Words 3

I'm in recovery from an abundance of creative curse words. My new word this week:

hierophant [1] … a person who understands (and interprets) mysteries of the universe.[2]

Using it:

Mystics, philosophers, metaphysicians, some scientists, many madmen, and the Wizard of Oz are hierophants. Economists, bankers, and investors wish they were hierophantic. Oh, and those guys who conduct polls at election time.

Samples of words I dislike beyond the point of amusement, because talking heads create verbs out of nouns or just plain lose their heads:

weaponize – how many times have we heard this? Eeeeeek!! I can't believe it's in the OED online!

enculturated – it sounds like what yoghurt does; perhaps acculturated was intended.

[1] Zoë Ferraris, City of Veils (New York: Back Bay Books/Little, Brown and Company, 2010), 115.

[2] Merriwoman interpretation of the meaning of the meaning.

labels: words