Lexical geekeries - Page 3 - Monochromatic Outlook

Persiflage

Found in Chambers Thesaurus as related to glibness while looking for words to describe P J O’Rourke’s writing tone. Flibbertigibbet has led to a cascade…

Flibbertigibbet

Kudos to P J O’Rourke. I can’t recall the last time I had to look up a word I found in a newspaper because the…

Auto-da-fé

I wrote this down a while back but I’m pretty sure that I found it in de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America. This takes the prize…

Soporific

Sleep-inducing. My goal this year is to have a post to Monochromatic Outlook every day, which might sound good but you also might end up…

Cupidity

Found in deToqueville’s Democracy in America. The word obviously comes from the name of the Roman god of sexual love, but in usage it does…

Inter

Yeah, that’s what I thought the word was. But in Michael Ledeen’s June 12^th (what time zone is he in, anyway? my watch says it’s…

Obloquy

Another word from Democracy in America.

Pelf

Found in Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America. I was surprised to find such a short word I was unacquanted with, and at first I…

Prelapsarian

Found in William Gibson’s Spook Country. «sense of some peripheral and prelapsarian beauty.» It’s actually quite a nice turn of phrase. There’s something quite poetic…

Celerity

In the chapter Unlimited Power of the Majority in the United States, and its Consequences in Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville wrote «In America…