternative medicine, first proposed by German physician Samuel Hahnemann in 1796, that attempts to treat patients with heavily diluted preparations.

calumny

calumny

1. a falsification or misrepresentation intended to disparage or discredit another.
2. false charges brought about to tarnish another's reputation or standing.

Kalopsia

Kalopsia:

The delusion of things being more beautiful than they are.

cavil

to jest

Antinomianism

Antinomianism (from the Greek ἀντί, "against" + νόμος, "law"), is a belief originating in Christian theology that faith alone, not obedience to religious law, is necessary for salvation.

quandary

quandary (plural quandaries)

1. A state of not knowing what to decide; a state of difficulty or perplexity; a state of uncertainty, hesitation or puzzlement; a pickle; a predicament.
2. A dilemma, a difficult decision or choice.

Apostrophe

Apostrophe (Greek ἀποστροφή, apostrophé, "turning away") is an exclamatory rhetorical figure of speech, when a speaker or writer breaks off and directs speech to an imaginary person or abstract quality or idea. In dramatic works and poetry written in or translated into English, such a figure of speech is often introduced by the exclamation "O".

Gadiformes

Gadiformes is an order of ray-finned fish, also called the Anacanthini, that includes the cod and its allies. Many major food fish are in this order. They are found in marine waters throughout the world, and there are also a small number of freshwater species.

American exceptionalism

American exceptionalism is the theory that the United States occupies a special niche among the nations of the world in terms of its national credo, historical evolution, political and religious institutions, and its being built by immigrants.

Galaxiidae

The Galaxiidae, also known by the anglicized name as galaxiids, are a family of mostly small freshwater fish in the southern hemisphere. The majority of species live in Australia or New Zealand, some are also found in South Africa, South America, Lord Howe Island, New Caledonia and the Falkland Islands. One of the galaxiid species, the common galaxias (Galaxias maculatus), is probably the most widely naturally distributed freshwater fish in the world. They are cool water species, found in temperate latitudes, with only one species known from sub-tropical habitat. Many specialise in living in cold, high altitude upland rivers, streams and lakes.

Biogeography

Biogeography is the study of the distribution of biodiversity over space and time. It aims to reveal where organisms live, and at what abundance. As writer David Quammen put it, "...biogeography does more than ask Which species? and Where. It also asks Why? and, what is sometimes more crucial, Why not?." The patterns of species distribution across geographical areas can usually be explained through a combination of historical factors such as speciation, extinction, continental drift, glaciation (and associated variations in sea level, river routes, and so on), and river capture, in combination with the area and isolation of landmasses (geographic constraints) and available energy supplies.

oscillograph

An oscillograph is an instrument for measuring alternating or varying electric current in terms of current and voltage.

Holography

Holography (from the Greek, ὅλος hólos whole + γραφή grafē writing, drawing) is a technique that allows the light scattered from an object to be recorded and later reconstructed so that it appears as if the object is in the same position relative to the recording medium as it was when recorded. The image changes as the position and orientation of the viewing system changes in exactly the same way as if the object were still present, thus making the recorded image (hologram) appear three dimensional.

The technique of holography can also be used to optically store, retrieve, and process information. While holography is commonly used to display static 3-D pictures, it is not yet possible to generate arbitrary scenes by a holographic volumetric display.

bergschrund

A bergschrund is a crevasse that forms where the moving glacier ice separates from the stagnant ice above. It is often a serious obstacle for mountaineers, who sometimes abbreviate "bergschrund" to "schrund".

In a corrie or cirque, the bergschrund is positioned at the rear, parallel to the back wall of the corrie. It is caused by the rotational movement of the glacier. In a longitudinal glacier, the bergschrund is at the top end of the glacier at a right angle to the flow of the glacier. It is caused by the downwards flow of the glacier.

Crimp

A crimp is a type of humorous a cappella nonsense song, sung in a scat style featuring lyrics characterized by non-sequiturs that are rhythmically similar to beatboxing. A true crimp is often sung about a single event that happened to one or both of the crimpers, and usually can only be entirely understood by them and in this way it is very personal. Crimp is more than just a song, it often sports a small performance of hand gestures and pantomimes performed in sync with the music as well as all other crimpers.

Crimping was created by comedians Noel Fielding and Julian Barratt. The term crimping was first coined in "The Power Of The Crimp" episode 3 of The Mighty Boosh in season three. Originally they did not want to name it. However, after fan reaction, they decided to do so and have an episode about it. The name was derived from the word Krumping.

Crimp is rhythmically related to puirt a beul and beatboxing. Unlike beatboxing and scat, crimp contains lyrics bearing a similarity to puirt a beul in the sense that the rhythm is more important than the words themselves. Two features that particularly distinguish a crimp from similar styles are that:

(A) A crimp must be a cappella, and

(B) It must be sung by two or more people in synchrony.