Tag Archives: term of art

Term of Art: Deus Ex Machina

Posted on July 28, 2020 | Leave a comment

“Deus Ex Machina: (Lat, “god from the machine) A theatrical device used in Greek tragedy. In several plays of Euripides, a god appears at the last moment to provide the solution to the tangled problems of the main characters. The god is let down from the sky on a sort of crane. The phrase has come to refer to a playwright’s use of external means to solve the problems of his characters—a practice generally frowned upon.”

Excerpted from: Murphy, Bruce, ed. Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia, Fourth Edition. New York: Harper Collins, 1996.

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Term of Art: Hellenistic Grammar

Posted on July 27, 2020 | Leave a comment

“Hellenistic Grammar: The study of grammar in the West in the period called ‘Hellenistic,’ conventionally 323-31 BC: the period of the early Stoics and Alexandrians, including Dionysius Thrax.”

Excerpted from: Matthews, P.H., ed. The Oxford Concise Dictionary of Linguistics. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014.

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Term of Art: Compound Subject

Posted on July 27, 2020 | Leave a comment

“Compound Subject: Two or more simple subjects joined by a coordinating or correlative conjunction. Hemingway and Fitzgerald had little in common.”

Excerpted from: Strunk, William Jr., and E.B. White. The Elements of Style, Fourth Edition. New York: Longman, 2000.

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Term of Art: Prior Knowledge

Posted on July 27, 2020 | Leave a comment

“prior knowledge: The totality of an individual’s experience and knowledge at any given time—that is, what a student brings as background information to a new learning experience. The more prior knowledge a person has, the more prepared he or she will be to learn new ideas. Almost everything that a person learns or can learn depends on the extent of his or her prior knowledge. One of the major missions of school is to build students’ fund of background knowledge so they have a foundation for future learning.”

Excerpted from: Ravitch, Diane. EdSpeak: A Glossary of Education Terms, Phrases, Buzzwords, and Jargon. Alexandria, VA: ASCD, 2007.

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Term of Art: Compound Sentence

Posted on July 26, 2020 | Leave a comment

“Compound Sentence: Two or more independent clauses joined by a coordinating conjunction, a correlative conjunction or a semicolon. Caesar conquered Gaul, but Alexander the Great conquered the world.”

Excerpted from: Strunk, William Jr., and E.B. White. The Elements of Style, Fourth Edition. New York: Longman, 2000.

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Term of Art: Oral Tradition

Posted on July 26, 2020 | Leave a comment

“Oral Tradition: Poetry belonging to this tradition is composed orally, or made up as the poet goes along. As a rule, it is the product of illiterate or semi-literate societies. It is usually sung or chanted (often to musical accompaniment) and is the earliest of all poetry, in the sense that it precedes written poetry. It is still alive in many parts of the world, and in some regions of Europe: for instance, Sicily, the remoter parts of Greece, and in the central Balkans (especially Bosnia, Serbia and Macedonia). In the upland districts of Yugoslavia it is still possible to find a guslar (q.v.) reciting verses on recent events. See also BALLAD; BYLINA; EPIC; FOLKSONG; NARODNE PESME”

Excerpted from: Cuddon, J.A. The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory. New York: Penguin, 1992.

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Historical Term: Auto da fe

Posted on July 26, 2020 | Leave a comment

“Auto da fe (auto da fe Span., act of faith). The ceremony accompanying the execution of condemned heretics during the Inquisition in Spain and Portugal. Pope Sixtus IV first authorized the Spanish monarchy to name inquisitors in a bull of 1478.  The Inquisition lasted until 1813, when it was suppressed by the Cortes de Cadiz. Restored by Ferdinand VII in 1814, it was suppressed again in 1820, only to be reinstated three years later. The last auto da fe took place in 1826; the Inquisition was finally abolished in 1834.”

Excerpted from: Cook, Chris. Dictionary of Historical Terms. New York: Gramercy, 1998.

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Term of Art: Hebrew

Posted on July 25, 2020 | Leave a comment

“Hebrew: West Semitic, spoken in the interior of Palestine; the language of the Jewish Bible (Old Testament), progressively influenced and replaced by Aramaic from the 8th century BC. Last attested in the 2nd century AD; thereafter a written and liturgical language, until revived in its modern form, especially from the 1920s, as a progressive official language of Jewish settlers in what is now Israel. Written in a Semitic alphabet whose modern form (‘square Hebrew’) can be traced back to the 3rd century AD.”

Excerpted from: Matthews, P.H., ed. The Oxford Concise Dictionary of Linguistics. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014.

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Term of Art: Complement

Posted on July 24, 2020 | Leave a comment

“Complement: A word or phrase (especially a noun or adjective) that completes the predicate. Subject complements complete linking verbs and rename or describe the subject: Martha is my neighbor. She seems shy. Object complements complete transitive verbs by describing or renaming the direct object: They found the play exciting. Robert considers Mary a wonderful wife.”

Excerpted from: Strunk, William Jr., and E.B. White. The Elements of Style, Fourth Edition. New York: Longman, 2000.

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Term of Art: Colloquialism

Posted on July 20, 2020 | Leave a comment

“Colloquialism: A word or expression appropriate to informal conversation but not usually suitable for academic or business writing. They wanted to get even (instead of they wanted to retaliate).”

Excerpted from: Strunk, William Jr., and E.B. White. The Elements of Style, Fourth Edition. New York: Longman, 2000.

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