Hamartia ...(n.) a tragic or fatal flaw that leads to one's downfall.

Mumpsimus ...(n.) a belief that one continues to hold despite all evidence that shows it is not true

subterfuge ...(n.) deceit, evasion or trickery used to achieve a goal

Hamartia ...(n.) a severe flaw or error in judgement that leads to a person's downfall "... And it is the nature of a hamartia that you can’t see it coming. You think, 'Man, this is great, I’m going up forever!' ... you reach the top and you start the descent." -John Greene

scurrilous ... (adj.) meant to attack one's integrity or defame. (as in scurrilous rumors, scurrilous comments, scurrilous social media posts, etc...)

Panoply ...(n.) a large and impressive collection of things (literal or figurative) "Why did the night withhold its panoply of sounds?" -David Wroblewski, The Story of Edgar Sawtelle

Compathy ...(n.) feelings that are shared between or among people (compathy is to share the feeling...empathy is to try to understand the feeling)

otiose ... (adj) serves no purpose. useless. “Belief is otiose; reality is sufficiently awesome as it stands.” -Martin Amis in the Second Plane

Adynaton ...(n.) a hyperbole that is so extreme it can never happen; or when a gross exaggeration becomes exaggerated enough to get a new name.

Intransigent ...(adj.) unwilling to change your mind, stubborn to a fault "Do not lose your knowledge that man's proper estate is an upright posture, an intransigent mind and a step that travels unlimited roads..." -Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

Obsimath ...(n.) a person who begins learning later in life

badinage ...(noun) witty banter "...playful warfare of badinage..." -Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin

aposiopesis ...breaking off in the middle of a sentence, usually due to emotion. "I'll get you, or else..."

Corybantic ...(adj.) wild and spirited ..cage me and i d go frantic my life is so romantic capricious and corybantic... -Song of Mehitabel by Don Marquis

lassitude ...Weariness. Lack of mental or physical energy. "A deadly lassitude had taken hold of him." -1984, George Orwell

Talion ...an eye-for-an-eye...a tweet-for-a-tweet

Sempiternal ...everlasting, eternal, unchanging "The one thing which we seek with insatiable desire is to forget ourselves, to be surprised out of our propriety, to lose our sempiternal memory and to do something without knowing how or why; in short, to draw a new circle." -R.W. Emerson

Maligner ...back-stabber. Someone who attacks another person's reputation with lies.

Contumelious ...intentionally rude or insulting "...scoffs and scorns and contumelious taunts..." Shakespeare, Henry VI.

Existential dread ...the anxiety that comes from life not being what we expected, hoped or knew it to be “Do you believe we are masters of ourselves or merely dance like puppets on strings having the illusion of independence?” -Winston Graham

Crossing the Rubicon ...passing a point from which one can't turn back From the Rubicon River in Italy. Julius Cesar defiantly crossed it and started a civil war (that he won).

brumous ...very foggy or misty "The skies are brumous, silver-gray, And haunt the world with soft delay." -George Sterling

Bibliophilia ...a love of books abibliophobia ...a fear of running out of books or reading materials. (A more recently coined term, not in dictionaries.)

illeism ...talking (or thinking) about yourself in the third person. Can help a person be self-reflective, but can also make you sound like a kindergarten teacher

Phantasmagoria ...a constantly changing sequence of lights and images that make a scene, like in a dream or nightmare. A hallucination or a mental montage. Comes from lantern shows depicting ghosts and other optical illusions with lanterns during the Victorian era

tergiversation ...(n.) beat around the bush... statements that avoid or obscure the truth.

Zeitgebers ...environmental or external cues to your body's circadian rhythm; like light, temperature, meal times, etc. Light is the strongest.

Peripatetic ...someone who likes to walk from place to place. Someone who travels around, especially for work. Itinerant. From Greek, for walking up and down the hallways. Refers to Aristotle teaching while walking with his students. He founded the Peripatetic School.

World Obesity Day and World Pancake Day align today. it's an international dilemma.

Logodaedalian (or Logodaedalus) ... a person who is skilled at coining, playing with or using words

The American government interned 120,000 Japanese Americans in rustic camps during WW2 and convinced the public they were a threat. Many lost everything and some were US citizens. Not a single case of spying by a Japanese American was ever found.

"Mr. Trump, you are increasing the volume of your voice but not the logic of your argument." ...President Zelensky

A German word for being embarrassed by the actions of someone else is Fremdscham, or “foreign shame.” A similar word from Icelandic is aulahrollur, which is quite tricky to translate but basically means something along the lines of “cringe quake” or “douchebag chills”

Solipsistic ...self-centered. Based on the philosophy that one's own mind is all they can know exists.

Venal ...easy to bribe. Corrupt. From Latin 'thing for sale' ....such as your soul (my addition)

pusillanimous ...(adj.) cowardly, weak, scared. Refers more to a personality than a particular action. From Latin for very small mind

Gormandizer ...someone who eats greedily or too much

Pulchritudinous ...physically beautiful (even though the word feels oddly ugly)

stalwart ...(n.) a person who is strong, courageous, loyal and hardworking.

Languorous vs. Languid ...Languorous (adj.) a usually pleasant type of tiredness and inactivity, like laying in a hammock on a summer day ...Languid (adj.) Unmoving or slow due to depression, illness or exhaustion From the same Latin verb

Don't Hesitate by Mary Oliver If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don’t hesitate. Give in to it. There are plenty of lives and whole towns destroyed or about to be. We are not wise, and not very often kind. And much can never be redeemed...1/3

lucubrate ...to write or study; especially at night

Ruderal ...a type of plant that starts to grow in places humans have taken over, like sidewalk cracks, or after distasters like forest fires and volcanic eruptions. It feels like a nice metaphor for hope

tergiversate ...to be evasive ...to desert a cause or political party From Latin, 'to turn's ones back on'

Pangloss ...(n.) someone who is optimistic despite evidence that it is unwarranted

Graft ...(n.) corruption, bribery and other types of illicit behaviors used to get what is not rightfully yours. Can also be used as a verb to describe the same behavior

Mind-boggling First used in 1955 in a book by Eric Fromm. Boggle describes the jerky movement horses make when startled or overwhelmed.

Quidnunc ...someone that is nosy. A busybody. From Latin for 'what now?'

1984 quote for 2025 "Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing."

eunoia ...reciprocal goodwill; especially between a speaker and an audience. Greek, for 'beautiful thinking'