Platonism

Platonism is the philosophy of Plato or the name of other philosophical systems considered closely derived from it. In a narrower sense the term might indicate the doctrine of Platonic realism.



The central concept of Platonism is the Theory of Forms: the transcendent, perfect archetypes, of which objects in the everyday world are imperfect copies. The highest form is the Form of the Good, the source of all other forms, which could be known by reason. In the 3rd century BC, Arcesilaus adopted skepticism, which became a central tenet of the school until 90 BC when Antiochus added Stoic elements, rejected skepticism, and began a period known as Middle Platonism. In the 3rd century AD, Plotinus added mystical elements, establishing Neoplatonism, in which the summit of existence was the One or the Good, the source of all things; in virtue and meditation the soul had the power to elevate itself to attain union with the One. Platonism had a profound effect on Western thought, and many Platonic notions were adopted by the Christian church which understood Platonic forms as God's thoughts, whilst Neoplatonism became a major influence on Christian mysticism.

Lawa

Lawa (Lao: ລະວ້າ, Thai: ลั๊วะ or ละว้า) are an ethnic group in Laos (where they are considered among the Lao Theung) and northern Thailand. They lived there before Thai people arrived. Today they live often in their traditional way of life, often professing animism.

Chip Butty

A chip sandwich, chip barm, chip cob, chip butty, chip muffin (in British English), piece-n-chips (in Scottish English), hot chip sandwich (in Australian English), or french fry sandwich (in North American English) is a sandwich made with bread or bread roll (usually white and buttered) and chips, often with some sort of sauce such as tomato sauce (i.e. ketchup) or brown sauce.^[1] It was originally considered a working-class meal, served in pubs. The chip butty is a vegetarian-friendly dish (except when the chips are, as was traditional in a British chip shop, fried in lard or dripping).

hypohemia

hypohemia is a fictional condition afflicting Mr. Burns on The Simpsons, in which the body naturally runs out of blood. It is akin to a real condition called hypovolemia.

Burakumin

Burakumin (部落民, Literal translation: "small settlement people") are a Japanese social minority group. The burakumin are one of the main minority groups in Japan, along with the Ainu of Hokkaidō, the Ryukyuans of Okinawa and Japanese residents of Korean and Chinese descent.

The burakumin are descendants of outcast communities of the feudal era, which mainly comprised those with occupations considered "tainted" with death or ritual impurity (such as executioners, undertakers, workers in slaughterhouses, butchers or tanners), and traditionally lived in their own secluded hamlets and ghettos.

Hyperion

Hyperion (Greek Ὑπερίων, "The High-One") was one of the twelve Titan gods of Ancient Greece, which were later supplanted by the Olympians. He was the brother of Cronus. He was also the lord of light, and the titan of the east. He was the son of Gaia (the physical incarnation of Earth) and Uranus (literally meaning 'the Sky'), and was referred to in early mythological writings as Helios Hyperion (Ἥλιος Υπερίων), 'Sun High-one'.

Stahlhelm

Stahlhelm (plural, Stahlhelme) is German for "steel helmet". The Imperial German Army began to replace the traditional boiled-leather Pickelhaube (spiked combat helmet) with the Stahlhelm during World War I in 1916. The term Stahlhelm refers both to a generic steel helmet, and more specifically to the distinctive (and symbolic) German design.

perseääliö

perseääliö

Finnish: From 'perse', ass, and 'ääliö', moron. A person whose idiotic behaviour surpasses that of normal morons.

Puppetoon

Puppetoon animation is a type of replacement animation, which is itself a type of stop-motion animation. In traditional stop-motion, the puppets are made with movable parts which are repositioned between frames to create the illusion of motion when the frames are played in rapid sequence. In puppetoon animation the puppets are rigid and static pieces; each is typically used in a single frame and then switched with a separate, near-duplicate puppet for the next frame.

moiety

If a society is divided into exactly two descent groups, each is called a moiety.

Bulverism

Bulverism is a logical fallacy in which, rather than proving that an argument is wrong, a person instead assumes it is wrong, and then goes on to explain why the other person held that argument. It is essentially a circumstantial ad hominem argument. The term "Bulverism" was coined by C. S. Lewis. It is very similar to Antony Flew's "Subject/Motive Shift".

skeuomorph

A skeuomorph, pronounced /ˈskjuːəmɔrf/ SKEW-ə-morf, or skeuomorphism (Greek: skeuos—vessel or tool, morphe—shape) is a derivative object which retains ornamental design cues to a structure that was necessary in the original. Skeuomorphs may be deliberately employed to make the new look comfortably old and familiar, such as copper cladding on zinc pennies or computer printed postage with circular town name and cancellation lines.

Nabemono

Nabemono (鍋物, なべ物, nabe cooking pot + mono things, stuff, kinds) or simply called nabe, is a term referring to all varieties of Japanese steamboat dishes, also known as one pot dishes.

Asperity

Asperity, defined as "unevenness of surface, roughness, ruggedness" (OED, from the Latin asper — "rough"), has implications in physics and in seismology. Smooth surfaces, even those polished to a mirror finish, are not truly smooth on an atomic scale. They are rough, with sharp, rough or rugged projections, termed "asperities".

Tribology

Tribology is the science and engineering of interacting surfaces in relative motion. It includes the study and application of the principles of friction, lubrication and wear.

Brinelling

Brinelling refers to a material surface failure caused by contact stress that exceeds the material limit. This failure is caused by just one application of a load great enough to exceed the material limit. The result is a permanent dent or "brinell" mark. It is a common cause of roller bearing failures, and loss of preload in bolted joints when a hardened washer is not used. Engineers can use the Brinell hardness of materials in their calculations to avoid this mode of failure. A rolling element bearing's static load rating is defined to avoid this failure type.

False brinelling is damage caused by fretting, with or without corrosion, that causes imprints that look similar to brinelling, but are caused by a different mechanism. Brinell damage is characterized by permanent material deformation (without loss of material) and occurs during one load event, whereas false brinelling is characterized by material wear or removal and occurs over an extended time from vibration and light loads.

paraprosdokian

A paraprosdokian (from Greek "παρα-", meaning "beyond" and "προσδοκία", meaning "expectation") is a figure of speech in which the latter part of a sentence or phrase is surprising or unexpected in a way that causes the reader or listener to reframe or reinterpret the first part. It is frequently used for humorous or dramatic effect, sometimes producing an anticlimax. For this reason, it is extremely popular among comedians and satirists.

Some paraprosdokians not only change the meaning of an early phrase, but also play on the double meaning of a particular word, creating a syllepsis.

conurbation

A conurbation is a region comprising a number of cities, large towns, and other urban areas that, through population growth and physical expansion, have merged to form one continuous urban and industrially developed area. In most cases, a conurbation is a polycentric urban agglomeration, in which transportation has developed to link areas to create a single urban labour market or travel to work area.

Cutis

Cutis, the outermost layers of skin

Empyrean

Empyrean, from the Medieval Latin empyreus, an adaptation of the Ancient Greek, "in or on the fire (pyr)", properly Empyrean Heaven, is the place in the highest heaven, which in ancient cosmologies was supposed to be occupied by the element of fire (or aether in Aristotle's natural philosophy).

agrestal

agrestal

1. (botany) That grows wild in cultivated fields

cerebrate

cerebrate

1. To think or cogitate; especially so as to make inferences or decisions or to solve problems.

tache

tache

1. A blot, stain or smear.

duenna

du·en·na

Noun: An older woman acting as a governess and companion in charge of girls, esp. in a Spanish family; a chaperone.

bosky

bosky

1. Having abundant bushes, shrubs or trees.

pendulous

pen·du·lous/ˈpenjələs/

Adjective: Hanging down loosely.

porringer

A porringer is a small, usually pewter, dish from which Europeans and colonial Americans ate their gruel or porridge, or other soft foods.

Porringers were usually cylindrical, between 4" to 6" in diameter, and 1½" to 3" deep; they had a flat, sometimes ornately decorated handle, or sometimes two handles at opposite sides.

Otherworld

The Otherworld (orbis alia) in Celtic mythology is postulated (but not known) to be the realm of the dead, the home of the deities, or the stronghold of other spirits and beings such as the Sídhe. Tales and folklore describe it as existing over the western sea, or at other times underground (such as in the Sídhe mounds) or right alongside the world of the living, but invisible to most humans.

HAMMERSPACE

Magic satchel is a term often used in reference to computer role-playing games. It refers to the use of a character's inventory in the game, which can often contain more items than is physically possible for the character to carry (or are simply too large), without any visible means to hold or transport them.

A similar concept is hammerspace, the term used to describe the seemingly invisible place from which fictional characters, such as cartoon characters, pull out very large objects, such as mallets. The Norse god Thor's hammer Mjöllnir is described in the Prose Edda: "...when (Thor) wanted, it would be so small that it could be carried inside his tunic." Technically the term hammerspace is not used to refer to a magic satchel itself, but rather the area or pocket of space that a magic satchel utilizes; a magic satchel is like a door to hammerspace.

carillonneur

A carillon is a musical instrument that is usually housed in a free-standing bell tower, or the belfry of a church or other municipal building. The instrument consists of at least 23 cast bronze cup-shaped bells, which are played serially to play a melody, or sounded together to play a chord. A carillon is played by striking a keyboard the keys of which are sometimes called "batons" with the fists and by pressing the keys of a pedal keyboard with the feet. The keys mechanically activate levers and wires that connect to metal clappers that strike the bells, allowing the performer, the carillonneur, to vary the intensity of the note according to the force applied to the key.

impecunious

impecunious (not comparable)

1. Lacking money.