51吃瓜 of the Day
More about eldritch
If the word is weird, eerie, and uncanny, it鈥檚 likely to be Scots, and eldritch is all of them. Most etymologists see a connection between eldritch and elf, as the early spelling variant elphrish suggests. The second syllable is likely to be Middle English riche 鈥渒ingdom, realm鈥� (from Old English 谤墨肠别); the d is an excrescent or intrusive consonant between the l and the r, like chimbley for chimney in Oliver Twist: 鈥渢hey damped the straw afore they lit it in the chimbley.鈥� This 鈥淓lf Kingdom鈥� used to be exclusively Scots; the first 鈥渘on-Scots鈥� author to use the word was Nathaniel Hawthorne in his Scarlet Letter (1850). Eldritch entered English in the early 16th century.
how is eldritch used?
In this anthology podcast, the mountains of central Appalachia are haunted by the sort of sanity-draining eldritch monsters found in a Stephen King novel, or in HBO鈥檚 鈥淟ovecraft Country.鈥�
Despite the eldritch horrors of Toni鈥檚 princess cake, her competitors鈥� renditions were, somehow, even more atrocious.
eldritch
More about gloaming
Gloaming, 鈥渢wilight, dusk,鈥� ultimately comes from Old English 驳濒艒尘耻苍驳, which occurs once as a translation of Latin crepusculum 鈥渄usk, twilight.鈥� 骋濒艒尘耻苍驳 is a derivative of 驳濒艒尘 鈥渢wilight, darkness,鈥� from the same root as the verb 驳濒艒飞补苍 鈥渢o glow like a coal or fire鈥� (gloaming being the glow of sunrise or sunset). It is tempting to include gloom and its variant glum in this group, but the philological evidence is against it. Gloaming entered English before 1000.
how is gloaming used?
During the workweek, when we are earning the money to pay for all those expensive gardening implements, it’s not possible to do much outside until dusk. Then, with the fireflies, we emerge into the gloaming armed with an arsenal of rakes, pitchforks and spades, like some medieval rabble on its way to battle.
Fortunately, at certain times and places Mercury is more removed from this all-obliterating influence than he is at others, and at such times he may be very distinctly seen, shortly after sunset, twinkling through the gloaming in the west.
gloaming
extramundane
adjective
beyond our world or the material universe.
More about extramundane
Extramundane, 鈥渂eyond the physical universe,鈥� comes from Late Latin 别虫迟谤腻尘耻苍诲腻苍耻蝉 鈥渂eyond, outside the world,鈥� a compound of the preposition and combining form extra, extra– 鈥渙utside, beyond鈥� and the adjective 尘耻苍诲腻苍耻蝉 鈥減ertaining to the world, the physical universe鈥� and also 鈥渋nhabiting the world, cosmopolite,鈥� a step beyond urbane, so to speak, and also quite different from the current sense of mundane: 鈥渃ommon, ordinary.鈥� Cicero even has Socrates claiming 肠墨惫颈迟腻迟别尘鈥� 尘耻苍诲腻苍耻尘 鈥渨orld citizenship.鈥� 惭耻苍诲腻苍耻蝉 is a derivative of the noun mundus 鈥渢he heavens, sky, firmament; the universe; the earth, the world, our world,鈥� a loan translation of Greek 办贸蝉尘辞蝉. Extramundane entered English in the second half of the 17th century.
how is extramundane used?
One of the subordinate bodies or bureaus or the British Astronomical Association, a company of learned and industrious men who find more pleasure and profit in the investigation of extramundane affairs than in the study of politics or art or other trivial earthly things, is devoted exclusively to the observation of Mars.
I know that there are extramundane occurrences, and I’ve had my share of experiences that can only be explained as ‘supernatural,’ but they have always been the exception.
extramundane