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words i learned today
Sep. 18th, 2002 03:10 pmhere's some new and exciting words i learned while reading for my feminist theory class:
acrimony: bitter, sharp animosity; a sharp and bitter manner
polemics: a controversial argument, especially one refuting or attacking a specific opinion or doctrine
multiple sedimentation: the act or process of depositing sediment. (as in, layers of ROCK. it's a geology term. the author in question was using it to describe thoughts/ideas, i think. but if sedimentation refers to layers of rock, ie more than one, than why do we need to say *multiple* sedimentation?)
reify/reification: to regard or treat an abstraction as if it had concrete or material existence; to regard something abstract as a material thing
originary: 1. causing existence, productive. 2. primitive, primal, original (now why couldn't she just SAY original?)
imbricated: to have regularly arranged, overlapping edges, as with roof tiles or fish scales. (from the latin imbricatus, meaning roof tiles. or something like that. i cracked up. and why couldn't she just say "layered" or "overlapping"?)
actualized: to realize in action or to make real; to describe or portray realistically; to become actual (yeah, i know, i should know this one already. i only looked it up now because the way she was using it, it didn't seem like it meant what i thought it did. but it does.)
teleology: 1. the study of design or purpose in natural phenomena. 2. Belief in or perception of purposeful development towards an end, as in nature or history.
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now what one single article, you may ask, could possibly use all those big unnecessary words? "Feminism, New Historicism, and the Reader" by Wai-Chee Dimock, 1991. i don't know where it was originally (originarily) published, or i'd tell you. i don't know why she just didn't say what she meant, instead of trying to find a bigger more important-sounding word to say it with. she's doing a disservice to her readers, she is.
essays like this make me want never ever to go back for my doctorate.
acrimony: bitter, sharp animosity; a sharp and bitter manner
polemics: a controversial argument, especially one refuting or attacking a specific opinion or doctrine
multiple sedimentation: the act or process of depositing sediment. (as in, layers of ROCK. it's a geology term. the author in question was using it to describe thoughts/ideas, i think. but if sedimentation refers to layers of rock, ie more than one, than why do we need to say *multiple* sedimentation?)
reify/reification: to regard or treat an abstraction as if it had concrete or material existence; to regard something abstract as a material thing
originary: 1. causing existence, productive. 2. primitive, primal, original (now why couldn't she just SAY original?)
imbricated: to have regularly arranged, overlapping edges, as with roof tiles or fish scales. (from the latin imbricatus, meaning roof tiles. or something like that. i cracked up. and why couldn't she just say "layered" or "overlapping"?)
actualized: to realize in action or to make real; to describe or portray realistically; to become actual (yeah, i know, i should know this one already. i only looked it up now because the way she was using it, it didn't seem like it meant what i thought it did. but it does.)
teleology: 1. the study of design or purpose in natural phenomena. 2. Belief in or perception of purposeful development towards an end, as in nature or history.
-----
now what one single article, you may ask, could possibly use all those big unnecessary words? "Feminism, New Historicism, and the Reader" by Wai-Chee Dimock, 1991. i don't know where it was originally (originarily) published, or i'd tell you. i don't know why she just didn't say what she meant, instead of trying to find a bigger more important-sounding word to say it with. she's doing a disservice to her readers, she is.
essays like this make me want never ever to go back for my doctorate.
