“Paean: (Greek ‘striking’ from paiein ‘to strike’) A song or hymn of joy, exultation or praise, In ancient Greece it was an invocation (q.v.) or thanksgiving addressed to Apollo the Striker, ‘one who strikes blows in order to heal mankind.'”
Excerpted from: Cuddon, J.A. The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory. New York: Penguin, 1992.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference
Tagged philosophy/religion, poetry, term of art
“Contraction: A shortened form of a word or group of words: can’t for cannot; they’re for they are.”
Excerpted from: Strunk, William Jr., and E.B. White. The Elements of Style, Fourth Edition. New York: Longman, 2000.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference
“Lares: Household gods of the ancient Romans, usually referred to in the singular (lar), there being one lar to a household. The lares were protective, and were usually deified ancestors or heroes. The lars familiaris was the spirit of the founder of the house who, never leaving, accompanied his descendants in all their changes. See PENATES.”
Excerpted from: Murphy, Bruce, ed. Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia, Fourth Edition. New York: Harper Collins, 1996.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences
Tagged philosophy/religion
“Academy: Originally, the garden near Athens where Plato taught. Art academies developed in reaction to medieval guilds and became schools for the practical and theoretical training of artists, elevating their status in society. In baroque times they were universities of art, and they continued as powerful arbiters of taste until the end of the 19th century. Rigorous study of the human form and highly structured teaching based on classical standards characterized most academy instruction.”
Excerpted from: Diamond, David G. The Bulfinch Pocket Dictionary of Art Terms. Boston: Little Brown, 1992.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences
“II Augusta * IX Hispana * XIV Gemina * XX Valeria
The II Augusta was raised by Octavian to fight in the civil wars and won battle honors in Spain and on the German frontier before joining the army that conquered Britain in 43 AD. Despite a troubled time during Boadicea’s 60 AD rebellion, it remained one of the principal garrison legions of Britannia. The IX Hispana was raised by Pompey, fought under both Caesars but was destroyed in 161 fighting the Parthians in the east. The XIV Gemina was raised by Caesar for the conquest of Gaul, fought all over Britain in the years after the conquest and won the title ‘Martia Victrix’ during Boadicea’s revolt before being moved back across the Channel to garrison the Batavian frontier. The XX Valeria was the British legion par excellence, with its garrison headquarters at Chester and the boar as its emblem. Raised by Augustus, it won its name and title ‘Valeria Victrix’ during the conquest of Yugoslavia, after which it was selected by the Emperor Claudius for his conquest of Britain.”
Excerpted from: Rogerson, Barnaby. Rogerson’s Book of Numbers: The Culture of Numbers–from 1,001 Nights to the Seven Wonders of the World. New York: Picador, 2013.
“canonical: Characteristic or most frequent, either in a particular language of across languages in general. Thus a canonical form of words or syllables is a phonological pattern to which they typically conform; a canonical clause, as defined e.g. by Huddleston and Pullum CGEL, is declarative and active, as opposed to a ‘non-canonical’ interrogative or passive.
Also in the sense of ‘simplest’ or ‘most straightforward.’ Thus a pattern e.g. of ‘one form one meaning’ might be called ‘canonical’ in that the description of other patterns is more complex.”
Excerpted from: Matthews, P.H., ed. The Oxford Concise Dictionary of Linguistics. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences
Tagged professional development, term of art
“One is often told that it is a very wrong thing to attack religion, because religion makes men virtuous. So I am told; I have not noticed it.”
“Why I Am Not a Christian” (1927)
Excerpted from: Schapiro, Fred, ed. The Yale Book of Quotations. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences
Tagged literary oddities, philosophy/religion
“According to Aristotle, what elements are necessary to a play? There are six: plot, thought, character, diction, music, and spectacle.”
Excerpted from: Corey, Melinda, and George Ochoa. Literature: The New York Public Library Book of Answers. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1993.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences
“Balkanization Fragmentation of a geopolitical region into a patchwork of antagonistic states, often the clients of outside powers as in the pre-World War I Balkans, where two successive wars in 1912 and 1913 involved shifting alliances and mutual suspicion.”
Excerpted from: Cook, Chris. Dictionary of Historical Terms. New York: Gramercy, 1998.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences
Tagged term of art
“Subordinate Clause, also dependent clause. A clause that cannot function independently as a sentence.”
Excerpted from: McArthur, Tom. The Oxford Concise Companion to the English Language. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference
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