“blitzkrieg (Germ., lightning war). Penetration in depth by armoured columns, usually with preceding aerial bombardment to reduce enemy resistance; a technique perfected by Gen. Guderian in France in 1940. In Britain the term was abbreviated to ‘blitz’ and used to describe the massive air attacks on London and other cities between September 1940 and May 1941.”
Excerpted from: Cook, Chris. Dictionary of Historical Terms. New York: Gramercy, 1998.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences
“Balance of power: Diplomatic policy aimed at securing peace, particularly in Europe, by preventing any one state of alignment of states from attaining hegemony or military strength dangerous to the independence and liberty of the others. The policy is thus based on the maintenance of a counter-force equal to that of potential hegemonists. Britain had pursued such a policy for centuries to counter French predominance, but from 1904 to 1914 attempted to balance German power through the Entente Cordiale. A balance emerged between the Triple Entente of Britain, France and Russia and the Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria and Italy. Between the world wars, Britain at first attempted to balance French power by facilitating the rapid recovery of Germany, but later abandoned her balance of power policy in favor of appeasement….”
Excerpted from: Cook, Chris. Dictionary of Historical Terms. New York: Gramercy, 1998.
Posted in Essays/Readings, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences
Tagged readings/research, term of art
“code switching: Switching in speech between different languages, dialects, etc. E.g. two business associates meet and chat in one language; the meeting becomes formal and they switch to another. Often analyzed into subtypes, e.g. as occurring within sentences or at sentence boundaries. Sometimes distinguished from code mixing, or from borrowing; sometimes not.
The term ‘code’ is loosely used of any language or distinct variety of a language, whether or not it is actually thought of as a code (like the Morse code or a legal code) in any illuminating sense.”
Excerpted from: Marshall, P.H., ed. The Oxford Concise Dictionary of Linguistics. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014.
“auteur theory: A theory of film criticism and analysis that derived from the writings of Francois Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Eric Rohmer, and others, which appeared in the influential magazine Cahiers du cinema in the early 1950s. In an article printed in Cahiers in 1954, Truffaut proposed “la politique des auteurs” in an effort to free directors from traditional script-dominated films. Truffaut and his colleagues, who were to become the vanguard of the New Wave, held that, although films are collaborative efforts, they should ultimately bear the artistic stamp of the director, whose personal vision creates the film as an author (auteur) would create a book. The theory was first championed in the U.S, by the critic Andrew Sarris.”
Excerpted from: Murphy, Bruce, ed. Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia, Fourth Edition. New York: Harper Collins, 1996.
“(1) Practical application of learning; habitual, customary practice of an art, a science, or a skill. (2) A series of tests prepared by the Educational Testing Service and used by many states for teaching licencing and certification. Praxis I measures basic academic skills of would-be teachers; Praxis II measures their general and subject-specific knowledge and teaching skills; and Praxis III assesses their classroom performance.”
Excerpted from: Ravitch, Diane. EdSpeak: A Glossary of Education Terms, Phrases, Buzzwords, and Jargon. Alexandria, VA: ASCD, 2007.
Posted in Essays/Readings, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences
Tagged professional development, term of art
“acculturation: The adoption by one society of a trait or traits from another society. The term is usually employed in anthropological contexts, and considers the change from the point of view of the recipient society. cf DIFFUSION.”
Excerpted from: Bray, Warwick, and David Trump. The Penguin Dictionary of Archaeology. New York: Penguin, 1984.
“Double Negative: The use of two negatives in a sentence where one will suffice, e..g., ‘It doesn’t mean nothing’; reiterated denial that is tantamount to an affirmative of positive statement.
In substandard speech, however, double negatives often reinforce a strongly negative color in an assertion. ‘I don’t want nothing from nobody is a threefold declaration of independence, not a logical seesaw.” G.W. Turner, Stylistics“
Excerpted from: Grambs, David. The Random House Dictionary for Writers and Readers. New York: Random House, 1990.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences
“Dyscalculia: Impairment of the ability to do arithmetic.
[From Greek dys– bad or abnormal + Latin calculare to count, from calculus diminutive of calx a stone + ia indicating a condition or quality]”
Excerpted from: Colman, Andrew M., ed. Oxford Dictionary of Psychology. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.
“(UR GO or AIR GO) Ergo is the Latin term for “therefore,” “hence,” “consequently,” “it follows that….” It is often used to give an air of formality to a presentation of the conclusion to an argument. Like the less frequently used Q.E.D., it implies that the person presenting the argument is “learned” or specifically trained in logic.”
Excerpted from: Trail, George Y. Rhetorical Terms and Concepts: A Contemporary Glossary. New York: Harcourt Brace, 2000.
“synesthesia: A medical (or psychological) term describing the occurrence when stimulating one sense organ causes another to respond. It is as though in eating one were to receive strong visual sensations of color rather than, or along with, sensations of taste. As a literary device, synesthesia has been used in certain types of poetry of the 19th and 20th centuries, especially that of the Symbolists. Rimbaud’s “Sonnet des voyelles,” expressing the sounds of the common vowels in terms of colors, is an excellent use of this device.”
Excerpted from: Murphy, Bruce, ed. Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia, Fourth Edition. New York: Harper Collins, 1996.
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