51吃瓜 of the Day
palimpsest
noun
a parchment or the like from which writing has been partially or completely erased to make room for another text.
More about palimpsest
English palimpsest comes via Latin 辫补濒颈尘辫蝉脓蝉迟耻蝉 from Greek 辫补濒铆尘辫蝉脓蝉迟辞蝉 鈥渞ubbed again, scraped again,鈥� i.e., in reference to durable parchment (not papyrus) 鈥渆rased (so as to be able to be written upon) again.鈥� Palimpsests are important in recovering the texts of ancient manuscripts. At least two unique ancient texts have been recovered through modern techniques of decipherment: the first text is Cicero鈥檚 dialogue De Re Publica (鈥淥n the Republic, On the Commonwealth鈥�), which was discovered in the Vatican Library in 1819 and published definitively in 1908. The second major find is the Archimedes Palimpsest, containing seven treatises by the Greek scientist and mathematician Archimedes (c287-212 b.c.), which was made legible after decipherment performed between 1998 and 2008. Palimpsest entered English in the 17th century.
how is palimpsest used?
All history was a palimpsest, scraped clean and reinscribed exactly as often as was necessary.
Holmes and I sat together in silence all the evening, he engaged with a powerful lens deciphering the remains of the original inscription upon a palimpsest, I deep in a recent treatise upon surgery.
wellspring
noun
a source or supply of anything, especially when considered inexhaustible: a wellspring of affection.
More about wellspring
Wellspring from its earliest records has meant both 鈥渟ource or headspring of a river or stream鈥� as well as 鈥渟ource of a constant supply of something.鈥� The extended, metaphorical sense appears earlier, in the Old English version of the Cura Pastoralis (Pastoral Care) of St. Gregory the Great (a.d. c540-604) that was commissioned by King Alfred the Great (a.d. 849-899). The literal sense of wellspring, 鈥渟ource of a stream or river,鈥� first appears in the Catholic Homilies (c990) composed by Aelfric 鈥淕rammaticus鈥� (c955-c1025).
how is wellspring used?
I decided to reach deep down, to the wellspring of my charisma, which had been too long undisturbed, and dip my fingers in it and flick it liturgically over the audience.
And from the same wellspring of creativity, utilizing that same power to abstract, they were the first people to see the world around them in symbolic form, to extract its essence and reproduce it.
obscurantism
noun
opposition to the increase and spread of knowledge.
More about obscurantism
English obscurantism ultimately comes via the French noun obscurantisme from Latin 辞产蝉肠奴谤补苍迟-, the stem of 辞产蝉肠奴谤腻苍蝉, present participle of 辞产蝉肠奴谤腻谤别 鈥渢o dim, cover in darkness,鈥� a derivative of the adjective 辞产蝉肠奴谤耻蝉 “dim, dark, dingy; insignificant, doubtful,” the obvious source of English obscure. 翱产蝉肠奴谤耻蝉 is a compound of the preposition and prefix ob, ob- 鈥渢o, toward, in front of鈥� (and in compounds usually having a sense of confrontation or opposition), and the unattested adjective 蝉肠奴谤耻蝉. 厂肠奴谤耻蝉 is a Latin development of the Proto-Indo-European root (s)keu-, (蝉)办奴- 鈥渢o hide, cover.鈥� The Germanic form of this root, skeu-, has a derivative noun skeujam 鈥渃loud, cloud cover鈥� that becomes 蝉办瘸 in Old Norse, adopted into English as sky. Obscurantism entered English in the 19th century.
how is obscurantism used?
New ideologies manipulate religions, push a contagious obscurantism.
There is the obscurantism of the politician and not always of the more ignorant sort, who would reject every idea which is not of immediate service to his cause.