“Insignificant for Trivial, or Small. Insignificant means not signifying anything, and should be used only in contrast, expressed or implied, with something that is important for what it implies. The bear’s tail may be insignificant to a naturalist tracing the animal’s descent from an earlier species, but to the rest of us, not concerned with the matter, it is merely small.”
Excerpted from: Bierce, Ambrose. Write it Right: A Little Blacklist of Literary Faults. Mineola, NY: Dover, 2010.
“University: A place in which a civilization’s knowledge is divided up into exclusive territories.
The principal occupation of the academic community is to invent dialects sufficiently hermetic to prevent knowledge from passing between territories. By maintaining a constant flow of written material among the specialists of each group they are able to assert the acceptable technique of communication intended to prevent communications. This in turn establishes a standard which allows them to dismiss those who seek to communicate through generally accessible language as dilettantes, deformers, or popularizers.”
Excerpted from: Saul, John Ralston. The Doubter’s Companion. New York: The Free Press, 1994.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences
Tagged humor, literary oddities, philosophy/religion
“Demonstrative Pronoun: A pronoun that shows where something is in relation to the speaker and listener. Standard English has four demonstratives, paired and with number contrast; this/these here, that/those there. Some dialects have three (this, that, yon/yonder) and Scots has this, that, yon/yonder and its variant thon/thonder. The set of three are comparable to Latin hic this near me, iste, that near you, ille that over there. For some grammarians, the term covers the demonstratives however used; for others, demonstrative pronouns (‘I like that,’ Give me some of these’) are distinguished from demonstrative determiners (‘I like that one,’ ‘Who are these people?’).”
Excerpted from: McArthur, Tom. The Oxford Concise Companion to the English Language. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.
“Ex Voto: (Lat., out of thankfulness) A painted or sculptured image given to God or gods in thanksgiving for favors and blessings. Occasionally the donor is depicted in the work.”
Excerpted from: Diamond, David G. The Bulfinch Pocket Dictionary of Art Terms. Boston: Little Brown, 1992.
“Anno domini: Latin for ‘in the Year of Our Lord’; i.e., in the year since the nativity: generally abbreviated to AD. It was Dionysus Exiguus who fixed the date of the Nativity; he lived in the early 6th century, and his computation is probably late by some three to six years. The custom of determining dates on this basis is said to be the result of the work of the Venerable Bede.”
Excerpted from: Murphy, Bruce, ed. Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia, Fourth Edition. New York: Harper Collins, 1996.
“Ex Cathedra: Pronounced from the seat or authority or by the right of one’s office, as by a papal declaration; authoritatively judgmental, sometimes without explanation or justification; presumptuous. Adverb: ex cathedra.
‘Both stamped Irving’s ‘Hughes’ samples as authentic, and both spoke forth with the certainty of the Holy Father making a pronouncement ex cathedra.’ James Phelan, Scandals, Scamps and Scoundrels
“Aventine * Caelian * Capitoline * Esquiline * Palatine * Quirinal * Viminal
Rome was founded as a network of seven villages perched on seven hills, So that Sabines, Latins and Etruscans could all benefit from the markets usefully arranged in the low-lying in between them. The Palatine was the central hillock, the Capitoline overlooked the marshy field of Mars and the Aventine was hard against the banks of the River Tiber. In all honesty the other four hills are not so distinct, just a series of interlinked spurs, but it has always been immensely propitious to have a unit of 7 in your foundation myth, like the very first civilization born in Mesopotamia, Sumeria. Rome doubled up by honoring a list of its first seven kings, beginning with Romulus (753-716), Numa (715-674), Tullus Hostilius (673-642), Ancus Marcius, Lucius Tarquinius Priscus and Servius Tullius and finishing with Tarquinius Superbus.
The power of Rome further spread the allure of a city being founded on seven hills, so that most of the great cities of the world—say, Moscow, Lisbon, Jerusalem, Istanbul or Barcelona—have a story of seven hills. Others which have hardly a hill at all, like Mumbai, are said to be founded on seven islands.”
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.
“speech disorders: Individuals express thoughts, feelings, and ideas out loud to one another through a series of complex movements that mold the basic tone created by the voice into specific sounds. Speech is produced by precisely coordinated muscle actions in the head, neck, chest, and abdomen; this gradual process requires years of practice to master in order to produce understandable speech.
By first grade, about 5 percent of children will develop a noticeable speech disorder, most of which will have no known cause. Most speech disorders in the preschool years occur in children who are developing normally in all other areas, although speech disorders also may occur in children who have developmental disabilities.
One of the most common categories of speech disorder is stuttering, a condition in which there is a disruption in the flow of speech. Stuttering is a condition that involves repetitions of speech sounds, hesitations before and during speaking, and the prolonged emphasis of speech sounds. More than 15 million individuals around the world have this problem, most of whom began stuttering at a very early age.
Children with specific speech sound disorders (also called articulation disorder or phonological disorder) have trouble producing the speech sounds of their language that would be expected for their age. The extent of these errors will affect how easy it is to understand their speech, in some cases making it impossible for others to understand what the child is doing.”
Excerpted from: Turkington, Carol, and Joseph R. Harris, PhD. The Encyclopedia of Learning Disabilities. New York: Facts on File, 2006.
“American Language: A term that presents American English as a national language, sometimes as an aggressive declaration of independence from the standard language of England: ‘This occasional tolerance for things American was never extended to the American language’ (H.L. Mencken, The American Language, 4th edition, 1936); ‘George Bush is hardly known for his rhetorical gifts. But his speech at last summer’s Republican Convention has already left its mark on the American language’ (Laurence Zuckerman, ‘Read My Cliché,’ Time, 16 Jan. 1989).”
Excerpted from: McArthur, Tom. The Oxford Concise Companion to the English Language. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.
OK, lastly on this relatively cool morning in Brooklyn, here is a glossary of competitive debate terms that might come in handy if you’re involved in such things.
If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences
Tagged learning supports, philosophy/religion
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