classes ::: grammer,
children :::
branches ::: adjective

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object:adjective
object:adjectives
subject:English
class:grammer
def:a word or phrase naming an attribute, added to or grammatically related to a noun to modify or describe it.

--- ATTEMPTED SORTED

--- BY ALPHA

  LIST
  affordable, alien, all-knowing, almighty, alternative, ancient, aureate, beautiful, best, black, blessed, blindly, broken, captivating, carved, ceaseless, Celestial, circular, closest, complete, complex, constant, constructive, corrupted, countless, crowning, crystal, cursed, cyclical, dangerous, dark, deep, delightful, desolate, despondant, detailed, dull, effective, endless, enticing, entire, essential, eternal, everyday, exclusive, expanding, faceless, false, first, floating, forgotten, fruitful, fruitless, giant, glowing, God-like, golden, graceful, greatest, haunted, heavenly, heavy, hidden, Holy, horrid, hungry, ignorant, immune, immutable, impervious, infinite, inner, integral, iridescent, iron, jewelled, last, longs for, lucid, meaningless, mighty, miraculous, moving, multifaceted, mutable, mutating, narrow, neverending, not, numerous, oceanic, only, ornate, peaceful, perfect, perverse, pink, playful, potential, precious, productive, profound, progressive, pulsing, purple, radiant, rainbow, reliable, repetitive, sacred, safe, same, sealed, secret, shifting, shimmering, sleeping, small, spiral, stone, successful, Supreme, surrounding, the most important, timeless, trustworthy, twisted, ultimate, undeniable, universal, untouched, white, winding, wise, wishful, wonderful, wooden,

--- OLD (PROB DUPLI)
  twisted
  spiral
  multifaceted
  repetitive
  neverending
  entire
  complete



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now begins generated list of local instances, definitions, quotes, instances in chapters, wordnet info if available and instances among weblinks


OBJECT INSTANCES [183] - TOPICS - AUTHORS - BOOKS - CHAPTERS - CLASSES - SEE ALSO - SIMILAR TITLES

TOPICS
affordable
aimless
All-Knowing
All-Powerful
All-Seeing
alluring
All-Wise
Architectonic
astral
aureate
beautiful
beloved
benevolent
best
blessing
boundless
branching
captivating
Celestial
central
certain
Charm
complete
complex
conscious
crowning
crystal
deeply
Divine
down
downward
easy
effective
effulgent
Elysian
embodied
enchanting
endless
entrancing
Epic
essential
eternal
Etheric
Everyday
First
forking
foster
game
glimmering
glorious
glowing
God
good
great
greater
greatest
heavenly
higher
highest
holy
Ideal
ideal
immaculate
immortal
immovable
immutable
incarnate
incomprehensible
inconceivable
indispensible
infinite
Inner
Inscribed
inside
Intent
iridescent
irresistible
jewelled
key
last
lesser
longing
lower
luminous
magic
magical
magnificent
manifold
many-sided
master
meaning
merciful
metaphysical
miraculous
multifaceted
mutable
necessary
not
obscurity
omniscient
Only
Outer
perfect
Permanent
petty
playful
Possible
precious
primary
principal
productive
profound
pure
radiant
rapturous
redeeming
resplendent
sacred
secret
seductive
shimmering
shining
simple
single
special
splendorous
stellar
still
strange
strongest
Subhuman
successful
sure
surest
terrible
the_Infinite
the_most_important
timeless
tireless
Toward
transcendent
treasured
ultimate
Unattached
unborn
unceasing
unceasingly
Uncertain
Unchanged
Uncompelled
Unconverted
undefaced
undeniable
Undisturbed
Undivided
unending
Unenlightened
Uneven
unfallen
Unillumined
universal
Unknowable
unknowable
Unmoved
Unnecessary
Unsleeping
Untouched
Untroubled
Unveiled
Unwalled
unwavering
Unwounded
up.
upward
Venerable
viewless
well-timed
Wideness
willing
wise
wonderful
wondrous
Worth
Worthy
SEE ALSO


AUTH

BOOKS
On_Interpretation
The_Categories
The_Seals_of_Wisdom
The_Self-Organizing_Universe
The_Way_of_Perfection

IN CHAPTERS TITLE

IN CHAPTERS CLASSNAME

IN CHAPTERS TEXT
0.00_-_The_Book_of_Lies_Text
0_1961-01-17
0_1965-06-26
0_1968-02-17
1.00_-_The_way_of_what_is_to_come
1.01_-_SAMADHI_PADA
1.02.3.1_-_The_Lord
1.02_-_The_Philosophy_of_Ishvara
1.04_-_The_Gods_of_the_Veda
1.07_-_TRUTH
1.08_-_The_Gods_of_the_Veda_-_The_Secret_of_the_Veda
1.09_-_Concentration_-_Its_Spiritual_Uses
1.09_-_The_Ambivalence_of_the_Fish_Symbol
1.10_-_Theodicy_-_Nature_Makes_No_Mistakes
1.11_-_Woolly_Pomposities_of_the_Pious_Teacher
1.19_-_The_Victory_of_the_Fathers
1.2.01_-_The_Call_and_the_Capacity
1.2.04_-_Sincerity
1.23_-_Improvising_a_Temple
1.24_-_RITUAL,_SYMBOL,_SACRAMENT
1.43_-_The_Holy_Guardian_Angel_is_not_the_Higher_Self_but_an_Objective_Individual
1953-12-16
1954-07-14_-_The_Divine_and_the_Shakti_-_Personal_effort_-_Speaking_and_thinking_-_Doubt_-_Self-giving,_consecration_and_surrender_-_Mothers_use_of_flowers_-_Ornaments_and_protection
1.poe_-_Eureka_-_A_Prose_Poem
1.ww_-_Extempore_Effusion_upon_the_Death_of_James_Hogg
2.03_-_Indra_and_the_Thought-Forces
2.1.7.08_-_Comments_on_Specific_Lines_and_Passages_of_the_Poem
2.3.07_-_The_Vital_Being_and_Vital_Consciousness
2.4.2_-_Interactions_with_Others_and_the_Practice_of_Yoga
3.20_-_Of_the_Eucharist
36.07_-_An_Introduction_To_The_Vedas
3_-_Commentaries_and_Annotated_Translations
5.4.01_-_Notes_on_Root-Sounds
Aeneid
A_Secret_Miracle
Blazing_P2_-_Map_the_Stages_of_Conventional_Consciousness
BOOK_II._--_PART_II._THE_ARCHAIC_SYMBOLISM_OF_THE_WORLD-RELIGIONS
BOOK_I._--_PART_II._THE_EVOLUTION_OF_SYMBOLISM_IN_ITS_APPROXIMATE_ORDER
BOOK_XIII._-_That_death_is_penal,_and_had_its_origin_in_Adam's_sin
Diamond_Sutra_1
ENNEAD_03.07_-_Of_Time_and_Eternity.
Euthyphro
Liber_71_-_The_Voice_of_the_Silence_-_The_Two_Paths_-_The_Seven_Portals
Talks_100-125
Talks_With_Sri_Aurobindo_1
The_Act_of_Creation_text
The_Dwellings_of_the_Philosophers
The_Immortal
The_Library_of_Babel
The_Library_Of_Babel_2

PRIMARY CLASS

grammer
SIMILAR TITLES
adjective

DEFINITIONS

16 bit "architecture, programming" Using {words} containing sixteen {bits}. This adjective often refers to the number of bits used internally by a computer's {CPU}. E.g. "The {Intel 8086} is a sixteen bit processor". Its external {data bus} or {address bus} may be narrower. The term may also refer to the size of an instruction in the computer's {instruction set} or to any other item of data. See also {16-bit application}. (1996-05-13)

Abhijit (Sanskrit) Abhijit [from abhi towards + the verbal root ji to conquer] Sometimes Abhijita. As a noun, a soma sacrifice, a lunar mansion, the principal star in the constellation Lyra, a name of Vishnu, etc. As an adjective, victorious, also referring to one born under the constellation Abhijit.

Abir (Hebrew) ’Ābīr, ’Abbīr [from the verbal root ’ābar to be strong] As an adjective, durable, strong; as a noun, protector, hero. Cognate in thought with kabbir (cf kabiri, kabeiroi) and geber (cf gibborim), all generally signifying power, might, strength, although each has its distinct connotation.

ad captandum ::: --> A phrase used adjectively sometimes of meretricious attempts to catch or win popular favor.

adhvara ::: travelling, moving; a word for sacrifice, really an adjective, the full phrase is adhvara yajna. [Ved.]

adjectival ::: a. --> Of or relating to the relating to the adjective; of the nature of an adjective; adjective.

adjectivally ::: adv. --> As, or in the manner of, an adjective; adjectively.

adjectiving ::: p. pr. & vb. n. --> of Adjective

adnoun ::: n. --> An adjective, or attribute.

adobe ::: n. --> An unburnt brick dried in the sun; also used as an adjective, as, an adobe house, in Texas or New Mexico.

adverb ::: n. --> A word used to modify the sense of a verb, participle, adjective, or other adverb, and usually placed near it; as, he writes well; paper extremely white.

Aindri (Sanskrit) Aindrī [feminine adjective of indra probably from the verbal root ind to drop] Pertaining to the god Indra; as a feminine proper noun, the consort of Indra; also called Aindri-sakti, Indrani, and Aindriya. Aindri (masculine) means a descendant of Indra, occasionally referring to Arjuna, son of Indra by Kunti.

Akasic Samadhi [adjective of ākāśa ether, space + samādhi profound meditation from sam-ā-dha to hold or fix together (in abstract thought)] Used for the state of consciousness into which victims of accidental death enter: “a state of quiet slumber, a sleep full of rosy dreams, during which, they have no recollection of the accident, but move and live among their familiar friends and scenes, until their natural life-term is finished, when they find themselves born in the Deva-Chan . . .” (ML 109).

all- ::: prefix: Wholly, altogether, infinitely. Since 1600, the number of these [combinations] has been enormously extended, all-** having become a possible prefix, in poetry at least, to almost any adjective of quality. all-affirming, All-Beautiful, All-Beautiful"s, All-Bliss, All-Blissful, All-causing, all-concealing, all-conquering, All-Conscient, All-Conscious, all-containing, All-containing, all-creating, all-defeating, All-Delight, all-discovering, all-embracing, all-fulfilling, all-harbouring, all-inhabiting, all-knowing, All-knowing, All-Knowledge, all-levelling, All-Life, All-love, All-Love, all-negating, all-powerful, all-revealing, All-ruler, all-ruling, all-seeing, All-seeing, all-seeking, all-shaping, all-supporting, all-sustaining, all-swallowing, All-Truth, All-vision, All-Wisdom, all-wise, All-Wise, all-witnessing, All-Wonderful, All-Wonderful"s.**

Amal: “It’s a reference to a supra-terrestrial region. As far as I remember, Sri Aurobindo added another similar line when I wrote to him some Latin lines from Virgil about a region where everything was ‘purple’. The adjective ‘purple’ in Latin means a region beyond the earth, which has either this colour or is simply ‘shining’. Sri Aurobindo’s new line: ‘And griefless countries under purple suns’.”

ambulance ::: n. --> A field hospital, so organized as to follow an army in its movements, and intended to succor the wounded as soon as possible. Often used adjectively; as, an ambulance wagon; ambulance stretcher; ambulance corps.
An ambulance wagon or cart for conveying the wounded from the field, or to a hospital.


Amsumat, Amsuman (Sanskrit) Aṃśumat, Aṃśumān [from aṃśu filament, ray of light] As an adjective, threadlike or filamentoid, luminous as the sun and moon; also rich in soma plants and soma juice. As a noun, Amsuman is a prince of the solar race, son of Asamanjas, and grandson of King Sagara whose 60,000 sons were consumed by the glance of Kapila’s “eye.” Their remains were discovered by Amsuman who brought back to earth the horse which had been abducted from Sagara during the Asvamedha sacrifice (cf SD 2:570).

Analogic: (Gr. mystical) Usually employed as a noun in the plural, signifying an interpretation of Scripture pointing to a destiny to be hoped for and a goal to be attained; as an adjective it means, pertaining to the kind of interpretation described above. -- J.J.R.

Anatman (Sanskrit) Anātman [from an not, non + ātman soul, self, variously derived from the verbal root at to move, the verbal root an to breathe, the verbal root va to blow] Non-self, non-spirit; as an adjective, destitute of mind or spirit, corporeal. Used of the cosmos it signifies, in contrast to atman which is absolute spirit, its shadow or non-spirit, the corporeal or vehicular side of the universe, often mystically spoken of as the cosmic shadow. See also ANATTA

an adjective suffix meaning "without” (childless, peerless). Sri Aurobindo forms a number of new words utilizing this suffix.

Aniyamsam Aniyasam (Sanskrit) Aṇīyāṃsam aṇīyasāṃ [from aṇu atom, minuteness; aṇīyāṃsam, accusative of aṇīyas, comparative of adjective aṇu + aṇīyasām genitive plural of aṇu] Philosophically, atomic of the atomic; otherwise the smallest of the small. A phrase lifted from one of the Hindu scriptures (cf VP 1:15n), without changing the first word to its nominative case. It is applied to the universal divinity whose vital intelligent essence is everywhere, to the absolutely spiritual atom which is the divine monad of every entity, great and small, in the cosmos. In Vedantic philosophy, often used as a name of Brahman, conceived as being smaller than the smallest atom and equivalently as greater than the greatest sphere or universe. The conception applies equally well to paramatman. This universality whether in infinitesimals or in cosmic reaches is expressed in the almost equivalent phrase anor aniyamsam (smaller than an atom) (BG 8:9); likewise, anor aniyan (smaller than the small) in combination with mahato mahiyan (greater than the great) in the Upanishads (Katha 1:2, 20; Svetasvatara 3:21).

an ::: --> This word is properly an adjective, but is commonly called the indefinite article. It is used before nouns of the singular number only, and signifies one, or any, but somewhat less emphatically. In such expressions as "twice an hour," "once an age," a shilling an ounce (see 2d A, 2), it has a distributive force, and is equivalent to each, every. ::: conj.

Anu (Sanskrit) Aṇu As a noun, an atom of matter; as an adjective, atomic, fine, minute. A title of Brahma, conceived as both infinitesimal and universal, thus pointing to the pantheistic character of divinity. Hence, every anu is “a centre of potential vitality, with latent intelligence in it” (SD 1:567; cf FSO 273-5, 431). In the Bhagavad-Gita (8:9) Arjuna is enjoined to meditate on the “seer,” i.e., the enlightened, omniscient One, who is “more atomic than the atom” (anor aniyamsam) and yet “the supporter of all” (cf VP 1:2, 5:1; ChU 3:14, 3-4, Katha 2:20, MU 3:1, 7).

a person who professes beliefs and opinions that he or she does not hold in order to conceal his or her real feelings or motives; one who pretends to be what he is not. (Sri Aurobindo also uses the term as an adjective.) hypocrite"s.

apocrypha ::: n. pl. --> Something, as a writing, that is of doubtful authorship or authority; -- formerly used also adjectively.
Specif.: Certain writings which are received by some Christians as an authentic part of the Holy Scriptures, but are rejected by others.


Appetitive: (Lat. ad + petere, to seek) Adjective of appetite. Applied to desire based on animal wants e.g. hunger, sex, etc. The appetitive, along with the ideational and the affective, are the three principal phases of the conscious life. -- L.W.

Aranya (Sanskrit) Āraṇya [from araṇya distant land, wilderness] As an adjective, relating to a forest, wild; as a noun, a wild animal.

A related but different paradox is Grelling's (1908). Let us distinguish adjectives -- ie, words denoting properties -- as autological or i according as they do or do not have the property which they denote (in particular, adjectives denoting properties which cannot belong to words at all will be heterological). Then, e.g., the words polysyllabic, common, significant, prosaic are autological, while new, alive, useless, ambiguous, long are heterological. On their face, these definitions of autological and heterological are unobjectionable (compare the definition of onomatopoetic as similar in sound to that which it denotes). But paradox arises when we ask whether the word heterological is autological or heterological.

a religious official among the Romans, whose duty it was to predict future events and advise upon the course of public business, in accordance with omens derived from the flight, singing, and feeding of birds. Hence extended to: A soothsayer, diviner, or prophet, generally; one that foresees and foretells the future. (Sri Aurobindo employs the word as an adjective.) augured.

Arghya (Sanskrit) Arghya [from the verbal root arh to be worthy, deserve] Variant of argha. As an adjective, venerable, deserving; as a noun, an oblation reverently offered to gods or exceptionally worthy human beings and consisting of flowers, water, rice, and durva grass; also the container or vessel in which the libation is made.

arriere ::: n. --> "That which is behind"; the rear; -- chiefly used as an adjective in the sense of behind, rear, subordinate.

As an adjective, delicious, sweet.

As an adjective, movable or locomotive.

As an adjective, yellow or green.

Ashemogha, Ashemaogha (Pahlavi) Used with the adjective unholy, referring to religious teachers who mislead. In the Gathas, Zoroaster often refers to such teachers as false and deluding using terms such as a-debaoma, daevas, the blind and the deaf, aiming at Kavis and Karapans. See also ASHMOGH

Ashta (Sanskrit) Aṣṭa The adjective eight.

Asita (Sanskrit) Asita Dark in color, hence often used of dark blue and even black; krishna has more or less the same reference to darkness of tint such as is seen in indigo. As a proper noun, a name of the planet Saturn; the dark or waning fortnight of a lunar month; the name of a descendant of Kasyapa, composer of several of the hymns of the Rig-Veda (9:5-24), also named Devala or Asita-Devala (and likewise the name of several other individuals); a generalizing name for a being presiding over magic and darkness. As an adjective, dark-colored, or black.

atilt ::: adv. --> In the manner of a tilter; in the position, or with the action, of one making a thrust.
In the position of a cask tilted, or with one end raised. [In this sense sometimes used as an adjective.]


Attribute: Commonly, what is proper to a thing (Latm, ad-tribuere, to assign, to ascribe, to bestow). Loosely assimilated to a quality, a property, a characteristic, a peculiarity, a circumstance, a state, a category, a mode or an accident, though there are differences among all these terms. For example, a quality is an inherent property (the qualities of matter), while an attribute refers to the actual properties of a thing only indirectly known (the attributes of God). Another difference between attribute and quality is that the former refers to the characteristics of an infinite being, while the latter is used for the characteristics of a finite being. In metaphysics, an attribute is what is indispensable to a spiritual or material substance; or that which expresses the nature of a thing; or that without which a thing is unthinkable. As such, it implies necessarily a relation to some substance of which it is an aspect or conception. But it cannot be a substance, as it does not exist by itself. The transcendental attributes are those which belong to a being because it is a being: there are three of them, the one, the true and the good, each adding something positive to the idea of being. The word attribute has been and still is used more readily, with various implications, by substantialist systems. In the 17th century, for example, it denoted the actual manifestations of substance. [Thus, Descartes regarded extension and thought as the two ultimate, simple and original attributes of reality, all else being modifications of them. With Spinoza, extension and thought became the only known attributes of Deity, each expressing in a definite manner, though not exclusively, the infinite essence of God as the only substance. The change in the meaning of substance after Hume and Kant is best illustrated by this quotation from Whitehead: "We diverge from Descartes by holding that what he has described as primary attributes of physical bodies, are really the forms of internal relationships between actual occasions and within actual occasions" (Process and Reality, p. 471).] The use of the notion of attribute, however, is still favoured by contemporary thinkers. Thus, John Boodin speaks of the five attributes of reality, namely: Energy (source of activity), Space (extension), Time (change), Consciousness (active awareness), and Form (organization, structure). In theodicy, the term attribute is used for the essential characteristics of God. The divine attributes are the various aspects under which God is viewed, each being treated as a separate perfection. As God is free from composition, we know him only in a mediate and synthetic way thrgugh his attributes. In logic, an attribute is that which is predicated or anything, that which Is affirmed or denied of the subject of a proposition. More specifically, an attribute may be either a category or a predicable; but it cannot be an individual materially. Attributes may be essential or accidental, necessary or contingent. In grammar, an attribute is an adjective, or an adjectival clause, or an equivalent adjunct expressing a characteristic referred to a subject through a verb. Because of this reference, an attribute may also be a substantive, as a class-name, but not a proper name as a rule. An attribute is never a verb, thus differing from a predicate which may consist of a verb often having some object or qualifying words. In natural history, what is permanent and essential in a species, an individual or in its parts. In psychology, it denotes the way (such as intensity, duration or quality) in which sensations, feelings or images can differ from one another. In art, an attribute is a material or a conventional symbol, distinction or decoration.

attributive ::: a. --> Attributing; pertaining to, expressing, or assigning an attribute; of the nature of an attribute. ::: n. --> A word that denotes an attribute; esp. a modifying word joined to a noun; an adjective or adjective phrase.

Avyaya (Sanskrit) Avyaya [from a not + vyaya subject to change, decay from the verbal root vyay to expend] As an adjective, not subject to change, imperishable, incorruptible; as a masculine noun, a name of Vishnu and of Siva; as a neuter noun, a member or corporeal part of an organized body (used in Vedanta philosophy). See also APARINAMIN

Ayuta (Sanskrit) Ayuta [from a not + the verbal root yu to be interrupted, separated] Unimpeded; unseparated; ayuta-siddha is a philosophical term meaning proved to be not separated (by the intervention of space), hence inherent or innate. As an adjective, unbound, unfastened [from the verbal root yu to bind, fasten]. Also, ten thousand, a myriad.

adjectived ::: imp. & p. p. --> of Adjective

adjectively ::: adv. --> In the manner of an adjective; as, a word used adjectively.

adjective ::: n. --> Added to a substantive as an attribute; of the nature of an adjunct; as, an adjective word or sentence.
Not standing by itself; dependent.
Relating to procedure.
A word used with a noun, or substantive, to express a quality of the thing named, or something attributed to it, or to limit or define it, or to specify or describe a thing, as distinct from something else. Thus, in phrase, "a wise ruler," wise is the adjective,


battel ::: n. --> A single combat; as, trial by battel. See Wager of battel, under Wager.
Provisions ordered from the buttery; also, the charges for them; -- only in the pl., except when used adjectively. ::: v. i. --> To be supplied with provisions from the buttery.


benzal ::: n. --> A compound radical, C6H5.CH, of the aromatic series, related to benzyl and benzoyl; -- used adjectively or in combination.

benzyl ::: n. --> A compound radical, C6H5.CH2, related to toluene and benzoic acid; -- commonly used adjectively.

Bergelmir, Bargalmer (Icelandic, Scandinavian) [from ber to bear + gelmir shrieker, possibly a screaming eagle (gemlir) or a noun suffix attached to the Icelandic verb gella scream or to the Swedish adjective gall shrill] The giant who survives the destruction of a world; the fruit born of a life cycle (Trudgelmir). Bergelmir is called a son of Trudgelmir who in turn is born of Orgelmir (original sound), keynote of the gamut of existence.

Bhaskara (Sanskrit) Bhāskara [from bhās light + the verbal root kṛ to do, make] A title of Surya, the sun; mystically, it signifies life-giver. As an adjective, shining, bright.

bhava ::: becoming; state of being (sometimes added to an adjective to bhava form an abstract noun and translatable by a suffix such as "-ness", as in br.hadbhava, the state of being br.hat [wide], i.e., wideness); condition of consciousness; subjectivity; state of mind and feeling; physical indication of a psychological state; content, meaning (of rūpa); spiritual experience, realisation; emotion, "moved spiritualised state of the affective nature"; (madhura bhava, etc.) any of several types of relation between the jiva and the isvara, each being a way in which "the transcendent and universal person of the Divine conforms itself to our individualised personality and accepts a personal relation with us, at once identified with us as our supreme Self and yet close and different as our Master, Friend, Lover, Teacher"; attitude; mood; temperament; aspect; internal manifestation of the Goddess (devi), in . her total divine Nature (daivi prakr.ti or devibhava) or in the "more seizable because more defined and limited temperament" of any of her aspects, as in Mahakali bhava; a similar manifestation of any personality or combination of personalities of the deva or fourfold isvara, as in Indrabhava or Aniruddha bhava; in the vision of Reality (brahmadarsana), any of the "many aspects of the Infinite" which "disclose themselves, separate, combine, fuse, are unified together" until "there shines through it all the supreme integral Reality"; especially, the various "states of perception" in which the divine personality (purus.a) is seen in the impersonality of the brahman, ranging from the "general personality" of sagun.a brahman to the "vivid personality" of Kr.s.n.akali. bh bhavasamrddhi

Bhuta (Sanskrit) Bhūta [from the verbal root bhū to be, become] Has been; as an adjective become, been gone; as a noun, that which is or exists, any living being; entities that have lived and passed on. Applied specifically to “spooks, ghosts, simulacra, the reliquiae, of dead men; in other words, the astral dregs and remnants of human beings. They are the ‘shades’ of the ancients, the pale and ghostly phantoms living in the astral world, or the astral copies of the men that were; and the distinction between the bhuta and the kama-rupa is very slight.

bluebeard ::: n. --> The hero of a mediaeval French nursery legend, who, leaving home, enjoined his young wife not to open a certain room in his castle. She entered it, and found the murdered bodies of his former wives. -- Also used adjectively of a subject which it is forbidden to investigate.

Bodha (Sanskrit) Bodha [from the verbal root budh to acquire understanding, awaken, know] Wisdom, knowledge, perception, consciousness. As an adjective, knowing, understanding, awakening; as a proper noun, knowledge personified as a son of Buddhi.

Brahmana(Sanskrit) ::: A word having several meanings in Hindu sacred literature. Brahmana is both noun andadjective, as noun signifying a member of the first of the four Vedic classes, and as adjective signifyingwhat belongs to a Brahmana or what is Brahmanical. Secondly, it signifies one of the portions of theVedic literature, containing rules for the proper usage of the mantras or hymns at sacrifices, explanationsin detail of what these sacrifices are, illustrated by legends and old stories.Another adjective with closely similar meaning is Brahma. An old-fashioned English way of spellingBrahmana is Brahmin.

Budha (Sanskrit) Budha [from the verbal root budh to awake] As an adjective, intelligent, wise, clever, fully awake; hence a wise or instructed person, a sage. In mythology, Budha is represented as the son of Tara (or Rohini), the wife of Brihaspati (the planet Jupiter). Tara was carried off by Soma (the Moon), which led to the Tarakamaya — the war in svarga (heaven) — between the gods and asuras (the latter siding with Soma against the divinities). The gods were victorious and Tara was returned to Brihaspati, but the parentage of the son she gave birth to was claimed both by Brihapati and Soma: he was so beautiful he was named Budha (cf SD 2:498-9). Upon Brahma’s demand, Tara admitted that Budha was the offspring of Soma. Budha became the god of wisdom and the husband of Ila (or Ida), daughter of Manu Vaivasvata, and in one sense stands for esoteric wisdom.

bytesexual "jargon" /bi:t" sek"shu-*l/ An adjective used to describe hardware, denotes willingness to compute or pass data in either {big-endian} or {little-endian} format (depending, presumably, on a {mode bit} somewhere). See also {NUXI problem}. [{Jargon File}] (2009-05-28)

canonical (Historically, "according to religious law") 1. "mathematics" A standard way of writing a formula. Two formulas such as 9 + x and x + 9 are said to be equivalent because they mean the same thing, but the second one is in "canonical form" because it is written in the usual way, with the highest power of x first. Usually there are fixed rules you can use to decide whether something is in canonical form. Things in canonical form are easier to compare. 2. "jargon" The usual or standard state or manner of something. The term acquired this meaning in computer-science culture largely through its prominence in {Alonzo Church}'s work in computation theory and {mathematical logic} (see {Knights of the Lambda-Calculus}). Compare {vanilla}. This word has an interesting history. Non-technical academics do not use the adjective "canonical" in any of the senses defined above with any regularity; they do however use the nouns "canon" and "canonicity" (not "canonicalness"* or "canonicality"*). The "canon" of a given author is the complete body of authentic works by that author (this usage is familiar to Sherlock Holmes fans as well as to literary scholars). "The canon" is the body of works in a given field (e.g. works of literature, or of art, or of music) deemed worthwhile for students to study and for scholars to investigate. The word "canon" derives ultimately from the Greek "kanon" (akin to the English "cane") referring to a reed. Reeds were used for measurement, and in Latin and later Greek the word "canon" meant a rule or a standard. The establishment of a canon of scriptures within Christianity was meant to define a standard or a rule for the religion. The above non-technical academic usages stem from this instance of a defined and accepted body of work. Alongside this usage was the promulgation of "canons" ("rules") for the government of the Catholic Church. The usages relating to religious law derive from this use of the Latin "canon". It may also be related to arabic "qanun" (law). Hackers invest this term with a playfulness that makes an ironic contrast with its historical meaning. A true story: One Bob Sjoberg, new at the {MIT AI Lab}, expressed some annoyance at the incessant use of jargon. Over his loud objections, {GLS} and {RMS} made a point of using as much of it as possible in his presence, and eventually it began to sink in. Finally, in one conversation, he used the word "canonical" in jargon-like fashion without thinking. Steele: "Aha! We've finally got you talking jargon too!" Stallman: "What did he say?" Steele: "Bob just used "canonical" in the canonical way." Of course, canonicality depends on context, but it is implicitly defined as the way *hackers* normally expect things to be. Thus, a hacker may claim with a straight face that "according to religious law" is *not* the canonical meaning of "canonical". (2002-02-06)

Casualism: The doctrine that all things and events come to be by chance. E.g., the view of the Epicureans. Casuistic: Adjective; pertaining to casuistry and casuists, or relating to case histories, especially cases of conduct. In a depreciative sense, sophistical and misleading. -- J.J.R.

Chandra (Sanskrit) Candra [from the verbal root cand to shine] The moon; as an adjective, shining, glittering, having the brilliancy of light. Sometimes synonymous with Soma.

chatelaine ::: n. --> An ornamental hook, or brooch worn by a lady at her waist, and having a short chain or chains attached for a watch, keys, trinkets, etc. Also used adjectively; as, a chatelaine chain.

Chaturdasa (Sanskrit) Caturdaśa [from catur four + daśa ten] The numeral adjective fourteen; as a feminine noun (chaturdasi), the fourteenth day in a lunar fortnight. Chaturdasaka and chaturdasan mean fourteenth.

Chatur (Sanskrit) Catur The numeral adjective four.

Chetana (Sanskrit) Cetana As a noun, an intelligent being; the soul, the mind. As an adjective, especially in philosophy, percipient, conscious, sentient, intelligent.

classic "jargon" An adjective used before or after a noun to describe the original version of something, especially if the original is considered to be better. Examples include "Star Trek Classic" - the original TV series as opposed to the films, ST The Next Generation or any of the other spin-offs and follow-ups; or "PC Classic" - {IBM}'s {ISA}-bus computers as opposed to the {PS/2} series. (1996-10-27)

comparative ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to comparison.
Proceeding from, or by the method of, comparison; as, the comparative sciences; the comparative anatomy.
Estimated by comparison; relative; not positive or absolute, as compared with another thing or state.
Expressing a degree greater or less than the positive degree of the quality denoted by an adjective or adverb. The comparative degree is formed from the positive by the use of -er, more,


conacre ::: v. t. --> To underlet a portion of, for a single crop; -- said of a farm. ::: n. --> A system of letting a portion of a farm for a single crop.
Also used adjectively; as, the conacre system or principle.


concertante ::: n. --> A concert for two or more principal instruments, with orchestral accompaniment. Also adjectively; as, concertante parts.

content-free "jargon" 1. (By analogy with "context-free") Used of a message that adds nothing to the recipient's knowledge. Though this adjective is sometimes applied to {flamage}, it more usually connotes derision for communication styles that exalt form over substance or are centred on concerns irrelevant to the subject ostensibly at hand. Perhaps most used with reference to speeches by company presidents and other professional manipulators. See also {four-colour glossies}. "education" 2. Within British schools the term refers to general-purpose {software} such as a {word processor}, a {spreadsheet} or a program that tests spelling of words supplied by the teacher. This is in contrast to software designed to teach a particular topic, e.g. a plant growth simulation, an interactive periodic table or a program that tests spelling of a predetermined list of words. Content-free software can be more cost-effective as it can be reused for many lessons throughout the syllabus. [{Jargon File}] (2014-10-30)

Contradictio in adjecto: A logical inconsistency between a noun and its modifying adjective. A favorite example is the phrase "round square." -- A.C.

cookie 1. "web" {HTTP cookie}. 2. "protocol" A handle, transaction ID, or other token of agreement between cooperating programs. "I give him a packet, he gives me back a cookie". The ticket you get from a dry-cleaning shop is an example of a cookie; the only thing it's useful for is to relate a later transaction to this one (so you get the same clothes back). Compare {magic cookie}; see also {fortune cookie}. 3. "security, jargon" A {cracker} term for the {password} list on a {multi-user} computer. 4. "jargon" An adjective describing a computer that just became {toast}. (1997-04-14)

Cosmic: Relating to or originating from the cosmos.—In Rosicrucian usage, Cosmic is used as a noun as well as an adjective. Used as a noun, it means “the Universe as a harmonious relation of all natural and spiritual laws. As used in a Rosicrucian sense, the Divine, Infinite Intelligence of the Supreme Being permeating everything, the creative forces of God” (Rosicrucian Manual). (Cf. Kosmos, kosmic.)

creator ::: 1. The Divine Being, creator of all things. 2. A person, force or thing that creates. Creator, creator"s, Creator"s, creators, world-creators. (Sri Aurobindo also employs creator as an adjective.)

crochet ::: n. --> A kind of knitting done by means of a hooked needle, with worsted, silk, or cotton; crochet work. Commonly used adjectively. ::: v. t. & i. --> To knit with a crochet needle or hook; as, to crochet a shawl.

crock [American scatologism "crock of shit"] 1. An awkward feature or programming technique that ought to be made cleaner. For example, using small integers to represent error codes without the program interpreting them to the user (as in, for example, Unix "make(1)", which returns code 139 for a process that dies due to {segfault}). 2. A technique that works acceptably, but which is quite prone to failure if disturbed in the least. For example, a too-clever programmer might write an assembler which mapped {instruction mnemonics} to numeric {opcodes} {algorithm}ically, a trick which depends far too intimately on the particular bit patterns of the opcodes. (For another example of programming with a dependence on actual opcode values, see {The Story of Mel}.) Many crocks have a tightly woven, almost completely unmodifiable structure. See {kluge}, {brittle}. The adjectives "crockish" and "crocky", and the nouns "crockishness" and "crockitude", are also used. [{Jargon File}]

Crore [from Hindi karor 10 millions; cf Sanskrit koṭi] Numeral adjective 10 millions; in India, 100 lakhs — a lakh being 100,000. Used with graphic force in the Stanzas of Dzyan: “The Wheel whirled for thirty crores” (SD 2:15) — 300 million years or three occult ages.

crotaphite ::: n. --> The temple or temporal fossa. Also used adjectively.

custom (Or "bespoke") An adjective describing any product that is special in some way, individually created for a specific user or system, as opposed to generic or off-the-shelf. (2008-06-25)

dare-devil ::: n. --> A reckless fellow. Also used adjectively; as, dare-devil excitement.

Dasa (Sanskrit) Daśa The numerical adjective ten.

Death ::: Death occurs when a general break-up of the constitution of man takes place; nor is this break-up amatter of sudden occurrence, with the exceptions of course of such cases as mortal accidents or suicides.Death is always preceded, varying in each individual case, by a certain time spent in the withdrawal ofthe monadic individuality from an incarnation, and this withdrawal of course takes place coincidentlywith a decay of the seven-principle being which man is in physical incarnation. This decay precedesphysical dissolution, and is a preparation of and by the consciousness-center for the forthcomingexistence in the invisible realms. This withdrawal actually is a preparation for the life to come ininvisible realms, and as the septenary entity on this earth so decays, it may truly be said to beapproaching rebirth in the next sphere.Death occurs, physically speaking, with the cessation of activity of the pulsating heart. There is the lastbeat, and this is followed by immediate, instantaneous unconsciousness, for nature is very merciful inthese things. But death is not yet complete, for the brain is the last organ of the physical body really todie, and for some time after the heart has ceased beating, the brain and its memory still remain activeand, although unconsciously so, the human ego for this short length of time, passes in review every eventof the preceding life. This great or small panoramic picture of the past is purely automatic, so to say; yetthe soul-consciousness of the reincarnating ego watches this wonderful review incident by incident, areview which includes the entire course of thought and action of the life just closed. The entity is, for thetime being, entirely unconscious of everything else except this. Temporarily it lives in the past, andmemory dislodges from the akasic record, so to speak, event after event, to the smallest detail: passesthem all in review, and in regular order from the beginning to the end, and thus sees all its past life as anall-inclusive panorama of picture succeeding picture.There are very definite ethical and psychological reasons inhering in this process, for this process forms areconstruction of both the good and the evil done in the past life, and imprints this strongly as a record onthe fabric of the spiritual memory of the passing being. Then the mortal and material portions sink intooblivion, while the reincarnating ego carries the best and noblest parts of these memories into thedevachan or heaven-world of postmortem rest and recuperation. Thus comes the end called death; andunconsciousness, complete and undisturbed, succeeds, until there occurs what the ancients called thesecond death.The lower triad (prana, linga-sarira, sthula-sarira) is now definitely cast off, and the remaining quaternaryis free. The physical body of the lower triad follows the course of natural decay, and its various hosts oflife-atoms proceed whither their natural attractions draw them. The linga-sarira or model-body remains inthe astral realms, and finally fades out. The life-atoms of the prana, or electrical field, fly instantly backat the moment of physical dissolution to the natural pranic reservoirs of the planet.This leaves man, therefore, no longer a heptad or septenary entity, but a quaternary consisting of theupper duad (atma-buddhi) and the intermediate duad (manas-kama). The second death then takes place.Death and the adjective dead are mere words by which the human mind seeks to express thoughts whichit gathers from a more or less consistent observation of the phenomena of the material world. Death isdissolution of a component entity or thing. The dead, therefore, are merely dissolving bodies -- entitieswhich have reached their term on this our physical plane. Dissolution is common to all things, becauseall physical things are composite: they are not absolute things. They are born; they grow; they reachmaturity; they enjoy, as the expression runs, a certain term of life in the full bloom of their powers; thenthey "die." That is the ordinary way of expressing what men call death; and the corresponding adjectiveis dead, when we say that such things or entities are dead.Do you find death per se anywhere? No. You find nothing but action; you find nothing but movement;you find nothing but change. Nothing stands still or is annihilated. What is called death itself shouts forthto us the fact of movement and change. Absolute inertia is unknown in nature or in the human mind; itdoes not exist.

debit ::: n. --> A debt; an entry on the debtor (Dr.) side of an account; -- mostly used adjectively; as, the debit side of an account. ::: v. t. --> To charge with debt; -- the opposite of, and correlative to, credit; as, to debit a purchaser for the goods sold.
To enter on the debtor (Dr.) side of an account; as, to


decapod ::: n. --> A crustacean with ten feet or legs, as a crab; one of the Decapoda. Also used adjectively.

declension ::: n. --> The act or the state of declining; declination; descent; slope.
A falling off towards a worse state; a downward tendency; deterioration; decay; as, the declension of virtue, of science, of a state, etc.
Act of courteously refusing; act of declining; a declinature; refusal; as, the declension of a nomination.
Inflection of nouns, adjectives, etc., according to the


denominative ::: a. --> Conferring a denomination or name.
Connotative; as, a denominative name.
Possessing, or capable of possessing, a distinct denomination or designation; denominable.
Derived from a substantive or an adjective; as, a denominative verb. ::: n.


Dhimat (Sanskrit) Dhīmat As an adjective, wise, intelligent; as a noun, an epithet of spirituality.

diamido- ::: a. --> A prefix or combining form of Diamine. [Also used adjectively.]

diazo- ::: --> A combining form (also used adjectively), meaning pertaining to, or derived from, a series of compounds containing a radical of two nitrogen atoms, united usually to an aromatic radical; as, diazo-benzene, C6H5.N2.OH.

distributive ::: a. --> Tending to distribute; serving to divide and assign in portions; dealing to each his proper share.
Assigning the species of a general term.
Expressing separation; denoting a taking singly, not collectively; as, a distributive adjective or pronoun, such as each, either, every; a distributive numeral, as (Latin) bini (two by two). ::: n.


doctrinaire ::: n. --> One who would apply to political or other practical concerns the abstract doctrines or the theories of his own philosophical system; a propounder of a new set of opinions; a dogmatic theorist. Used also adjectively; as, doctrinaire notions.

dogskin ::: n. --> The skin of a dog, or leather made of the skin. Also used adjectively.

dragon ::: a mythical monster traditionally represented as a gigantic reptile having a lion"s claws, the tail of a serpent, wings, and a scaly skin. (Also employed by Sri Aurobindo as an adjective.)

dungeon ::: a dark, often underground chamber or cell used to confine prisoners. (Sri Aurobindo employs the word as an adjective.)

echelon ::: n. --> An arrangement of a body of troops when its divisions are drawn up in parallel lines each to the right or the left of the one in advance of it, like the steps of a ladder in position for climbing. Also used adjectively; as, echelon distance.
An arrangement of a fleet in a wedge or V formation. ::: v. t.


Eka (Sanskrit) Eka The numeral adjective “one”; in the sense of first, primeval, or adi, it may mean Brahma, the third or creative kosmic Logos. This or any other One, such as the Hebrew ’ahath or ’ehad, never means boundless, frontierless infinity, which is symbolized by the zero. One is always the beginning of numeration as well as of enumeration, so that on however high a plane the One may be, it is always the beginning of the hierarchy flowing forth from it as its root or seed. In boundless infinitude there are, therefore, innumerable such Ones or hierarchs of kosmic hierarchies.

electrotype ::: n. --> A facsimile plate made by electrotypy for use in printing; also, an impression or print from such plate. Also used adjectively. ::: v. t. --> To make facsimile plates of by the electrotype process; as, to electrotype a page of type, a book, etc. See

Empathic: Adjective of empathy. See Empathy. -- L.W.

epithet ::: n. --> An adjective expressing some quality, attribute, or relation, that is properly or specially appropriate to a person or thing; as, a just man; a verdant lawn.
Term; expression; phrase. ::: v. t. --> To describe by an epithet.


evangelist ::: 1. A preacher of the Christian gospel. 2. Any zealous advocate of a cause. (Employed by Sri Aurobindo as an adjective.)

excise ::: n. --> In inland duty or impost operating as an indirect tax on the consumer, levied upon certain specified articles, as, tobacco, ale, spirits, etc., grown or manufactured in the country. It is also levied to pursue certain trades and deal in certain commodities. Certain direct taxes (as, in England, those on carriages, servants, plate, armorial bearings, etc.), are included in the excise. Often used adjectively; as, excise duties; excise law; excise system.
That department or bureau of the public service charged


experientiallist ::: n. --> One who accepts the doctrine of experientialism. Also used adjectively.

Exponible: Employed as a noun and as an adjective, applied to an obscure proposition which needs an exposition or explanation owing to a hidden composition. Kant applied it to propositions including an affirmation and a concealed negation, which an exposition makes apparent. -- J.J.R.

folks ::: n. collect. & pl. --> In Anglo-Saxon times, the people of a group of townships or villages; a community; a tribe.
People in general, or a separate class of people; -- generally used in the plural form, and often with a qualifying adjective; as, the old folks; poor folks.
The persons of one&


foolahs ::: n. pl. --> Same as Fulahs.
A peculiar African race of uncertain origin, but distinct from the negro tribes, inhabiting an extensive region of Western Soudan. Their color is brown or yellowish bronze. They are Mohammedans. Called also Fellatahs, Foulahs, and Fellani. Fulah is also used adjectively; as, Fulah empire, tribes, language.


Functional variables and functional constants are together called functional symbols (the adjective functional being here understood to refer to propositional functions). Functional symbols are called n-adic if they are either functional variables with subscript n or functional constants denoting n-adic propositional functions of individuals. The formulas of the functional calculus of first order (relative to the given lists of symbols (1), (2), (3), (4)) are all the expressions determined by the eight following rules: all the propositional variables are formulas; if F is a monadic functional symbol and X is an individual variable, [F](X) is a formula; if F is an n-adic functional symbol and X1, X2, . . . , Xn are individual variables (which may or may not be all different), [F](X1, X2, . . . , Xn) is a formula; if A is a formula, ∼[A] is a formula; if A nnd B are formulas, [A][B] is a formula; if A and B are formulas, [A] ∨ [B] is a formula; if A is a formula and X is an individual variable, (X)[A] is a formula; if A is a formula and X is an individual variable, (EX)[A] is a formula. In practice, we omit superfluous brackets and braces (but not parentheses) in writing formulas, nnd we omit subscripts on functional variables in cases where the subscript is sufficiently indicated by the form of the formula in which the functional variable appears. The sentential connectives |, ⊃, ≡, +, are introduced as abbreviations in the same way as in § 1 for the propositional calculus. We make further the following definitions, which are also to be construed as abbreviations, the arrow being read "stands for": [A] ⊃x [B] → (X)[[A] ⊃ [B]]. [A] ≡x [B] → (X)[[A] ≡ [B]]. [A] ∧x [B] → (EX)[[A][B]]. (Here A and B are any formulas, and X is any individual variable. Brackets may be omitted when superfluous.) If F and G denote monadic propositional functions, we say that F(X) ⊃x G(X) expresses formal implication of the function G by the function F, and F(X) ≡x G(X) expresses formal equivalence of the two functions (the adjective formal is perhaps not well chosen here but has become established in use).

Gauri (Sanskrit) Gaurī Feminine adjective brilliant, beautiful. Frequently used for feminine beings or entities, it means a maid; the earth; the goddess Parvati; consort of Siva and of Varuna; and likewise the Mother of Sakyamuni, Gautama Buddha.

gentile ::: a. --> One of a non-Jewish nation; one neither a Jew nor a Christian; a worshiper of false gods; a heathen.
Belonging to the nations at large, as distinguished from the Jews; ethnic; of pagan or heathen people.
Denoting a race or country; as, a gentile noun or adjective.


hairy 1. Annoyingly complicated. "{DWIM} is incredibly hairy." 2. Incomprehensible. "{DWIM} is incredibly hairy." 3. Of people, high-powered, authoritative, rare, expert, and/or incomprehensible. Hard to explain except in context: "He knows this hairy lawyer who says there's nothing to worry about." See also {hirsute}. The adjective "long-haired" is well-attested to have been in slang use among scientists and engineers during the early 1950s; it was equivalent to modern "hairy" and was very likely ancestral to the hackish use. In fact the noun "long-hair" was at the time used to describe a hairy person. Both senses probably passed out of use when long hair was adopted as a signature trait by the 1960s counterculture, leaving hackish "hairy" as a sort of stunted mutant relic. 4. "topology" {hairy ball}. [{Jargon File}] (2001-03-29)

half-caste ::: n. --> One born of a European parent on the one side, and of a Hindoo or Mohammedan on the other. Also adjective; as, half-caste parents.

hammock ::: n. --> A swinging couch or bed, usually made of netting or canvas about six feet wide, suspended by clews or cords at the ends.
A piece of land thickly wooded, and usually covered with bushes and vines. Used also adjectively; as, hammock land.


hardwarily /hard-weir'*-lee/ In a way pertaining to hardware. "The system is hardwarily unreliable." The adjective "hardwary" is *not* traditionally used, though it has recently been reported from the U.K. See {softwarily}. [{Jargon File}] (1995-01-23)

Harikesa (Sanskrit) Harikeśa [from hari yellow + keśa hair] One of the seven principal rays of the sun; also a name for Savitri. As an adjective, yellow- or golden-haired. It is a title especially given to Siva.

Hayyah (Hebrew) Ḥayyāh [from ḥāyāh life, vitality.] Sometimes Chiah, Chayah, Hay-yeh, etc. Life in the abstract; as an adjective, living; a living being or thing, and hence often a beast or an animal; in a collective plural, living beings including human beings.

hendiadys ::: n. --> A figure in which the idea is expressed by two nouns connected by and, instead of by a noun and limiting adjective; as, we drink from cups and gold, for golden cups.

henpeck ::: v. t. --> To subject to petty authority; -- said of a wife who thus treats her husband. Commonly used in the past participle (often adjectively).

heptad ::: n. --> An atom which has a valence of seven, and which can be theoretically combined with, substituted for, or replaced by, seven monad atoms or radicals; as, iodine is a heptad in iodic acid. Also used as an adjective.

herald ::: Sri Aurobindo employs the word as an adjective pertaining to an aspect of heraldry, i.e. a heraldic emblazonment or device; armorial bearings; heraldic symbolism.

Hermetic: An adjective originally meaning “originated by Hermes Trismegistus or based on his teachings.” Now used to mean occult or esoteric in general. (Also: hermetical.) Used also as a noun meaning a student or practitioner of alchemy or occultism or esoteric science.

hexad ::: n. --> An atom whose valence is six, and which can be theoretically combined with, substituted for, or replaced by, six monad atoms or radicals; as, sulphur is a hexad in sulphuric acid. Also used as an adjective.

Himavat, Himavan (Sanskrit) Himavat, Himavān The snowy; a name of the Himalaya range, especially the personified aspect, mythologically considered as the husband of Mena or Menaka, whose eldest daughter was Himavatsuta — the Ganges. Also used as an adjective, snow-clad. The mountain range is known as Himavan-mekhala (the snowy mountain belt or girdle). In the esoteric commentaries on the Book of Dzyan this chain of mountains is represented as a belt that encircles the earth — whether above or below water (SD 2:401).

his ::: pron. --> Belonging or pertaining to him; -- used as a pronominal adjective or adjective pronoun; as, tell John his papers are ready; formerly used also for its, but this use is now obsolete.
The possessive of he; as, the book is his.


hogskin ::: n. --> Leather tanned from a hog&

Human Monad ::: In theosophical terminology the human monad is that part of man's constitution which is the root of thehuman ego. After death it allies itself with the upper duad, atma-buddhi, and its inclusion within thebosom of the upper duad produces the source whence issues the Reincarnating Ego at its next rebirth.The monad per se is an upper duad alone, but the attributive adjective "human" is given to it on accountof the reincarnating ego which it contains within itself after death. This last usage is rather popular andconvenient than strictly accurate.

hydroxy- ::: --> A combining form, also used adjectively, indicating hydroxyl as an ingredient.

Idealism: Any system or doctrine whose fundamental interpretative principle is ideal. Broadly, any theoretical or practical view emphasizing mind (soul, spirit, life) or what is characteristically of pre-eminent value or significance to it. Negatively, the alternative to Materialism. (Popular confusion arises from the fact that Idealism is related to either or both uses of the adjective "ideal," i.e., (a) pertaining to ideas, and (b) pertaining to ideals. While a certain inner bond of sympathy can be established between these two standpoints, for theoretical purposes they must be clearly distinguished.) Materialism emphasizes the spatial, pictorial, corporeal, sensuous, non-valuational, factual, and mechanistic. Idealism stresses the supra- or non-spatial, non-pictorial, incorporeal, suprasensuous, normative or valuational, and teleological. The term Idealism shares the unavoidable expansion of such words as Idea, Mind, Spirit, and even Person, and in consequence it now possesses usefulness only in pointing out a general direction of thought, unless qualified, e.g., Platonic Idealism, Personal Idealism, Objective Idealism, Moral Idealism, etc.

inflect ::: v. t. --> To turn from a direct line or course; to bend; to incline, to deflect; to curve; to bow.
To vary, as a noun or a verb in its terminations; to decline, as a noun or adjective, or to conjugate, as a verb.
To modulate, as the voice.


intaglio ::: n. --> A cutting or engraving; a figure cut into something, as a gem, so as to make a design depressed below the surface of the material; hence, anything so carved or impressed, as a gem, matrix, etc.; -- opposed to cameo. Also used adjectively.

Intelligible: Understandable; comprehensible; knowable; meaningful; Orderly; logical; coherent; rational; Communicable; expressible; Having unity of principle; capable of complete rational explanation or understanding; capable of causal explanation; Clear to natural or pure reason; apprehensible by the intellect (q.v.) only as against apprehensible through the senses; conceptual as against perceptual; conceptually describable or explainable; Capable of being known synoptically or as it is in itself or in essence; capable of being known through itself as against by agency of something else; graspable by in tuition, self-explanatory; Capable of being appreciated or sympathized with; Super-sensible; of the nature of mind, reason, or their higher powers. . -- M.T.K Intension and extension: The intension of a concept consists of the qualities or properties which go to make up the concept. The extension of a concept consists of the things which fall under the concept; or, according to another definition, the extension of a concept consists of the concepts which are subsumed under it (determine subclasses). This is the old distinction between intension and extension, and coincides approximately with the distinction between a monadic proposittonal function (q. v.) in intension and a class (q. v.). The words intension and extension are also used in connection with a number of distinctions related or analogous to this one, the adjective extensional being applied to notions or points of view which in some respect confine attention to truth-values of propositions as opposed to meanings constituting propositions. In the case of (interpreted) calculi of propositions or propositional functions, the adjective intensional may mean that account is taken of modality, extensional that all functions of propositions which appear are truth-functions. The extreme of the extensional point of view does away with propositions altogether and retains only truth-values in their place. -- A.C.

isonitroso- ::: --> A combining from (also used adjectively), signifying: Pertaining to, or designating, the characteristic, nitrogenous radical, NOH, called the isonitroso group.

Jnanin (Sanskrit) Jñānin [from the verbal root jñā to know] A sage, one who is endowed with knowledge concerning the spiritual and the divine; as an adjective, wise.

lambskin ::: n. --> The skin of a lamb; especially, a skin dressed with the wool on, and used as a mat. Also used adjectively.
A kind of woolen.


lamellibranch ::: n. --> One of the Lamellibranchia. Also used adjectively.

lepadoid ::: n. --> A stalked barnacle of the genus Lepas, or family Lepadidae; a goose barnacle. Also used adjectively.

lepidoganoid ::: n. --> Any one of a division (Lepidoganoidei) of ganoid fishes, including those that have scales forming a coat of mail. Also used adjectively.

liver ::: n. --> One who, or that which, lives.
A resident; a dweller; as, a liver in Brooklyn.
One whose course of life has some marked characteristic (expressed by an adjective); as, a free liver.
A very large glandular and vascular organ in the visceral cavity of all vertebrates.
The glossy ibis (Ibis falcinellus); -- said to have given its name to the city of Liverpool.


locative ::: a. --> Indicating place, or the place where, or wherein; as, a locative adjective; locative case of a noun. ::: n. --> The locative case.

Logical meaning: See meaning, kinds of, 3. Logical Positivism: See Scientific Empiricism. Logical truth: See Meaning, kinds of, 3; and Truth, semantical. Logistic: The old use of the word logistic to mean the art of calculation, or common arithmetic, is now nearly obsolete. In Seventeenth Century English the corresponding adjective was also sometimes used to mean simply logical. Leibniz occasionally employed logistica (as also logica mathematica) as one of various alternative names for his calculus ratiocinator. The modern use of logistic (French logistique) as a synonym for symbolic logic (q. v.) dates from the International Congress of Philosophy of 1904, where it was proposed independently by Itelson, Lalande, and Couturat. The word logistic has been employed by some with special reference to the Frege-Russell doctrine that mathematics is reducible to logic, but it would seem that the better usage makes it simply a synonym of symbolic logic. -- A. C.

looking ::: p. pr. & vb. n. --> of Look ::: a. --> Having a certain look or appearance; -- often compounded with adjectives; as, good-looking, grand-looking, etc. ::: n.

Madhav: “These are adjectives that apply to Aswapathy himself. He is a vehicle carrying the wonders of paradise, the wonders of heaven, which he has seen and experienced.” The Book of the Divine Mother

Madhya (Sanskrit) Madhya The middle; as an adjective, middle, center, interior as contrasted with outer; also intermediate as contrasted with either extreme or end. As a neuter noun, 10,000,000 trillions or 10 quintillion (10,000,000,000,000,000,000).

Mahabhautic [anglicization of Sanskrit mahābhautika] Adjective of mahabhutas, the elementary substantial principles of the universe.

Mahabhutas (Sanskrit) Mahābhūta-s [from mahā great + bhūta element from the verbal root bhū to be, become] Great or primordial element; the gross or vehicular cosmic elements in contradistinction from the subtle or causative cosmic elements (tanmatras) out of which the mahabhutas are evolved. Five are enumerated exoterically — aether, fire, air, water, and earth — but in the esoteric enumeration there are seven, ten, or twelve. Also an adjective meaning being great, or relating to the gross elements.

mahori ::: n. --> One of the dark race inhabiting principally the islands of Eastern Polynesia. Also used adjectively.

Maieutic: Adjective derived from the Greek maia, midwife; hence pertaining to the art of assisting at childbirth, and to the positive aspect of the Socratic method. Socrates pretended to be a midwife, like his mother, since he assisted at the birth of knowledge by eliciting correct concepts by his process of interrogation and examination. -- J.J.R.

Manasa(s) (Sanskrit) Mānasa [from mānasa intelligent from manas mind] Adjective of manas; in theosophical literature, title for the Sons of Wisdom or manasaputras, those intellectual beings, spiritual pitris or dhyanis, who endowed humanity with manas or intelligence; hence, the immortal egos in man. See also AGNISHVATTAS; MANASAPUTRAS

mantispid ::: n. --> Any neuropterous insect of the genus Mantispa, and allied genera. The larvae feed on plant lice. Also used adjectively. See Illust. under Neuroptera.

Mediumistic: An adjective meaning relating to, characteristic of or produced by a medium or mediums.

megalops ::: n. --> A larva, in a stage following the zoea, in the development of most crabs. In this stage the legs and abdominal appendages have appeared, the abdomen is relatively long, and the eyes are large. Also used adjectively.
A large fish; the tarpum.


mes- ::: --> See Meso-.
A combining form denoting in the middle, intermediate;
denoting a type of hydrocarbons which are regarded as methenyl derivatives. Also used adjectively.


midweek ::: n. --> The middle of the week. Also used adjectively.

mine ::: n. --> See Mien. ::: pron. & a. --> Belonging to me; my. Used as a pronominal to me; my. Used as a pronominal adjective in the predicate; as, "Vengeance is mine; I will repay." Rom. xii. 19. Also, in the old style, used attributively, instead of my, before a noun beginning with a vowel.

mis- ::: --> A prefix used adjectively and adverbially in the sense of amiss, wrong, ill, wrongly, unsuitably; as, misdeed, mislead, mischief, miscreant.

moabite ::: n. --> One of the posterity of Moab, the son of Lot. (Gen. xix. 37.) Also used adjectively.

mode 1. A general state, usually used with an adjective describing the state. Use of the word "mode" rather than "state" implies that the state is extended over time, and probably also that some activity characteristic of that state is being carried out. "No time to hack; I'm in thesis mode." In its jargon sense, "mode" is most often attributed to people, though it is sometimes applied to programs and inanimate objects. In particular, see {hack mode}, {day mode}, {night mode}, {demo mode}, {fireworks mode}, and {yoyo mode}; also {chat}. 2. More technically, a mode is a special state that certain user interfaces must pass into in order to perform certain functions. For example, in order to insert characters into a document in the Unix editor "vi", one must type the "i" key, which invokes the "Insert" command. The effect of this command is to put vi into "insert mode", in which typing the "i" key has a quite different effect (to wit, it inserts an "i" into the document). One must then hit another special key, "ESC", in order to leave "insert mode". Nowadays, modeful interfaces are generally considered {losing} but survive in quite a few widely used tools built in less enlightened times. [{Jargon File}] 3. "hardware" {video mode}. (1994-12-22)

monophysite ::: n. --> One of a sect, in the ancient church, who maintained that the human and divine in Jesus Christ constituted but one composite nature. Also used adjectively.

Mukhya (Sanskrit) Mukhya As an adjective, first or primary. In the Puranas, seven creations of Brahma are enumerated, the fourth being called Mukhya, or the fundamental formation, production, or emanation of perceptible beings and things — the evolution or emanation of the mineral and vegetable kingdoms. This creation is called primary (mukhya), and not secondary, because it relates to the primordial cosmic emanative activities. As such, although the fourth in certain enumerations, it is considered the first as productive of the rupa worlds below. The powers, prakritis, and vikaras beginning with these rupa worlds are alluded to as the secondary emanation.

myxopod ::: n. --> A rhizopod or moneran. Also used adjectively; as, a myxopod state.

nazarite ::: n. --> A Jew bound by a vow to lave the hair uncut, to abstain from wine and strong drink, and to practice extraordinary purity of life and devotion, the obligation being for life, or for a certain time. The word is also used adjectively.

nearness ::: n. --> The state or quality of being near; -- used in the various senses of the adjective.

neo- ::: --> A prefix meaning new, recent, late; and in chemistry designating specifically that variety of metameric hydrocarbons which, when the name was applied, had been recently classified, and in which at least one carbon atom in connected directly with four other carbon atoms; -- contrasted with normal and iso-; as, neopentane; the neoparaffins. Also used adjectively.

nitro- ::: --> A combining form or an adjective denoting the presence of niter.
A combining form (used also adjectively) designating certain compounds of nitrogen or of its acids, as nitrohydrochloric, nitrocalcite; also, designating the group or radical NO2, or its compounds, as nitrobenzene.


nitroso- ::: --> (/ / /). (Chem.) A prefix (also used adjectively) designating the group or radical NO, called the nitroso group, or its compounds.

nitrosyl ::: n. --> the radical NO, called also the nitroso group. The term is sometimes loosely used to designate certain nitro compounds; as, nitrosyl sulphuric acid. Used also adjectively.

Noetic(Greek) ::: The adjective belonging to nous (q.v.).

Nolini: “Hyphenated words are meant as one word, not merely adjectives.

noncommittal ::: n. --> A state of not being committed or pledged; forbearance or refusal to commit one&

none ::: a. --> No one; not one; not anything; -- frequently used also partitively, or as a plural, not any.
No; not any; -- used adjectively before a vowel, in old style; as, thou shalt have none assurance of thy life. ::: n. --> Same as Nones, 2.


nonyl ::: n. --> The hydrocarbon radical, C9H19, derived from nonane and forming many compounds. Used also adjectively; as, nonyl alcohol.

Note on the Indian Sign-Language. Certain general principles concerning gesture speech may be established, by considering the sign-language of the North American Indian which seems to be the most developed. A sign-language is established when equally powerful tribes of different tongues come into contact. Better gestures are composed and undesirable ones are weeded out, partly as a result of tribal federations and partly through the development of technical skills and crafts. Signs come into being, grow and die, according to the needs of the time and to the changes in practical processes. Stimulus of outside intercourse is necessary to keep alive the interest required for the maintenance and growth of a gesture speech; without it, the weaker tribe is absorbed in the stronger, and the vocal language most easily acquired prevails. Sign-languages involve a basic syntax destined to convey the fundamental meanings without refinement and in abbreviated form. Articles, prepositions and conjunctions are omitted; adjectives follow nouns; verbs are used in the present tense; nouns and verbs are used in the singular, while the idea of plurality is expressed in some other way. The use of signals with the smoke, the pony, the mirror, the blanket and the drum (as is also the case with the African tam-tams) may be considered as an extension of the sign-language, though they are related more directly to the general art of signalling. -- T.G.

nounize ::: v. t. --> To change (an adjective, verb, etc.) into a noun.

Omniscience: In philosophy and theology it means the complete and perfect knowledge of God, of Himself and of all other beings, past, present, and future, or merely possible, as well as all their activities, real or possible, including the future free actions of human beings. (The adjective is: omniscient.)

one ::: a. --> Being a single unit, or entire being or thing, and no more; not multifold; single; individual.
Denoting a person or thing conceived or spoken of indefinitely; a certain. "I am the sister of one Claudio" [Shak.], that is, of a certain man named Claudio.
Pointing out a contrast, or denoting a particular thing or person different from some other specified; -- used as a correlative adjective, with or without the.


ortho- ::: --> A combining form signifying straight, right, upright, correct, regular; as, orthodromy, orthodiagonal, orthodox, orthographic.
A combining form (also used adjectively)
The one of several acids of the same element (as the phosphoric acids), which actually occurs with the greatest number of hydroxyl groups; as, orthophosphoric acid. Cf. Normal.
Connection with, or affinity to, one variety of isomerism,


oxy- ::: --> A prefix, also used adjectively
A compound containing oxygen.
A compound containing the hydroxyl group, more properly designated by hydroxy-. See Hydroxy-.


painim ::: n. --> A pagan; an infidel; -- used also adjectively.

Parabrahman(Sanskrit) ::: Para is a word meaning "beyond." Brahman (neuter) is sometimes used as the universal self orspirit; also called paramatman. Beyond Brahman is the para-Brahman. Note the deep philosophicalmeaning of this -- there is no attempt here to limit the illimitable, the ineffable, by adjectives. In theSanskrit Vedas and in the works deriving therefrom and belonging to the Vedic literary cycle, this"beyond" is called tat, "THAT," as this world of manifestations is called idam, "This."Parabrahman is intimately connected with mulaprakriti. Their interaction and intermingling cause thefirst nebulous thrilling, if the words will pass, of the universal life when spiritual desire first arose in it inthe beginnings of things. Parabrahman, therefore, literally means "beyond Brahman"; and strictlyspeaking it is Brahman to which the Occidental term Absolute should be applied. Parabrahman is noentity, is no individual or individualized being. It is a convenient technical word with conveniently vaguephilosophical significancy, implying whatever is beyond the Absolute or Brahman of any hierarchy. Justas Brahman is the summit of a kosmic hierarchy, so, following the same line of thought, the parabrahmanis "whatever is beyond Brahman."

participle ::: n. --> A part of speech partaking of the nature both verb and adjective; a form of a verb, or verbal adjective, modifying a noun, but taking the adjuncts of the verb from which it is derived. In the sentences: a letter is written; being asleep he did not hear; exhausted by toil he will sleep soundly, -- written, being, and exhaustedare participles. ::: a.

Particulate: An adjective which means, having the form of minute particles, or assuming such a form. Also a verb now almost obsolete which signified, to divide into parts mentally, or to separate into really existing particles. Formerly it also meant, to particularize. -- J.J.R.

pauper ::: n. --> A poor person; especially, one development on private or public charity. Also used adjectively; as, pouper immigrants, pouper labor.

pectinibranch ::: n. --> One of the Pectinibranchiata. Also used adjectively.

penta- ::: --> A combining form denoting five; as, pentacapsular; pentagon.
Denoting the degree of five, either as regards quality, property, or composition; as, pentasulphide; pentoxide, etc. Also used adjectively.


phyllopod ::: n. --> One of the Phyllopoda. [Also used adjectively.]

pickthank ::: n. --> One who strives to put another under obligation; an officious person; hence, a flatterer. Used also adjectively.

pietist ::: n. --> One of a class of religious reformers in Germany in the 17th century who sought to revive declining piety in the Protestant churches; -- often applied as a term of reproach to those who make a display of religious feeling. Also used adjectively.

pilgrim ::: someone who journeys to different places in distant lands. (Sri Aurobindo often employs the word as an adjective.) pilgrim"s.

piston ::: a solid cylinder or disk that fits snugly into a hollow cylinder and moves back and forth under the pressure of a fluid (typically a hot gas formed by combustion, as in many engines), or moves or compresses a fluid, as in a pump or compressor. (Sri Aurobindo employs the word as an adjective.)

plumularian ::: n. --> Any Plumularia. Also used adjectively.

poecilopod ::: n. --> One of the Poecilopoda. Also used adjectively.

pompadour ::: n. --> A crimson or pink color; also, a style of dress cut low and square in the neck; also, a mode of dressing the hair by drawing it straight back from the forehead over a roll; -- so called after the Marchioness de Pompadour of France. Also much used adjectively.

poorness ::: n. --> The quality or state of being poor (in any of the senses of the adjective).

Pralaya(Sanskrit) ::: A compound word, formed of laya, from the root li, and the prefix pra. Li means "to dissolve,""to melt away," "to liquefy," as when one pours water upon a cube of salt or of sugar. The cube of salt orof sugar vanishes in the water -- it dissolves, changes its form -- and this may be taken as a figure,imperfect as it is, or as a symbol, of what pralaya is: a crumbling away, a vanishing away, of matter intosomething else which is yet in it, and surrounds it, and interpenetrates it. Such is pralaya, usuallytranslated as the state of latency, state of rest, state of repose, between two manvantaras or life cycles. Ifwe remember distinctly the meaning of the Sanskrit word, our minds take a new bent in direction, followa new thought. We get new ideas; we penetrate into the arcanum of the thing that takes place. Pralaya,therefore, is dissolution, death.There are many kinds of pralayas. There is the universal pralaya, called prakritika, because it is thepralaya or vanishing away, melting away, of prakriti or nature. Then there is the solar pralaya. Sun inSanskrit is surya, and the adjective from this is saurya: hence, the saurya pralaya or the pralaya of thesolar system. Then, thirdly, there is the terrestrial or planetary pralaya. One Sanskrit word for earth isbhumi, and the adjective corresponding to this is bhaumika: hence, the bhaumika pralaya. Then there isthe pralaya or death of the individual man. Man is purusha; the corresponding adjective is paurusha:hence, the paurusha pralaya or death of man. These adjectives apply equally well to the several kinds ofmanvantaras or life cycles.There is another kind of pralaya which is called nitya. In its general sense, it means "constant" or"continuous," and can be exemplified by the constant or continuous change -- life and death -- of the cellsof our bodies. It is a state in which the indwelling and dominating entity remains, but its differentprinciples and rupas undergo continuous and incessant change. Hence it is called nitya, signifyingcontinuous. It applies to the body of man, to the outer sphere of earth, to the earth itself, to the solarsystem, and indeed to all nature. It is the unceasing and chronic changing of things that are -- the passingfrom phase to phase, meaning the pralaya or death of one phase, to be followed by the rebirth of itssucceeding phase. There are other kinds of pralayas than those herein enumerated.

Pratyaksha (Sanskrit) Pratyakṣa [from prati against, in front of + akṣa eye] As an adjective, present before the eyes, perceptible, cognizable by any of the sense organs; also clear, manifest. As a noun, ocular evidence, direct perception — one of the four pramanas (modes of proof).

Pre-critical: This adjective is commonly applied to all Kant's works prior to the Critique of Pure Reason since they all dogmatically assume knowledge of things-in-themselves to be possible. It is also applied to the sections of the Critique which are thought to have been written earliest, whether or not they imply this assumption. See Kantianism. -- A.C.E.

prolepsis ::: n. --> A figure by which objections are anticipated or prevented.
A necessary truth or assumption; a first or assumed principle.
An error in chronology, consisting in an event being dated before the actual time.
The application of an adjective to a noun in anticipation, or to denote the result, of the action of the verb; as,


prophet ::: 1. A person who speaks by divine inspiration or as the interpreter through whom the will of a god is expressed. 2. A person who predicts the future. prophet"s, prophets. (Sri Aurobindo often employs the word as an adjective.) prophet-passion, prophet-speech.

pseudo- ::: --> A combining form or prefix signifying false, counterfeit, pretended, spurious; as, pseudo-apostle, a false apostle; pseudo-clergy, false or spurious clergy; pseudo-episcopacy, pseudo-form, pseudo-martyr, pseudo-philosopher. Also used adjectively.

Psuchikos, Psychikos (Greek) The adjective of psuche or psyche, manas in conjunction with kama. In its mental aspects psyche is the distorted reflection of the higher aspect of manas, whereas the nous is manas overenlightened by buddhi. In the New Testament psuchikos is translated “natural” (1 Cor 15:46) and “sensual” (James 3:15) and thus is confused with the vital-emotional or corporeal parts of man, and the teaching of the duality of the human being is lost sight of. The correct word for the vital-physical or “natural” part of man is somatikos. See also PSYCHIC POWERS

Psyche (Greek) [from psycho breathe, blow; cf Greek pneuma from pneo to breathe, blow; Latin anima, spiritus all connected with breath, wind, spirit, life, soul] Used in classic Greek as vaguely as is our word soul; but in Platonic philosophy and theosophical usage, the lower or carnally influenced aspect of the mind or soul, as contrasted with the higher or spiritually influenced aspect: kama-manas as against buddhi-manas, the latter represented by the Greek nous. From these two words are derived the adjectives psychic and noetic.

Psychic, psychical (adjective): Mental; relating to, emanating from, dealing with or based on the soul or psyche; non-physical.

pulmonarian ::: n. --> Any arachnid that breathes by lunglike organs, as the spiders and scorpions. Also used adjectively.

Puranic Anglicized adjective of Purana.

purely ::: adv. --> In a pure manner (in any sense of the adjective).
Nicely; prettily.


pureness ::: n. --> The state of being pure (in any sense of the adjective).

purple ::: Amal: “It’s [violet valleys of the Blest] a reference to a supra-terrestrial region. As far as I remember, Sri Aurobindo added another similar line when I wrote to him some Latin lines from Virgil about a region where everything was ‘purple’. The adjective ‘purple’ in Latin means a region beyond the earth, which has either this colour or is simply ‘shining’. Sri Aurobindo’s new line: ‘And griefless countries under purple suns’.”

Pythia or Pythoness (Greek) Pytho was an older name for Delphi, and from it was formed the adjective Pythius, in the feminine Pythia. This was applied to the priestess or seeress who gave the oracles of Apollo at Delphi. “On the authority of Iamblichus, Plutarch and others, a Pythia was a priestess chosen among the sensitive of the poorer classes, and placed in a temple where oracular powers were exercised. There she had a room secluded from all but the chief Hierophant and Seer, and once admitted, was, like a nun, lost to the world. Sitting on a tripod of brass placed over a fissure in the ground, through which arose intoxicating vapours, these subterranean exhalations, penetrating her whole system, produced the prophetic mania, in which abnormal state she delivered oracles. Aristophanes in ‘Vaestas’ [Vespae] I., reg. 28, calls the Pythia ventriloqua vates or the ‘ventriloquial prophetess,’ on account of her stomach-voice. The ancients placed the soul of man (the lower Manas) or his personal self-consciousness, in the pit of his stomach. . . . The navel was regarded in antiquity as ‘the circle of the sun,’ the seat of divine internal light. Therefore was the oracle of Apollo at Delphi, the city of Delphus, the womb or abdomen — while the seat of the temple was called the omphalos, navel” (TG 266-7).

quasi ::: --> As if; as though; as it were; in a manner sense or degree; having some resemblance to; qualified; -- used as an adjective, or a prefix with a noun or an adjective; as, a quasi contract, an implied contract, an obligation which has arisen from some act, as if from a contract; a quasi corporation, a body that has some, but not all, of the peculiar attributes of a corporation; a quasi argument, that which resembles, or is used as, an argument; quasi historical, apparently historical, seeming to be historical.

quiesce "networking" To render quiescent, i.e. temporarily inactive or disabled. For example to quiesce a device (such as a digital modem). It is also a system command in MAX TNT software which is used to "Temporarily disable a modem or DS0 channel". Also used as an adjective, in the expression "{quiesce time}". (2000-03-05)

resuscitant ::: n. --> One who, or that which resuscitates. Also used adjectively.

revivalist ::: n. --> A clergyman or layman who promotes revivals of religion; an advocate for religious revivals; sometimes, specifically, a clergyman, without a particular charge, who goes about to promote revivals. Also used adjectively.

rhematic ::: a. --> Having a verb for its base; derived from a verb; as, rhematic adjectives. ::: n. --> The doctrine of propositions or sentences.

richness ::: n. --> The quality or state of being rich (in any sense of the adjective).

roseo- ::: --> A prefix (also used adjectively) signifying rose-red; specifically used to designate certain rose-red compounds (called roseo-cobaltic compounds) of cobalt with ammonia. Cf. Luteo-.

run time 1. The elapsed time to perform a computation on a particular computer. 2. The amount of time a processor actually spent on a particular process and not on other processes or overhead (see {time-sharing}). 3. The period of time during which a program is being executed, as opposed to {compile-time} or load time. The term should be hyphenated when used as an adjective. 4. {run-time support}. (2001-09-14)

Sadhu (Sanskrit) Sādhu [from the verbal root sādh to finish, perfect, complete, overcome, conquer] Feminine sadhi. A good and virtuous man; more particularly a holy man; especially with the Jains, a jina or deified saint. As an adjective, completed, perfected, hence accomplished; successful, effective (in regard to hymns), excellent, good, fit, proper. As an interjection, excellent! Well done! Good!

Samanya (Sanskrit) Sāmānya As a noun, that which is common, general, universal; a community or the commingling of qualities; also an abstract notion of genus, such as humanity. As an adjective, inclusive, whole, entire, general, or universal as opposed to specific or particular.

Sapta (Sanskrit) Sapta The numerical adjective seven.

sarcina ::: n. --> A genus of bacteria found in various organic fluids, especially in those those of the stomach, associated with certain diseases. The individual organisms undergo division along two perpendicular partitions, so that multiplication takes place in two directions, giving groups of four cubical cells. Also used adjectively; as, a sarcina micrococcus; a sarcina group.

Satya (Sanskrit) Satya Truth, reality, being or esse; as an adjective, true, virtuous, good, faithful, etc.

saviour ::: 1. One who or that which delivers or rescues from peril. (Sri Aurobindo employs the word as an adjective.) Saviour"s. 2. One who saves from sin and perdition; as God or Christ.

schizopod ::: n. --> one of the Schizopoda. Also used adjectively. ::: a. --> Alt. of Schizopodous

scholiast ::: one of the ancient commentators who annotated or wrote explanatory notes on classical authors. (Sri Aurobindo employs the word as an adjective.)

scolytid ::: n. --> Any one of numerous species of small bark-boring beetles of the genus Scolytus and allied genera. Also used adjectively.

scyllarian ::: n. --> One of a family (Scyllaridae) of macruran Crustacea, remarkable for the depressed form of the body, and the broad, flat antennae. Also used adjectively.

seacoast ::: n. --> The shore or border of the land adjacent to the sea or ocean. Also used adjectively.

seaport ::: n. --> A port on the seashore, or one accessible for seagoing vessels. Also used adjectively; as, a seaport town.

seaside ::: n. --> The land bordering on, or adjacent to, the sea; the seashore. Also used adjectively.

selenio- ::: --> A combining form (also used adjectively) denoting the presence of selenium or its compounds; as, selenio-phosphate, a phosphate having selenium in place of all, or a part, of the oxygen.

semite ::: n. --> One belonging to the Semitic race. Also used adjectively.

sentinel ::: 1. A tower used by the military to watch for the enemy and defend a camp, etc. 2. A person or thing that watches or stands as if watching. 3. A soldier stationed as a guard to challenge all comers and prevent a surprise attack; a sentry. (Sri Aurobindo often employs the word as an adjective.) sentinels.

sertularian ::: n. --> Any species of Sertularia, or of Sertularidae, a family of hydroids having branched chitinous stems and simple sessile hydrothecae. Also used adjectively.

sesqui- ::: --> A combining form (also used adjectively) denoting that three atoms or equivalents of the substance to the name of which it is prefixed are combined with two of some other element or radical; as, sesquibromide, sesquicarbonate, sesquichloride, sesquioxide.

sicca ::: n. --> A seal; a coining die; -- used adjectively to designate the silver currency of the Mogul emperors, or the Indian rupee of 192 grains.

sigmodont ::: n. --> Any one of a tribe (Sigmodontes) of rodents which includes all the indigenous rats and mice of America. So called from the form of the ridges of enamel on the crowns of the worn molars. Also used adjectively.

silico- ::: --> A combining form (also used adjectively) denoting the presence of silicon or its compounds; as, silicobenzoic, silicofluoride, etc.

sister ::: n. --> A female who has the same parents with another person, or who has one of them only. In the latter case, she is more definitely called a half sister. The correlative of brother.
A woman who is closely allied to, or assocciated with, another person, as in the sdame faith, society, order, or community.
One of the same kind, or of the same condition; -- generally used adjectively; as, sister fruits.


sodio- ::: --> A combining form (also used adjectively) denoting the presence of sodium or one of its compounds.

softness ::: n. --> The quality or state of being soft; -- opposed to hardness, and used in the various specific senses of the adjective.

softwarily /soft-weir'i-lee/ In a way pertaining to software. "The system is softwarily unreliable." The adjective "softwary" is *not* used. See {hardwarily}. [{Jargon File}]

solid state "electronics" (Often hyphenated when used as an adjective) A term describing any device that uses {semiconductor} components rather than {electron tubes} or {relays}. Semiconductors are "solid" in that they contain no gas ("vacuum" tubes contain a small amount as the vacuum is not perfect) or moving parts (like relays), but probably more important is the connotation of reliability and durability that made possible things like portable radios. (2007-09-21)

songster ::: a song-bird. (Sri Aurobindo employs the word as an adjective.)

Soul Generally, the manifesting vehicle or garment in which an ego clothes itself. First in serial order is the monad, on whatever plane and of whatever class; its vehicle or carrier is its efflux, the ego; which in its turn clothes itself in its own vital garment which is soul. Cosmically, therefore, soul is the vehicle or upadhi of spirit. As the monad creates for its manifestation successive vehicles, soul in its widest sense includes all these, even the physical body; but it is usually used in an aggregative sense to designate the intermediate nature, excluding the monad on the one hand and the physical body on the other. Such division produces the triad of spirit, soul, body, where soul is the vehicle of spirit, and body is the vehicle of soul and spirit. The soul is evolved by experiences on different planes. In itself it is merely a vehicle; but, informed by the monad, through the latter’s ego, it is a living conscious entity. The broad meaning is particularized with qualifying adjectives such as animal soul, human soul, etc. Saying that every living thing — animal, vegetable, or mineral — has a soul, refers to the intermediate nature of the being, of which its physical body is the vehicle. Souls, like bodies, are aggregates of innumerable subordinate lives or life-atoms of various orders. Equivalent to the Greek psyche and the Hebrew nephesh.

stanno- ::: --> A combining form (also used adjectively) denoting relation to, or connection with, tin, or including tin as an ingredient.

stannoso- ::: a. --> A combining form (also used adjectively) denoting relation to, or connection with, certain stannnous compounds.

Sthavara (Sanskrit) Sthāvara [from the verbal root sthā to stand] Fixtures; as an adjective, unmoving or fixed. Used for entities which are alive but not self-moving, and therefore applicable to the minerals and plants; used in contrast with jangama (goers), the animal and human kingdoms.

Stheme: An adjective derived from the Greek, Sthenos, strength. It was applied by Dr. John Brown (1735-1788), a Bntish physician, to diseases distinguished by a usual or excessive accumulation of vital power, or nervous energy. Kant applied it to vigorous or exciting emotions. -- J.J.R.

strangeness ::: n. --> The state or quality of being strange (in any sense of the adjective).

Suppositio: In medieval logic, the kind of meaning in use which belongs to nouns or substantives; opposed to copulatio, belonging to adjectives and verbs A given noun having a fixed signification might nevertheless have different suppositiones (stand for different things). Various kinds of suppositio, i.e., various ways in which a noun may stand for something, were distinguished. -- A.C.

Tantric: Adjective to Tantra (q.v.) Tao: The Way, principle, cosmic order, nature. "The Tao that can be expressed in words is not the eternal Tao." It is "vague and eluding," "deep and obscure," but "there is in it the form" and "the essence." "In it is reality." It "produced the One, the One produced the two, the two produced the three, and the three produced all things." Its "standard is the Natural." (Lao Tzu).   "Tao has reality and evidence but no action nor form. It may be transmitted, but cannot be received. It may be attained, but cannot be seen. It is its own essence, and its own root." "Tao operates, and results follow." "Tao has no limit." "It is in the ant," "a tare," "a potsherd," "ordure." (Chuang Tzu, between 399 and 295 B.C.). The Confucian "Way;" the teachings of the sage; the moral order, the moral life, truth, the moral law; the moral principle. This means "the fulfillment of the law of our human nature." It is the path of man's moral life. "True manhood (jen) is that by which a man is to be a man. Generally speaking, it is the moral law" (Mencius, 371-289 B.C.). "To proceed according to benevolence and righteousness is called the Way." (Han Yu, 767-824). The Way, which means following the Reason of things, and also the Reason which is in everything and which everything obeys. (Neo-Confucianism). The Way or Moral Law in the cosmic sense, signifying "what is above the realm of corporeality," and the "successive movement of the active (yang) and the passive principles (yin)." In the latter sense as understood both in ancient Confucianism and in Neo-Confucianism, it is interchangeable with the Great Ultimate (T'ai Chi). Shao K'ang-chieh (1011-1077) said that "The Moral Law is the Great Ultimate." Chang Heng-ch'u (1022-1077) identified it with the Grand Harmony (Ta Ho) and said that "from the operation of the vital force (ch'i) there is the Way." This means that the Way is the principle of being as well as the sum total of the substance and functions of things. To Ch'eng I-ch'uan (1033-1107) "There is no Way independent of the active (yang) principle and the passive (yin) principle. Yet it is precisely the Way that determines the active and passive principles. These principles are the constituents of the vital force (ch'i), which is corporeal. On the other hand, the Way transcends corporeality." To Chu Hsi (1130-1200), the Way is "the Reason why things are as they are." Tai Tung-yuan (1723-1777) understood it to mean "the incessant transformation of the universe," and "the operation of things in the world, involving the constant flow of the vital force (ch'i) and change, and unceasing production and reproduction."

Tantrik or Tantrika(Sanskrit) ::: The adjective corresponding to tantra. This adjective, however, is sometimes employed tosignify one who is deeply versed in some study -- a scholar; but more particularly the adjective concernsthe Tantras and the doctrines contained in them.

tartro- ::: --> A combining form (also used adjectively) used in chemistry to denote the presence of tartar or of some of its compounds or derivatives.

tatter ::: n. --> One who makes tatting.
A rag, or a part torn and hanging; -- chiefly used in the plural. ::: v. t. --> To rend or tear into rags; -- used chiefly in the past participle as an adjective.


tatusiid ::: n. --> Any armadillo of the family Tatusiidae, of which the peba and mule armadillo are examples. Also used adjectively.

taxicorn ::: n. --> One of a family of beetles (Taxicornes) whose antennae are largest at the tip. Also used adjectively.

tectibranch ::: n. --> One of the Tectibranchiata. Also used adjectively.

Telegram Argument: Argument for the efficacy of mind resting on a radical difference of response to two slightly differing stimuli because of their difference of meaning. The Telegram Argument is so called because of the illustration of two telegrams: "Our son has been killed" and "Your son has been killed" received by parents whose son is away from home and whose difference of reading depends only on the presence or absence of the letter "Y". See C. D. Broad, The Mind and tts Place in Nature, pp. 118 ff. Teleoklin: Adjective meaning, tending toward a purpose; used in German by Oskar Kohnstamm, born in 1871. He held that Teleoklise, the inclination toward purposive activity, is a characteristic of all life. -- J.J.R.

teleost ::: n. --> One of the Teleosti. Also used adjectively.

tellurize ::: v. t. --> To impregnate with, or to subject to the action of, tellurium; -- chiefly used adjectively in the past participle; as, tellurized ores.

tenderness ::: n. --> The quality or state of being tender (in any sense of the adjective).

terebratulid ::: n. --> Any species of Terebratula or allied genera. Used also adjectively.

tetra- ::: --> A combining form or prefix signifying four, as in tetrabasic, tetrapetalous.
A combining form (also used adjectively) denoting four proportional or combining parts of the substance or ingredient denoted by the term to which it is prefixed, as in tetra-chloride, tetroxide.


tetractinellid ::: n. --> Any species of sponge of the division Tetractinellida. Also used adjectively.

tetraonid ::: n. --> A bird belonging to the tribe of which the genus Tetrao is the type, as the grouse, partridge, quail, and the like. Used also adjectively.

tetrazo- ::: a. --> A combining form (also used adjectively), designating any one of a series of double derivatives of the azo and diazo compounds containing four atoms of nitrogen.

than ::: conj. --> A particle expressing comparison, used after certain adjectives and adverbs which express comparison or diversity, as more, better, other, otherwise, and the like. It is usually followed by the object compared in the nominative case. Sometimes, however, the object compared is placed in the objective case, and than is then considered by some grammarians as a preposition. Sometimes the object is expressed in a sentence, usually introduced by that; as, I would rather suffer than that you should want.

that ::: pron., a., conj., & --> As a demonstrative pronoun (pl. Those), that usually points out, or refers to, a person or thing previously mentioned, or supposed to be understood. That, as a demonstrative, may precede the noun to which it refers; as, that which he has said is true; those in the basket are good apples.
As an adjective, that has the same demonstrative force as the pronoun, but is followed by a noun.
As a relative pronoun, that is


The adjective aeonios occurs frequently in the New Testament, where it is mistranslated as eternal or everlasting.

The adjective relative is also used in a less special way, to mean simply relational or pertaining to relations.

The difficulty lies in the misuse of the adjective free, which is apparently understood to mean a will free from the cosmic unity, and all too often envisaged as running more or less wild if not contrary to the cosmic structure. Man is but a child of the universe, and is so in all his parts, but precisely because the part must contain everything that exists in the whole, therefore there is in man and in every other entity, an inseparable union with the cosmic root. Reluctance by man to acknowledge and to perform in his life the silent mandates of cosmic law induces the varieties of evil, disharmony, and even disease with which human life is all too often cursed; and the way to freedom, spiritual peace, wisdom, and love is by subordinating the individual human will to harmony with the divine. In such cases man becomes a Buddha or Christ, a conscious and willing instrument of divinity.

theriodont ::: n. --> One of the Theriodontia. Used also adjectively.

they ::: obj. --> The plural of he, she, or it. They is never used adjectively, but always as a pronoun proper, and sometimes refers to persons without an antecedent expressed.

thickness ::: n. --> The quality or state of being thick (in any of the senses of the adjective).

thio- ::: --> A combining form (also used adjectively) denoting the presence of sulphur. See Sulpho-.

This definition would make logical syntax coincide with Hilbertian proof theory (q.v.), and in fact the adjectives syntactical, metalogical, metamathematical are used nearly interchangeably. Carnap, however, introduces many topics not considered by Hilbert, and further treats not only the syntax of particular languages but also general syntax, i.e., syntax relating to all languages in general or to all languages of a given kind.

this ::: pron. & a. --> As a demonstrative pronoun, this denotes something that is present or near in place or time, or something just mentioned, or that is just about to be mentioned.
As an adjective, this has the same demonstrative force as the pronoun, but is followed by a noun; as, this book; this way to town.


thysanuran ::: n. --> One of the Thysanura. Also used adjectively.

tinean ::: n. --> Any species of Tinea, or of the family Tineidae, which includes numerous small moths, many of which are injurious to woolen and fur goods and to cultivated plants. Also used adjectively.

titano- ::: --> A combining form (also used adjectively) designating certain double compounds of titanium with some other elements; as, titano-cyanide, titano-fluoride, titano-silicate, etc.

tontine ::: n. --> An annuity, with the benefit of survivorship, or a loan raised on life annuities with the benefit of survivorship. Thus, an annuity is shared among a number, on the principle that the share of each, at his death, is enjoyed by the survivors, until at last the whole goes to the last survivor, or to the last two or three, according to the terms on which the money is advanced. Used also adjectively; as, tontine insurance.

torchlight ::: n. --> The light of a torch, or of torches. Also adjectively; as, a torchlight procession.

torula ::: n. --> A chain of special bacteria. (b) A genus of budding fungi. Same as Saccharomyces. Also used adjectively.

Transcendental: (Ger. transzendental) In Kant's Philosophy: Adjective applied to the condition of experience or anything relating thereto. Thus transcendental knowledge is possible while transcendent knowledge is not. In the Dialectic, however, the term transcendental is often used where one would expect transcendent. -- A.C.E.

trematode ::: n. --> One of the Trematodea. Also used adjectively.

tri- ::: --> A prefix meaning three, thrice, threefold; as in tricolored, tridentate.
A prefix (also used adjectively) denoting three proportional or combining part, or the third degree of that to the name of which it is prefixed; as in trisulphide, trioxide, trichloride.


trimeran ::: n. --> One of the Trimera. Also used adjectively.

trimethyl ::: --> A prefix or combining form (also used adjectively) indicating the presence of three methyl groups.

turbellarian ::: n. --> One of the Turbellaria. Also used adjectively.

ultramarine ::: a. --> Situated or being beyond the sea. ::: n. --> A blue pigment formerly obtained by powdering lapis lazuli, but now produced in large quantities by fusing together silica, alumina, soda, and sulphur, thus forming a glass, colored blue by the sodium polysulphides made in the fusion. Also used adjectively.

un- ::: --> An inseparable verbal prefix or particle. It is prefixed: (a) To verbs to express the contrary, and not the simple negative, of the action of the verb to which it is prefixed; as in uncoil, undo, unfold. (b) To nouns to form verbs expressing privation of the thing, quality, or state expressed by the noun, or separation from it; as in unchild, unsex. Sometimes particles and participial adjectives formed with this prefix coincide in form with compounds of the negative prefix un- (see 2d Un-); as in undone (from undo), meaning unfastened, ruined; and

uniate ::: n. --> A member of the Greek Church, who nevertheless acknowledges the supremacy of the Pope of Rome; one of the United Greeks. Also used adjectively.

uranoso- ::: a. --> A combining form (also used adjectively) from uranium; -- used in naming certain complex compounds; as in uranoso-uranic oxide, uranoso-uranic sulphate.

Used as an adjective meaning generating, producing.

valero- ::: --> A combining form (also used adjectively) indicating derivation from, or relation to, valerian or some of its products, as valeric acid; as in valerolactone, a colorless oily liquid produced as the anhydride of an hydroxy valeric acid.

Vedantasutras: See Brahmasutras. Vedantic: Adjective, "belonging to the Vedanta" (q.v.). Vedic: (Skr.) Adjective, referring to the Vedas (q.v.) or the period that generated them, considered closed about 500 B.C. -- K.F.L.

Vedic: An adjective, meaning referring to the Vedas (q.v.) or the period that generated them, considered closed about 500 B.C.

vocative ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to calling; used in calling; specifically (Gram.), used in address; appellative; -- said of that case or form of the noun, pronoun, or adjective, in which a person or thing is addressed; as, Domine, O Lord. ::: n. --> The vocative case.

volubility ::: n. --> The quality or state of being voluble (in any of the senses of the adjective).

vulgarian ::: n. --> A vulgar person; one who has vulgar ideas. Used also adjectively.

walloons ::: n. pl. --> A Romanic people inhabiting that part of Belgium which comprises the provinces of Hainaut, Namur, Liege, and Luxembourg, and about one third of Brabant; also, the language spoken by this people. Used also adjectively.

welldoing ::: n. --> A doing well; right performance of duties. Also used adjectively.

whatever ::: pron. --> Anything soever which; the thing or things of any kind; being this or that; of one nature or another; one thing or another; anything that may be; all that; the whole that; all particulars that; -- used both substantively and adjectively.

what ::: pron., a., & adv. --> As an interrogative pronoun, used in asking questions regarding either persons or things; as, what is this? what did you say? what poem is this? what child is lost?
As an exclamatory word: -- (a) Used absolutely or independently; -- often with a question following.
Used adjectively, meaning how remarkable, or how great; as, what folly! what eloquence! what courage!
Sometimes prefixed to adjectives in an


which ::: a. --> Of what sort or kind; what; what a; who.
A interrogative pronoun, used both substantively and adjectively, and in direct and indirect questions, to ask for, or refer to, an individual person or thing among several of a class; as, which man is it? which woman was it? which is the house? he asked which route he should take; which is best, to live or to die? See the Note under What, pron., 1.


whoreson ::: n. --> A bastard; colloquially, a low, scurvy fellow; -- used generally in contempt, or in coarse humor. Also used adjectively.

wildwood ::: n. --> A wild or unfrequented wood. Also used adjectively; as, wildwood flowers; wildwood echoes.

win "jargon" (Said of people, computers, {algorithms}, programs) (To be) a success at a given task. E.g. "{WYSIWYG} is a clear win for small documents". "winnitude" is the quality that something which wins has. "winning" is often (ab)used as an adjective. Synonyms: {cuspy}, {elegant}. Antonym: {lose}. Compare {lossy}, {lossless}. [{Jargon File}] (1996-09-08)

wirewater "jargon" {programming fluid}. This melds the mainstream slang adjective "wired" (stimulated, up, hyperactive) with "firewater"; however, it refers to caffeinacious rather than alcoholic beverages. [{Jargon File}] (1995-02-27)

WordNet "human language" A large {lexical} database of English, developed under the direction of George A. Miller. Nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs are grouped into sets of {cognitive synonyms} ("synsets"), each expressing a distinct concept. Synsets are interlinked by means of conceptual-{semantic} and lexical relations. The resulting network of words and concepts can be navigated with the browser. WordNet is freely available for download. WordNet's structure makes it a useful tool for {computational linguistics} and {natural language processing}. {WordNet home (http://wordnet.princeton.edu/)}. (2007-04-20)

workyday ::: n. --> A week day or working day, as distinguished from Sunday or a holiday. Also used adjectively.

xantho- ::: --> A combining form from Gr. xanqo`s yellow; as in xanthocobaltic salts. Used also adjectively in chemistry.

xylylene ::: n. --> Any one of three metameric radicals, CH2.C6H4.CH2, derived respectively from the three xylenes. Often used adjectively; as, xylylene alcohol.

y- ::: --> Alt. of I-
A prefix of obscure meaning, originally used with verbs, adverbs, adjectives, nouns, and pronouns. In the Middle English period, it was little employed except with verbs, being chiefly used with past participles, though occasionally with the infinitive Ycleped, or yclept, is perhaps the only word not entirely obsolete which shows this use.


zeugma ::: n. --> A figure by which an adjective or verb, which agrees with a nearer word, is, by way of supplement, referred also to another more remote; as, "hic illius arma, hic currus fuit;" where fuit, which agrees directly with currus, is referred also to arma.

zinco- ::: --> A combining form from zinc; in chemistry, designating zinc as an element of certain double compounds. Also used adjectively.

zirco- ::: --> A combining form (also used adjectively) designating zirconium as an element of certain double compounds; zircono-; as in zircofluoric acid, sodium zircofluoride.

zoogloea ::: n. --> A colony or mass of bacteria imbedded in a viscous gelatinous substance. The zoogloea is characteristic of a transitory stage through which rapidly multiplying bacteria pass in the course of their evolution. Also used adjectively.

zygenid ::: n. --> Any one of numerous species of moths of the family Zygaenidae, most of which are bright colored. The wood nymph and the vine forester are examples. Also used adjectively.



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KEYS (10k)


NEW FULL DB (2.4M)

   8 Mark Twain
   5 William Zinsser
   5 Mehmet Murat ildan
   5 David Levithan
   4 Mary Oliver
   4 Gloria Steinem
   3 Ray Bradbury
   3 Lewis Carroll
   3 Harper Lee
   3 Gore Vidal
   3 Ezra Pound
   2 Zadie Smith
   2 Terry Pratchett
   2 Rob Bell
   2 Rashida Jones
   2 Melina Marchetta
   2 Mark Forsyth
   2 Lee Child
   2 Kim Harrison
   2 Kevin Hearne

1:I've got an adjective that just fits you. ~ f-scott-fitzgerald, @wisdomtrove
2:Anything popular is populist, and populist is rarely a good adjective. ~ brian-eno, @wisdomtrove
3:Every adjective and adverb is worth five cents. Every verb is worth fifty cents. ~ mary-oliver, @wisdomtrove
4:Genius, throughout history, has been found difficult to classify because it varies in amount: It's rare to find a genius in the context of the noun, but most people, if not all, have a bit of genius in them in the context of the adjective. ~ criss-jami, @wisdomtrove
5:A being who can create a race of men devoid of real freedom and inevitably foredoomed to be sinners, and then punish them for being what he has made them, may be omnipotent and various other things, but he is not what the English language has always intended by the adjective holy. ~ john-stuart-mill, @wisdomtrove
6:To write or even speak English is not a science but an art. There are no reliable words. Whoever writes English is involved in a struggle that never lets up even for a sentence. He is struggling against vagueness, against obscurity, against the lure of the decorative adjective, against the encroachment of Latin and Greek, and, above all, against the worn-out phrases and dead metaphors with which the language is cluttered up. ~ george-orwell, @wisdomtrove
7:I notice that you use plain, simple language, short words and brief sentences. That is the way to write English - it is the modern way and the best way. Stick to it; don't let fluff and flowers and verbosity creep in. When you catch an adjective, kill it. No, I don't mean utterly, but kill most of them - then the rest will be valuable. They weaken when they are close together. They give strength when they are wide apart. An adjective habit, or a wordy, diffuse, flowery habit, once fastened upon a person, is as hard to get rid of as any other vice. ~ mark-twain, @wisdomtrove
8:When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong. Perhaps the adjective &

*** NEWFULLDB 2.4M ***

1:Christian' makes a poor adjective ~ Rob Bell,
2:When you catch an adjective, kill it. ~ Mark Twain,
3:Christian is a great noun and a poor adjective ~ Rob Bell,
4:Good is a noun rather than an adjective. ~ Robert M Pirsig,
5:I've got an adjective that just fits you. ~ F Scott Fitzgerald,
6:My goal in life is to become an adjective. ~ Jeffrey Eugenides,
7:As to the adjective: when in doubt, strike it out. ~ Mark Twain,
8:Single |sin•gle| (adjective) - Too fabulous to settle. ~ Mandy Hale,
9:using the f-word as a verb, adjective, and adverb. ~ Cherise Sinclair,
10:I am an adjective that is quickly turning into a noun. ~ David Levithan,
11:She’s never met an adjective or adverb she didn’t like. ~ Loretta Chase,
12:I would rather decline two drinks than one German adjective. ~ Mark Twain,
13:The adjective is the banana peel of the parts of speech. ~ Clifton Fadiman,
14:a potent adjective floating in a nounless void, a pure quality. ~ C S Lewis,
15:Remission is not a cure. It’s an adjective of disability. ~ Christy Leigh Stewart,
16:Anything popular is populist, and populist is rarely a good adjective. ~ Brian Eno,
17:In wondered in avenging was being used as an adjective or a verb. ~ David Levithan,
18:There are worlds / in which nothing is adjective, everything noun. ~ Jane Hirshfield,
19:There's always an adjective before my name, and it's never a nice one. ~ Joan Rivers,
20:Use no superfluous word, no adjective, which does not reveal something. ~ Ezra Pound,
21:Moral," said Vale."That's an interesting adjective to apply to 'genocide'. ~ Dan Wells,
22:Futile: it was an epitaph on his past and an adjective for his tomorrow. ~ A J Quinnell,
23:Frumious. Anything that inspires its own adjective is a force to be feared. ~ A G Howard,
24:he has never learned the difference between an adjective and an adverb. ~ Michael Bunker,
25:Beware of the compound adjective, beloved of the tyro and the 'poetess'. ~ Ambrose Bierce,
26:The day you stop being compassionate, your adjective of human drops! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan,
27:forsaken adjective for·sake·n \, fawr-sey-kuh n\ Abandoned or deserted.   ~ Sloane Kennedy,
28:Every adjective and adverb is worth five cents. Every verb is worth fifty cents. ~ Mary Oliver,
29:The only sort of descriptive adjective or catch phrase for my music would be 'eclectic.' ~ Moby,
30:I do so like all-encompassing words. Verb, adjective, noun. Yes, you are shitted. ~ Kim Harrison,
31:If the noun is good and the verb is strong, you almost never need an adjective. ~ J Anthony Lukas,
32:I want to be an adjective again. But I’m a noun. A nothing. A nobody. A no one. ~ Melina Marchetta,
33:The Oscars have become such a big deal these days that it's just used as adjective. ~ Mira Sorvino,
34:Black Oroogu, the language with no nouns and only one adjective, which is obscene. ~ Terry Pratchett,
35:Human, Allen, is an adjective, and its use as a noun is in itself regrettable. ~ William S Burroughs,
36:These words have been sanitized for your protection. An adjective and a noun, respectively. ~ Libba Bray,
37:When you catch an adjective, kill it - perhaps the best possible advice for budding writers. ~ Mark Twain,
38:The adjective is the enemy of the noun. Variant: The adjective is the enemy of the substantive. ~ Voltaire,
39:Green is a process, not a status. We need to think of 'green' as a verb, not an adjective. ~ Daniel Goleman,
40:A relativist is an individual who doesn't know the difference between an adjective and an adverb. ~ Bill Gaede,
41:Fine is the ultimate non-committal adjective. If “fine” were a dude, he’d be a bachelor forever. ~ Lauren Blakely,
42:Whoever has power takes over the noun - and the norm - while the less powerful get an adjective. ~ Gloria Steinem,
43:Cuisine has become too complicated - this is about subject, verb, adjective: duck, turnips, sauce. ~ Alain Ducasse,
44:Destroy the Museums. Crack syntax. Sabotage the adjective. Leave nothing but the verb. ~ Filippo Tommaso Marinetti,
45:They say human is a thinking animal; in times of war, don’t even use the adjective ‘thinking’! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan,
46:I think the adjective post-modernist really means mannerist. Books about books is fun but frivolous. ~ Angela Carter,
47:The adjective ‘decent’ and the noun ‘government’ have seldom come together in the human history! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan,
48:Nice is the white bread of the English language adjective breadbox. It’s tasteless, bland, and forgettable. ~ Barry Lyga,
49:As with all inferior things, this part of the city was given an adjective while the rest stole the noun. ~ Gloria Steinem,
50:Amalia had the unpredictability of a splinter, I couldn't impose on her the prison of a single adjective. ~ Elena Ferrante,
51:Gorgeous?” Ronan tried again. “Transcendent? Kestrel, the right adjective hasn’t been invented to describe you. ~ Marie Rutkoski,
52:Normal" isn't an adjective you wish to hear after putting that much effort into making sure it was spectacular. ~ Portia de Rossi,
53:The adjective that exists solely as decoration is a self-indulgence for the writer and a burden for the reader. ~ William Zinsser,
54:When we put words together - adjective with noun, noun with verb, verb with object - we start to talk to each other. ~ Donald Hall,
55:I particularly loved the adjective bookish, which I found other people used about as often as ramrod or chum or teetotaler. ~ Rachel Cohn,
56:That's the great thing about being in the third grade. If you've got one polysyllabic adjective, everyone thinks you're a genius. ~ John Green,
57:His eyes softened. “I suck at trust.”

“I know.”

“I’m still gonna yell, and I use fuck as a noun, adjective, and verb. ~ Vi Keeland,
58:Melt down the fat. Cut the cosmetics and coloratura. The classic rule of good journalism: honor the verb, sacrifice the adjective. ~ Elie Wiesel,
59:I’m a t-terrible h-human.”
“No,” Piper whispered. “If you want that statement to be true, then you need to remove the adjective. ~ Jewel E Ann,
60:Inflection is the adjective of language. It carries the subtleties of delight and horror, the essence of culture and social process. ~ Frank Herbert,
61:She chose the adjective deliberately. Handsome or sexy conveyed surface appeal. Beautiful addressed the whole package, inside and out. ~ Joey W Hill,
62:To speak today of a famous novelist is like speaking of a famous cabinetmaker or speedboat designer. Adjective is inappropriate to noun. ~ Gore Vidal,
63:Evil is an adjective. It is an adjective used to describe those actions of man (and their effects) that are contrary to the nature of God. ~ N D Wilson,
64:Whatever you want to say, there is only one word to express it, only one verb to give it movement, only one adjective to qualify it. ~ Guy de Maupassant,
65:Death to all modifiers, he declared one day, and out of every letter that passed through his hands went every adverb and every adjective. ~ Joseph Heller,
66:The supermoon is a 16-inch pizza compared with a 15-inch pizza. It's a slightly bigger moon; I ain't using the adjective 'supermoon.' ~ Neil deGrasse Tyson,
67:Acting, to me, has been many things: It's a business, and it's a craft, and it's a political act - it's whatever adjective is most applicable. ~ Adam Driver,
68:I heard a Californian student in Heidelberg say, in one of his calmest moods, that he would rather decline two drinks than one German adjective. ~ Mark Twain,
69:At least Clarissa knows I'm benign. But that is not an adjective one wants to throw around about one's spouse: "This is my husband. He's benign. ~ Steve Martin,
70:The way he looks at me makes me feel… I try to search for an adjective to follow up that thought, but I can't find one. He just makes me feel. ~ Colleen Hoover,
71:You mean nonhuman. Inhuman is an adjective, I said, as I rose from the lawn and padded softly around the left side of the house to the backyard. ~ Kevin Hearne,
72:Write with nouns and verbs, not with adjectives and adverbs. The adjective hasn't been built that can pull a weak or inaccurate noun out of a tight place. ~ E B White,
73:Thanks to the Polgars the adjective 'men's' before events and the 'affirmative action' women's titles such as Woman Grandmaster have become anachronisms. ~ Garry Kasparov,
74:All my adult life I have been searching for the right adjective to describe my father's peculiarly aggressive comic style. I recently settled on 'defamatory. ~ Martin Amis,
75:On Pringles Flavors: 'I'm not eating something called Pizzalicious. That's not even a fucking adjective. You can't just add 'licious' to nouns. That's bullshit. ~ Justin Halpern,
76:My goal in life is to become an adjective," Leonard said. "People would go around saying, 'That was so Bankheadian.' Or, 'A little too Bankheadian for my taste. ~ Jeffrey Eugenides,
77:I'm self-centered, inconsiderate, and what was the third adjective? Oh, yes, and I have this infantile fantasy that one day I'll amount to something as an actress. ~ Jay Presson Allen,
78:Part of the reason why I've never said that I was gay until now was because I didn't want that adjective assigned to my name for all of eternity. You know, gay Rosie O'Donnell. ~ Rosie O Donnell,
79:In the history of the concept of number has been adjective (three cows, three monads) and noun (three, pure and simple), and now ... number seems to be more like a verb (to triple). ~ Barry Mazur,
80:My pet peeve and my goal in life is to somehow get an adjective for 'integrity' in the dictionary. 'Truthful' doesn't really cover it, or 'genuine.' It should be like 'integritus.' ~ Rashida Jones,
81:Not every oak has to be gnarled, every detective hard-bitten. The adjective that exists solely as a decoration is a self-indulgence for the writer and an obstacle for the reader. ~ William Zinsser,
82:It wasn't fair that men got the verbs and she ended up with adjectives. Jack plotted and squeezed and bulldozed. She was caught snooping—pathetic participle, half verb, half adjective. ~ John Casey,
83:When we refer to 'the biblical approach to economics' or the biblical response to politics' or 'biblical womanhood,' we're using the Bible as a weapon disguised as an adjective. ~ Rachel Held Evans,
84:No, Princes Charming," Duncan cheerfully corrected. "'Prince' is the noun; that's what gets pluralized. 'Charming' is an adjective; you can't add an S to it like that. ~ Christopher Healy,
85:One day the Nouns were clustered in the street. An Adjective walked by, with her dark beauty The Nouns were struck, moved, changed. The next day a Verb drove up, and created the Sentence. ~ Stanley Fish,
86:A bad government cannot only be called as a ‘bad’ government; the real adjective should be this: Enemy! Yes, bad government is a real enemy for the country it governs, an enemy within! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan,
87:And I hear nothing because it's like the volume button has been turned down on our lives and nobody has anything to say anymore."

"I want to be an adjective again. But I am a noun. ~ Melina Marchetta,
88:And when a philosopher looks to poets, to a great poet like Milosz, for lessons in how to individualize the world, he soon becomes convinced that the world is not so much a noun as an adjective. ~ Gaston Bachelard,
89:I have been called 'Bongshell' the day I stepped into showbiz. So, any adjective coming my way, I take it positively. Sometimes it's also entertaining, but I don't feel bad about it. I'm a proud woman. ~ Bipasha Basu,
90:I lived in Chicago for a few years and got a sense of - kind of that broad-shouldered, windy, um, stern, Midwestern, warm-slash-passive aggressive, wonderful - every adjective I can think of, very cold. ~ Amy Poehler,
91:What I have in mind is that art may be bad, good or indifferent, but, whatever adjective is used, we must call it art, and bad art is still art in the same way that a bad emotion is still an emotion. ~ Marcel Duchamp,
92:What adjective can be used for a nation who is consistently fooled, recurrently deceived by the crafty politicians? Goofy? Very light! Fool? Not enough! Brainless? Yes, that is the very adjective! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan,
93:When you catch an adjective, kill it. No, I don't mean utterly, but kill most of them--then the rest will be valuable. They weaken when they are close together. They give strength when they are far apart. ~ Mark Twain,
94:I have people calling me cute. Like I’m a fucking puppy!” she sneered at me, pushing me aside in order to continue on her way. “I am Melody Giovanni Callahan, cute is not the adjective used to describe me! ~ J J McAvoy,
95:Language rarely lies. It can reveal the insincerity of a writer's claims simply through a grating adjective or an inflated phrase. We come upon a frenzy of words and suspect it hides a paucity of feeling. ~ Irving Howe,
96:ETYMOLOGY: “Panic” relates to the god Pan; but we can play on etymologies as on words (as has always been done) and pretend to believe that “panic” comes from the Greek adjective that means “everything. ~ Roland Barthes,
97:Pierre Bourdieu once noted that, if the academic field is a game in which scholars strive for dominance, then you know you have won when other scholars start wondering how to make an adjective out of your name ~ Anonymous,
98:Farley gestured toward Roger's crutches. "The magazine business is dangerous, huh?" "More dangerous than you can imagine," said Roger. "Those computer terminals can be deadly. Hurt my leg typing an adjective. ~ Jeff Strand,
99:Whatever the thing you wish to say, there is but one word to express it, but one verb to give it movement, but one adjective to qualify it; you must seek until you find this noun, this verb, this adjective. ~ Gustave Flaubert,
100:Indeed, the application of the adjective “stoic” to a person who shows strength and courage in misfortune probably owes more to the aristocratic Roman value system than it does to Greek philosophers. Stoicism ~ Marcus Aurelius,
101:Reacher said nothing in reply to that. Feral, from the Latin adjective ferus, wild, via bestia fera, wild animal. Generally held to mean having escaped from domestication, and having devolved back to a natural state. ~ Lee Child,
102:I think there is this thing where people are impressed - it gives you a leg up in the sense that people won't treat you like a run-of-the-mill actress. They'll assign "smart" to your word bank, your adjective bank. ~ Rashida Jones,
103:I never use one adjective if six seem to me better and, in their cumulative effect, more incisive. I am haunted by the density of reality and try to capture this with (in Clifford Geertz’s phrase) “thick description. ~ Oliver Sacks,
104:You make it a production. Slam doors. Knock things over. Scream. But I just leave. Even if I'm still standing there, I leave. I am refusing you. I am denying you. I am an adjective that is quickly turning into a noun. ~ David Levithan,
105:fat
/fat/
adjective

1. a descriptive word.
it has no deeper meaning.
it should not determine the worth
(or lack thereof)
of a human being.

- what i know now that i wish i knew then. ~ Amanda Lovelace,
106:I can't tell you why I keep getting asked to play gay characters, but I never really considered 'gay' as an adjective, as a playable thing. Maybe it's an element of the character, but it just describes a preference. ~ John Michael Higgins,
107:Person, Place, Thing (Noun); Describes Action (Verb); Modifies Nouns (Adjective); Answers the W Questions (Adverb); Joins Words Together (Conjunction); Things We Say When We Are Happy, Surprised, or Pissed Off (Interjection). ~ Kory Stamper,
108:The very natural tendency to use terms derived from traditional grammar like verb, noun, adjective, passive voice, in describing languages outside of Indo-European is fraught with grave possibilities of misunderstanding. ~ Benjamin Lee Whorf,
109:Perhaps in order to write a really great book, you must be rather unaware of the fact. You can slave away at it and change every adjective to some other adjective, but perhaps you can write better if you leave the mistakes. ~ Jorge Luis Borges,
110:It must be pretty cool being a lawyer," she said in awe.

"Cool" was not an adjective Jake would use. He was forced to admit to himself that it had been a long time since he viewed his profession as something other than tedious. ~ John Grisham,
111:Genius, throughout history, has been found difficult to classify because it varies in amount: It's rare to find a genius in the context of the noun, but most people, if not all, have a bit of genius in them in the context of the adjective. ~ Criss Jami,
112:In the end I decided the word was more about him than it was about me. But isn’t it often that way? It’s one thing for someone to describe you in print, to go through several drafts and, after careful consideration, choose the adjective ~ David Sedaris,
113:I was horribly bookish, to the point of coming right out and saying it, which I knew was not socially acceptable. I particularly loved the adjective bookish, which I found other people used about as often as ramrod or chum or teetotaler. ~ David Levithan,
114:So sweet and innocent and just... beautiful. I know it's not a typical word to describe a guy, but there is something about the smooth texture of his skin, long blond eyelashes, and the chiseled cheekbones that brings the adjective to mind. ~ Tera Lynn Childs,
115:Career goals that once felt safe and certain can appear ludicrous, to use Darwin’s adjective, when examined in the light of more self-knowledge. Our work preferences and our life preferences do not stay the same, because we do not stay the same. ~ David Epstein,
116:Shit,” Ku’Sox said speculatively, and he loosened his grip until my heels dragged on the floor again. “I’ve heard that several times now. Is that the word of choice? I do so like all-encompassing words. Verb, adjective, noun. Yes, you are shitted. ~ Kim Harrison,
117:anything being perceived as being superior takes the noun. And everything that isn't, that's judged to be inferior, requires an adjective. So there are black novelists and novelists. There are women physicians and physicians. Male nurses and nurses. ~ Gloria Steinem,
118:Now Lu wonders if her father worried that moving up through the political ranks would cost him that adjective, beloved. Certainly, almost no politician is described that way anymore. Even the people who vote for you didn’t seem to like you that much. ~ Laura Lippman,
119:Mindy Lujan with her feathered hair, bullying blue-lined eyes, and potty mouth that rivaled Akhil's, managing to use fuck as a verb, an adjective, and a noun, often in the same sentence, as in, "Who the fuck does that fucking fuck think she's fucking with? ~ Mira Jacob,
120:It wasn't that I didn't feel like sharing. Mostly I just figured they couldn't do anything about it, so there was no point in worrying them. I said, 'A wee little bit,' instead, in honor of being in Ireland, where one adjective was never enough if three would do. ~ C E Murphy,
121:We often hear "shop-girls" spoken of. No such persons exist. There are girls who work in shops. They make their living that way. But why turn their occupation into an adjective? Let us be fair. We do not refer to the girls who live on Fifth Avenue as "marriage-girls. ~ O Henry,
122:I was a little excited but mostly blorft. "Blorft" is an adjective I just made up that means 'Completely overwhelmed but proceeding as if everything is fine and reacting to the stress with the torpor of a possum.' I have been blorft every day for the past seven years. ~ Tina Fey,
123:I don’t need a happily ever after, J, I just need the ever after part. The adjective can be whatever. Up and down ever after, sometimes rocky ever after, crazy ever after—I don’t give a shit. As long as you stick around, we’ll just do the best we can, day after day. ~ Mary Calmes,
124:Bumped uglies?” I repeated on a laugh. “You are a retired phone sex operator and the best you can come up with is ‘bump uglies’? I’m disappointed in you.” “Gland to gland combat? Slytherin in the Hufflepuff? Doing the monster mash? Verbing the adjective noun?” I ~ Jessica Gadziala,
125:All right. I do not think she will attack, though. She is a nice inhuman." "You mean nonhuman. Inhuman is an adjective," I said, as I rose from the lawn and padded softly around the left side of the house to the backyard. "Hey, I’m not a native speaker. Give me a break. ~ Kevin Hearne,
126:Um," I asked, "isn't the whole point about being a slave that you don't have a choice to be anything else?" Prettying up the word slave with the adjective-noun constructions makes "enslaved African" sound nonchalant. As in "Those were the cabins of the jolly leprechauns. ~ Sarah Vowell,
127:If we were to give the imagination its due in the philosophical systems of the universe, we should find, at their very source, an adjective. Indeed, to those who want to find the essence of a world philosophy, one could give the following advice-look for its adjective. ~ Gaston Bachelard,
128:Life has no adjective. It's a mixture in a strange crucible but that allows me on the end, to breathe. And sometimes to pant. And sometimes to gasp. Yes. But sometimes there is also the deep breath that finds the cold delicateness of my spirit, bound to my body for now. ~ Clarice Lispector,
129:The word heterosexual is an adjective, the word homosexual is an adjective. They describe an activity. Of course there's a homosexual activity; of course there's a heterosexual activity. But there's no homosexual person. There's no heterosexual person. Everybody is everything. ~ Gore Vidal,
130:I want to wrap my hands around his neck and prove to him just how un-adorable I can be when provoked. Scrappy is an adjective that comes to mind when people try to describe me. I’m quick in a fight. I can sneak under arms and karate chop you in the kidneys—at least I can in my head. ~ R S Grey,
131:I know about fraternal and sororal serial killers. Yes, FYI, sororal is the proper adjective. Anyway, I looked up family serial killers. There have been a few in history—the Benders of Kansas in the late 1800s, the Sawney Bean clan on which the movie The Hills Have Eyes is based. ~ Faye Kellerman,
132:What concerns me is that man, unable to articulate, to express himself adequately, reverts to action. Since the vocabulary of action is limited, as it were, to his body, he is bound to act violently, extending his vocabulary with a weapon where there should have been an adjective. ~ Joseph Brodsky,
133:Yet it has 58 uses as a noun, 126 as a verb, and 10 as a participial adjective. Its meanings are so various and scattered that it takes the OED 60,000 words—the length of a short novel—to discuss them all. A foreigner could be excused for thinking that to know set is to know English. ~ Bill Bryson,
134:A being who can create a race of men devoid of real freedom and inevitably foredoomed to be sinners, and then punish them for being what he has made them, may be omnipotent and various other things, but he is not what the English language has always intended by the adjective holy. ~ John Stuart Mill,
135:I think the best way to put it is that newspictures are the noun and the verb; our kind of photography is the adjective and adverb. The newspicture is a single frame; ours, a subject viewed in series. The newspicture is dramatic, all subject and action. Ours shows what's back of the action. ~ Roy Stryker,
136:I will give you my definition of a nation, and you can add the adjective 'Jewish.' A Nation is, in my mind, an historical group of men of a recognizable cohesion held together by a common enemy. Then, if you add to that the word 'Jewish' you have what I understand to be the Jewish nation. ~ Theodor Herzl,
137:Rincewind switched to High Borogravian, to Vanglemesht, Sumtri and even Black Oroogu, the language with no nouns and only one adjective, which is obscene. Each was met with polite incomprehension. In desperation he tried heathen Trob, and the little man’s face split into a delighted grin. ~ Terry Pratchett,
138:The adjective so often coupled with mercy is the word tender, but God’s mercy is not tender; this mercy is a blunt instrument. Mercy doesn’t wrap a warm, limp blanket around offenders. God’s mercy is the kind that kills the thing that wronged it and resurrects something new in its place. ~ Nadia Bolz Weber,
139:I've once gotten in trouble with certain gay activists because I'm not gay enough! I am a morose homosexual. I'm melancholy. Gay is the last adjective I would use to describe myself. The idea of being gay, like a little sparkler, never occurs to me. So if you ask me if I'm gay, I say no. ~ Richard Rodriguez,
140:Isobel's head popped up. "What does 'sagacious' mean?"

"Sagacious," he said, writing, "adjective describing someone in possession of acute mental faculties. Also describing one who might, in a bookstore, think to get up and locate an actual dictionary instead of asking a billion questions. ~ Kelly Creagh,
141:There's a misconception that survival of the fittest means survival of the most aggressive. The adjective 'Darwinian' used to refer to ruthless competition; you used to read that in business journals. But that's not what Darwinian means to a biologist; it's whatever leads to reproductive success. ~ Steven Pinker,
142:Many ideas have been transformed by adding one crucial adjective-women's bank, women's music, women's studies, women's caucus. That adjective did more than change a phrase. It implied a lot of new content: child care, flexible work hours, new standards of creditworthiness, new symbolism, new lyrics. ~ Gloria Steinem,
143:self-propelled or directed by remote control, carrying a conventional or nuclear explosive. early 17th cent. (as an adjective in the sense 'suitable for throwing (at a target)'): from Latin missile, neuter (used as a noun) of missilis, from miss- 'sent', from the verb mittere. mis·sile·ry n. 1 the study ~ Erin McKean,
144:Use no superfluous word, no adjective, which does not reveal something. Don't use such an expression as 'dim land of peace.' It dulls the image. It mixes an abstraction with the concrete. It comes from the writer's not realizing that the natural object is always the adequate symbol. Go in fear of abstraction. ~ Ezra Pound,
145:My Spanish is getting a little bit loose. Sometimes I go to Spain and after I've been talking with my folks for a while... you start changing the verb for the adjective, for example, which is a common thing between Spanish and English. I change that sometimes but after a couple days there, boom, I'm back. ~ Antonio Banderas,
146:Lord Darlington (LD): I think life too complex a thing to be settled by these hard and fast rules. Lady Windemere (LW): If we had 'hard-and-fast rules' we would find life much simpler. LD: You allow of no exceptions? LW: None! LD: Ah, what a fascinating Puritan you are, LW. LW: The adjective was unnecessary, LD. ~ Oscar Wilde,
147:The system which Hitler established—the social reality which so many Germans were so eager to embrace or so willing to endure—the politics which began in a theory and ended in Auschwitz—was: the “total state.” The term, from which the adjective “totalitarian” derives, was coined by Hitler’s mentor, Mussolini. ~ Leonard Peikoff,
148:future. As an adjective, the word is often used unnecessarily: ‘He refused to say what his future plans were’ (Daily Telegraph); ‘The parties are prepared to say little about how they see their future prospects’ (The Times). In both sentences, and nearly all others like them, future adds nothing and should be deleted. ~ Bill Bryson,
149:Special. Cute. Friends. He wished she'd just cut his testicles off and be done with it already. Depending on the next adjective she chose for him, he would either qualify as a card-carrying member of Emasculated Men's Club or a Muppet. No wonder he avoided love for as long as he had. When it went unrequited, it truly sucked. ~ Jennifer Shirk,
150:This isn’t fucking good.
I’m trying not to run my eyes over any part of her body. I’m trying not to place a single adjective against her name. She’s just Jane.
Just my client. Unique in every wa--unfuck this before you fuck it.
“Jane.” My strict voice tenses the air more. It’s my normal tone. “How are you doing? ~ Krista Ritchie,
151:Knowing the people does not mean giving an adjective to everyone such as good, bad, selfish, selfless, honest or liar because every person is a combination of the opposite qualities in different proportions. You will never find anyone a complete angel or a devil, as angels and demons, both together, make up a person’s personality. ~ Awdhesh Singh,
152:As to Constantinople. That jewel in the crown of the Byzantine Empire. That continent-straddling stronghold of the Eastern Orthodox Church. That famously inviolable walled city ruled by generations of interbred usurping nut-jobs a pantheon of families so tortuously intertwined as to be the basis of our modern adjective byzantine. ~ Neal Stephenson,
153:But you know so many men,” Ophelia said, “isn’t there even one for you?” “They’re all adjectives,” I said, “they all make me feel modified; even a word like girl friend gives me this feeling I’ve been cut in half. I’d rather just be a car, not a blue car or a big one, than sit there the rest of my life being stuck with some adjective. ~ Eve Babitz,
154:Of course there are two sides to the question. Let us look at the other. We often hear “shop-girls” spoken of. No such persons exist. There are girls who work in shops. They make their living that way. But why turn their occupation into an adjective? Let us be fair. We do not refer to the girls who live on Fifth Avenue as “marriage-girls. ~ O Henry,
155:Probably the best way to describe my writing style is to refer you to "purple prose", which was a tag given to the early mass market magazine writers earning a half cent a word for their fiction. They had to use every adjective, verb and adverb in the English language to add word count to stories in order to feed and support families. ~ Tom Johnson,
156:The beginning of sense, not to say wisdom, is to realize that 'doing an action,' as used in philosophy, is a highly abstract expression--it is a stand-in used in the place of any (or almost any?) verb with a personal subject, in the same sort of way that 'thing' is a stand-in for anynoun substantive, and 'quality' a stand-in for the adjective. ~ J L Austin,
157:Nice writing isn't enough. It isn't enough to have smooth and pretty language. You have to surprise the reader frequently, you can't just be nice all the time. Provoke the reader. Astonish the reader. Writing that has no surprises is as bland as oatmeal. Surprise the reader with the unexpected verb or adjective. Use one startling adjective per page. ~ Anne Bernays,
158:I said, you fuckfaced shitstain,”—his words were low, slow, measured— “get the fuck away from her, or I will fucking fuckily fuck you the fuck up.”

I stared at Dan, my lips parting in wonder. He’d just used some variation of the F-word as a noun, verb, adverb, and adjective all in one sentence. I didn’t know whether to be mortified or impressed. ~ Penny Reid,
159:The Tattoo. You wouldn't say "charming" -- that was hardly the adjective, but something, there was something to him. If you were deep in self-hate but stained with ego enough that you needed your death-drive diluted, eager for muteness and quiet, your object-envy strong but not untouched by angst, you might succumb to the Tattoo's brutal enticement. ~ China Mi ville,
160:If you can remember all the accessories that go with your best outfit, the contents of your purse, the starting lineup of the New York Yankees or the Houston Oilers, or what label "Hang On Sloopy" by The McCoys was on, you are capable of remembering the differences between a gerund (verb form used as a noun) and a participle (verb form used as an adjective). ~ Stephen King,
161:Super toad!” Carol said. “What?” “I was trying out another expression. Instead of ‘holy cow,’ maybe you can just pick any adjective and any animal and it would work.” “No, I don’t think so.” “Dancing piglet!” Carol whispered a little louder. “Oh, it totally works. Bloated antelope! Ugly barn owl! Hippie hedgehog! I’m going to have to write these down.” “Shhhh, ~ Chad Morris,
162:Especially among Christians in positions of wealth and power, the idea of reading the Gospels and keeping Jesus' commandments as stated therein has been replaced by a curious process of logic. According to this process, people first declare themselves to be followers of Christ, and then they assume that whatever they say or do merits the adjective "Christian". ~ Wendell Berry,
163:The book was sloppily written in many parts (the words came too quickly and too easily) and there was hardly a noun in any sentence that was not holding hands with the nearest and most commonly available adjective — scalding coffee and tremulous fear are the sorts of thing you will find throughout. Over-certified adjectives are the mark of most best-seller writing. ~ Norman Mailer,
164:To ask oneself in general what exists or what is real means only to ask how would you like to use a verb and an adjective; it's a grammatical question, not a question about nature. Nature, for its part, is what it is, and we discover it very gradually. If our grammar and our intuition do not readily adapt to what we discover, well, too bad. We must seek to adapt them. ~ Carlo Rovelli,
165:I hope it is not necessary for me to stress the platonic nature of that relationship—not platonic in the purist sense, there was no philosophical discourse, but we certainly didn’t fuck, which is usually what people mean by platonic; which I bet would really piss Plato off, that for all his thinking and chatting his name has become an adjective for describing sexless trysts. ~ Anonymous,
166:Whatever one wishes to say, there is one noun only by which to express it, one verb only to give it life, one adjective only which will describe it. One must search until one has discovered them, this noun, this verb, this adjective, and never rest content with approximations, never resort to trickery, however happy, or to vulgarism, in order to dodge the difficulty. ~ Guy de Maupassant,
167:Are you familiar," he said finally, "with the Bang?"
"The Big Bang?" Luka asked. "Or some other Bang I don't know about?"
"There was only one Bang," said Nobodaddy, "so the adjective Big is redundant and meaningless. The Bang would only be Big if there was at least one other Little or Medium-Sized or even Bigger Bang to compare it with, and to differentiate it from. ~ Salman Rushdie,
168:I hope it is not necessary for me to stress the platonic nature of our relationship- not platonic in the purest sense, there was no philosophical discourse, but we certainly didn't fuck, which is usually what people mean by platonic; which I bet would really piss Plato off, that for all his thinking and chatting his name has become an adjective for describing sexless trysts. ~ Russell Brand,
169:Excitement is simple: excitement is a situation, a single event. It mustn't be wrapped up in thoughts, similes, metaphors. A simile is a form of reflection, but excitement is of the moment when there is no time to reflect. Action can only be expressed by a subject, a verb and an object, perhaps rhythm -- little else. Even an adjective slows the pace or tranquilizes the nerve. ~ Graham Greene,
170:He [Barry Goldwater] was called "the cheerful malcontent." It takes a rare and fine temperament to wed that adjective with that noun. His emotional equipoise was undisturbed by the loss of 44 states as a presidential nominee. Perhaps he sensed that he had won the future. We -- 27,178,188 of us -- who voted for him in 1964 believe he won, it just took 16 years to count the votes. ~ George F Will,
171:He had only just made the Elysian deadline; hanging onto the typescript until the last moment in case there was something still to be done; two sentences turned into one, one sentence broken into two, the substitution of a slightly resistant adjective to engender a moment’s reflection, in short, the joys of editing, all carried out without forgetting the art that disguises art. ~ Edward St Aubyn,
172:Rather, very, little, pretty -- these are the leeches that infest the pond of prose, sucking the blood of words. The constant use of the adjective little (except to indicate size) is particularly debilitating; we should all try to do a little better, we should all be very watchful of this rule, for it is a rather important one, and we are pretty sure to violate it now and then. ~ William Strunk Jr,
173:It took you twelve years to see that being “good” had gotten your piano teacher everywhere and you nowhere at all. So you decide, for the first time in your life, that you aren’t going to be one of the good girls anymore. You decide that “good” is not an adjective that ought to be applied to a person, as it only rendered you inanimate and inhuman, like a piece of cheese or a watercolor painting. ~ Roxane Gay,
174:So you decide, for the first time in your life, that you aren’t going to be one of the good girls anymore. You decide that “good” is not an adjective that ought to be applied to a person, as it only rendered you inanimate and inhuman, like a piece of cheese or a watercolor painting. The good girl is nothing more than a myth. We long for her for the same reason we long for utopia: Neither exists. ~ Roxane Gay,
175:I have been very outspoken in my opposition to cuts in what I would call the means-tested entitlement programs: Medicaid, food stamps, and all of that. I feel very, very strongly that those cuts as proposed are unjust, but I am not prepared to label Ronald Reagan a "sinner."It seems to me that when you invoke the adjective "moral" you must be careful to distinguish what it is you mean by that. ~ Bruce Babbitt,
176:never again did I see Henry making across the Common after dusk. Perhaps he was ashamed at what he had told me, for he was a very conventional man. I write the adjective with a sneer, and yet if I examine myself I find only admiration and trust for the conventional, like the villages one sees from the high road where the cars pass, looking so peaceful in their thatch and stone, suggesting rest. ~ Graham Greene,
177:I miss the Stella girls telling me what I am. That I'm sweet and placid and accommodating and loyal and nonthreatening and good to have around. And Mia. I want her to say, "Frankie, you're silly, you're lazy, you're talented, you're passionate, you're restrained, you're blossoming, you're contrary."

I want to be an adjective again. But I'm a noun.

A nothing. A nobody. A no one. ~ Melina Marchetta,
178:If our neighbors were white, they’d be victims of the same crime that plagues black folk. You are right, however, about those proportions. Ninety-three percent of black folk who are killed are killed by other black folk. But 84 percent of white folk who are killed are killed by other white folk. It’s not necessary to modify the noun murder with the adjective black. It happens in the white world too. ~ Michael Eric Dyson,
179:They came one at a time or in shy small groups. I remember when sea-kindly showed up, a sentimental favorite, followed by desiccated and massive. Brusque appeared all by itself, which seemed apt; merry and boisterous arrived together. This would be a good time to ask for your patience if I use an adjective too many now and again—even now, some years on, they’re still returning. I’m just so glad to see them. ~ Leif Enger,
180:No comma, no period, no adjective or adverb was beneath his interest. He made no distinction between grammar and content, between form and substance. A poorly written sentence was a poorly conceived idea, and in his view the grammatical logic was as much in need of correction. “Tell me,” he would say, “why have you placed this comma here? What relationship between these phrases are you hoping to establish? ~ Tara Westover,
181:The Piranha didn’t talk like a person. He said things like “If you fuckin’ buy this bond in a fuckin’ trade, you’re fuckin’ fucked.” And “If you don’t pay fuckin’ attention to the fuckin’ two-year, you get your fuckin’ face ripped off.” Noun, verb, adjective: fucker, fuck, fucking. No part of speech was spared. His world was filled with copulating inanimate objects and people getting their faces ripped off. ~ Michael Lewis,
182:But asking myself the questions did make me ask myself another question, which is, what is 'normal' anyway?

So i looked it up in oxforddictionaries.com. This is what is said:
normal (adjective): conforming to a standard; usual, typical, or expected.

And I was like, 'conforming to a standard'? 'Usual? Typical? Expected?' Ugh! Who the heck wanted to be 'expected' anyway? How lame is that?"
-Jack Will ~ R J Palacio,
183:Are you trying to live a safe life? The word safe is both an adjective and a noun. As an adjective it means “being free from danger.” As a noun it’s “an enclosed storage container with a lock.” If you’re living the adjective, you’re living the noun. Don’t trap yourself in a cage of false security by trying to avoid rejection. In the long run, building your courage is a smarter choice than running from imaginary dangers. ~ Steve Pavlina,
184:Hunter slipped from the bed and grabbed his breeches to pull them on. Bathed in moonlight, the planes of his body were gilded with silver, its contours cast into delineative shadow. Clutching a fur to her chest, Loretta sat up, pretending not to notice. She did, though, and what she saw set her pulse to skittering. Perhaps beautiful wasn’t an appropriate adjective for a man, but it was the only word that came to her. ~ Catherine Anderson,
185:To write or even speak English is not a science but an art. There are no reliable words. Whoever writes English is involved in a struggle that never lets up even for a sentence. He is struggling against vagueness, against obscurity, against the lure of the decorative adjective, against the encroachment of Latin and Greek, and, above all, against the worn-out phrases and dead metaphors with which the language is cluttered up. ~ George Orwell,
186:What is an adjective? Nouns name the world. Verbs activate the names. Adjectives come from somewhere else. The word adjective (epitheton in Greek) is itself an adjective meaning 'placed on top', 'added', 'appended', 'foreign'. Adjectives seem fairly innocent additions, but look again. These small imported mechanisms are in charge of attaching everything in the world to its place in particularity. They are the latches of being. ~ Anne Carson,
187:That was . . .” I trailed off trying to find the proper adjective.
“Long overdue?”
“Long overdue? You’re the one who got skittish when I mentioned how I felt and backed away when we almost kissed.”
“You call me on all my crap, don’t you?” He laughed throwing his head back. “That’s one of the things I love about you,” he said. His fingers
skimmed up my shoulders until they cradled my neck and my whole body tingling. ~ Lani Woodland,
188:As a writer, you must truly possess a love for words."
"Yes, that's right," I agreed.
"I've noticed that some authors favor particular words, making frequent use of them. Do you have a favorite?"
I nodded assuredly and shared my answer. "BECAUSE."
My interviewer looked surprised, as though he'd expected an impressive adjective or some rare verb. "That's your favorite word? Why?"
I tried not to smirk. "Because. ~ Richelle E Goodrich,
189:Anti-Zionists, last of all, exhibit a distaste for certain words. It was Thomas Hobbes who, anticipating semantics, pointed out that words are counters, not coins; that the wise man looks through them to reality. This counsel many anti-Zionists seem to have neglected. They are especially disturbed by the two nouns nationalism and commonwealth, and by the adjective political. And yet these terms on examination are not at all upsetting. ~ Milton Steinberg,
190:The adjective "political" in "political philosophy" designates not so much the subject matter as a manner of treatment; from this point of view, I say, "political philosophy" means primarily not the philosophic study of politics, but the political, or popular, treatment of philosophy, or the political introduction to philosophy the attempt to lead qualified citizens, or rather their qualified sons, from the political life to the philosophic life. ~ Leo Strauss,
191:Once they knew that some changes were for the better, and others for the worse, and others again indifferent. We have largely removed this knowledge. For the descriptive adjective ‘unchanged’ we have substituted the emotional adjective ‘stagnant’. We have trained them to think of the Future as a promised land which favoured heroes attain—not as something which everyone reaches at the rate of sixty minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is, Your ~ C S Lewis,
192:The welfare states of continental Europe—what the French call the Etat providence, or providential state—followed yet a third model. Here, the emphasis was primarily on protecting the employed citizen against the ravages of the market economy. It should be noted that ‘employed’ here is no casual adjective. In France, Italy and West Germany it was the maintenance of jobs and incomes in the face of economic misfortune that preoccupied the welfare state. ~ Tony Judt,
193:short for POET LAUREATE. ■ adj. POETIC/LITERARY wreathed with laurel as a mark of honor. (of a crown or wreath) consisting of laurel. lau·re·ate·ship n. late Middle English (as an adjective): from Latin laureatus, from laurea 'laurel wreath', from laurus 'laurel'. Linked entries: POET LAUREATE ■ Lau·rel a city in central Maryland, between Washington, DC, and Baltimore; pop. 19,960. lau·rel n. 1 any of a number of shrubs and other plants with dark green ~ Erin McKean,
194:Most writers sow adjectives almost unconsciously into the soil of their prose to make it more lush and pretty, and the sentences become longer and longer as they fill up with stately elms and frisky kittens and hard-bitten detectives and sleepy lagoons. This is adjective-by-habit - a habit you should get rid of. Not every oak has to be gnarled. The adjective exists solely as a decoration is a self-indulgence for the writer and a burden for the reader. ~ William Zinsser,
195:Most writers sow adjectives almost unconsciously into the soil of their prose to make it more lush and pretty, and the sentences become longer and longer as they fill up with stately elms and frisky kittens and hard-bitten detectives and sleepy lagoons. This is adjective-by-habit - a habit you should get rid of. Not every oak has to be gnarled. The adjective that exists solely as a decoration is a self-indulgence for the writer and a burden for the reader. ~ William Zinsser,
196:Did you know, the Alpha bond is a lot like the mate bond. The first twenty-four hours are apparently intense. I took oath from ten wolves today, and I can feel every fucking one of them in my head. And I use the adjective on purpose. You know what the most common response to facing death is?"
Simon let out a little snort.
Aaron's grin was wry. "Yeah, that. And when you consider that one of my wolves is Lucas, I haven't been this horny in about thirty years. ~ Kaje Harper,
197:Sline: 1. In Fluccish of the late Praxic age and early Reconstitution, a slang word formed by truncation of 'baseline,'which is a Praxic commercial bulshytt term. It appears to be a noun that turned into an adjective, meaning common or widely shared. 2. A noun denoting an extramuros person with no special education, skills, aspirations, or hope of acquiring same. 3. Derogatory term for a stupid or uncouth person, especially one who takes pride in those very qualities. ~ Neal Stephenson,
198:The people of that age were phrase slaves. The abjectness of their servitude is incomprehensible to us. There was a magic in words greater than the conjurer's art. So befuddled and chaotic were their minds that the utterance of a single word could negative the generalizations of a lifetime of serious research and thought. Such a word was the adjective UTOPIAN. The mere utterance of it could damn any scheme, no matter how sanely conceived, of economic amelioration or regeneration. ~ Jack London,
199:Jesus did not die for our righteousness, but He died for our sins. He did not come to save us because we were worth saving, but because we were utterly worthless, ruined, and undone. He did not come to earth out of any reason that was in us, but solely and only because of reasons which He took from the depths of His own divine love. In due time He died for those whom He describes not as godly but as ungodly, applying to them as hopeless an adjective as He could have selected. ~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon,
200:A current pejorative adjective is narcissistic. Generally, a narcissist is anyone better looking than you are, but lately the adective is often applied to those "liberals" who prefer to improve the lives of others rather than exploit them. Apparently, a concern for others is self-love at its least attractive, while greed is now a sign of the hightest altruism. But then to reverse, periodically, the meanings of words is a very small price to pay for our vast freedom not only to conform but to consume. ~ Gore Vidal,
201:If the Britannica has taught me anything, it's to be more careful. I don't want to turn into an unseemly noun or verb or adjective someday. I don't want to be like Charles Boycott, the landlord in Ireland who refused to lower rents during a famine, leading to the original boycott. I don't want to be like Charles Lynch, who headed an irregular court that hung loyalists during the Revolutionary War. I can't have "Jacobs" be a verb that means staying home all the time or washing your hands too frequently. ~ A J Jacobs,
202:What I am interested in doing now is suggesting how the general liberal consensus that “true” knowledge is fundamentally nonpolitical (and conversely, that overtly political knowledge is not “true” knowledge) obscures the highly if obscurely organized political circumstances obtaining when knowledge is produced. No one is helped in understanding this today when the adjective “political” is used as a label to discredit any work for daring to violate the protocol of pretended suprapolitical objectivity. ~ Edward W Said,
203:When we turn the Bible into an adjective and stick it in front of another loaded word, we tend to ignore or downplay the parts of the Bible that don’t quite fit our preferences and presuppositions. In an attempt to simplify, we force the Bible’s cacophony of voices into a single tone and turn a complicated, beautiful, and diverse holy text into a list of bullet points we can put in a manifesto or creed. More often than not, we end up more committed to what we want the Bible to say than what it actually says. ~ Rachel Held Evans,
204:Perfect. Imperfect. A pair of adjectives that come over and again, in all seasons, day in and day out, taunting us, judging us, isolating us, turning our isolation into illness. Is there a more accomplished adjective than perfect? Perfect is free from comparison, perfect rejects superlative. We can always be good, do better, try our best, but how perfect can we be before we can love ourselves and let others love us? And who, my dear child, has taken the word lovable out of your dictionary and mine, and replaced it with perfect? ~ Yiyun Li,
205:Together and separately, we as speakers disproved another description used to disqualify feminists: that we were all “whitemiddleclass,” a phrase used by the media then (and academics who believe those media clippings now) as if it were a single adjective to describe the women’s movement. In fact, the first-ever nationwide poll of women’s opinions on issues of gender equality showed that African American women were twice as likely as white women to support them.8 If the poll had included Latinas, Asian Americans, Native Americans, ~ Gloria Steinem,
206:Words are like that, they deceive, they pile up, it seems they do not know where to go, and, suddenly, because of two or three or four that suddenly come out, simple in themselves, a personal pronoun, an adverb, an adjective, we have the excitement of seeing them coming irresistibly to the surface through the skin and the eyes and upsetting the composure of our feelings, sometimes the nerves that can not bear it any longer, they put up with a great deal, they put up with everything, it was as if they were wearing armor, we might say. ~ Jos Saramago,
207:I notice that you use plain, simple language, short words and brief sentences. That is the way to write English―it is the modern way and the best way. Stick to it; don't let fluff and flowers and verbosity creep in. When you catch an adjective, kill it. No, I don't mean utterly, but kill most of them―then the rest will be valuable. They weaken when they are close together. They give strength when they are wide apart. An adjective habit, or a wordy, diffuse, flowery habit, once fastened upon a person, is as hard to get rid of as any other vice. ~ Mark Twain,
208:Words are like that, they deceive, they pile up, it seems they do not know where to go, and, suddenly, because of two or three or four that suddenly come out, simple in themselves, a personal pronoun, an adverb, a verb, an adjective, we have the excitement of seeing them coming irresistibly to the surface through the skin and the eyes and upsetting the composure of our feelings, sometimes the nerves that cannot bear it any longer, they put up with a great deal, they put up with everything, it was as if they were wearing armour, we might say. ~ Jos Saramago,
209:Goresthorpe Grange is a feudal mansion - or so it was termed in the advertisement which originally brought it under my notice. Its right to this adjective had a most remarkable effect upon its price, and the advantages gained may possibly be more sentimental than real. Still, it is soothing to me to know that I have slits in my staircase through which I can discharge arrows; and there is a sense of power in the fact of possessing a complicated apparatus by means of which I am enabled to pour molten lead upon the head of the casual visitor. ~ Arthur Conan Doyle,
210:We say no more on the matter and she asks me to help her find a word, an adjective to qualify something that falls on mankind, although not necessarily something of a meteorological nature, like rain, but a word associated with the apocalypse of the human soul and heart, but not in any direct way, more indirectly, like rain in the soul and nature oozing tears, she explains to me. Something like the smell of a birch tree in the rain, just one word. The obstetrician claims that no word could encompass that much, no single word could ever be that big. ~ Au ur Ava lafsd ttir,
211:It was the most monotonous day of my life,” he replied without a second’s hesitation. Then his rigid face broke and re-formed itself into the best smile ever, so that for a moment he really did look as if he had slipped through the bars of whatever confined him. “As a matter of fact, I thought you quite excellent,” he said. This time she did not object to his choice of adjective. “Will you crash the car now, please, Jose? This will do me fine. I’ll die here.” And before he could stop her, she had grabbed his hand and kissed him hard on the knuckle of his thumb. ~ John le Carr,
212:When we turn the Bible into an adjective and stick it in front of another loaded work (like manhood, womanhood, politics, economics, marriage, and even equality), we tend to ignore or downplay the parts of the Bible that don't fit our tastes. In an attempt to simplify, we try to force the Bible's cacophony of voices into a single tone, to turn a complicated and at times troubling holy text into a list of bullet points we can put in a manifesto or creed. More often than not, we end up more committed to what we want the Bible to say than what it actually says. ~ Rachel Held Evans,
213:Areo shook her head, but couldn’t help but smile a little as well. The advice was both overly simplistic and a bit meaningless, making the whole monologue fairly ridiculous. But it was a nice sentiment, nonetheless. “Thanks, Captain Borely.” “Not a problem, madame. But you can call me Borely, if you wish. Though if you must use an adjective, there’s always Handsome Borely. Or Ravishing Borely. Or from you, I wouldn’t mind hearing Sweet Borely or Dearest Borely.” Areo frowned. Certainly can’t call him Subtle Borely any time soon, she thought. “I’ll think about it. ~ Aaron McGowan,
214:When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong. Perhaps the adjective 'elderly' requires definition. In physics, mathematics, and astronautics it means over thirty; in the other disciplines, senile decay is sometimes postponed to the forties. There are, of course, glorious exceptions; but as every researcher just out of college knows, scientists of over fifty are good for nothing but board meetings, and should at all costs be kept out of the laboratory! ~ Arthur C Clarke,
215:When the copulative kai [`and'] connects two nouns of the same case, [viz. nouns (either substantive or adjective, or participles), of personal description, respecting office, dignity, affinity, or connexion, and attributes, properties, or qualities, good or ill], if the article [ho], or any of its cases, precedes the first of the said nouns or participles, and is not repeated before the second noun or participle, the latter always relates to the same person that is expressed or described by the first noun or participle: i.e. it denotes a farther description of the first-named person. ~ Granville Sharp,
216:I am troubled by the devaluing of the word 'design’. I find myself now being somewhat embarrassed to be called a designer. In fact I prefer the German term, Gestalt-Ingenieur. Apple and Vitsoe are relatively lone voices treating the discipline of design seriously in all corners of their businesses. They understand that design is not simply an adjective to place in front of a product’s name to somehow artificially enhance its value. Ever fewer people appear to understand that design is a serious profession; and for our future welfare we need more companies to take that profession seriously. ~ Dieter Rams,
217:Whatever language we speak, before we begin a sentence we have an almost infinite choice of words to use. A, The, They, Whereas, Having, Then, To, Bison, Ignorant, Since, Winnemucca, In, It, As . . . Any word of the immense vocabulary of English may begin an English sentence. As we speak or write the sentence, each word influences the choice of the next ― its syntactical function as noun, verb, adjective, etc., its person and number if a pronoun, its tense and number as a verb, etc. ,etc. And as the sentence goes on, the choices narrow, until the last word may very likely be the only one we can use. ~ Ursula K Le Guin,
218:10 tn Or “Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.” sn The term χριστός (christos) was originally an adjective (“anointed”), developing in LXX into a substantive (“an anointed one”), then developing still further into a technical generic term (“the anointed one”). In the intertestamental period it developed further into a technical term referring to the hoped-for anointed one, that is, a specific individual. In the NT the development starts there (technical-specific), is so used in the gospels, and then develops in Paul to mean virtually Jesus’ last name. ~ Anonymous,
219:I have grown or aged into difficulty in distinguishing between art and life. The reason may be that the difference is not always as neat or convincing as I used to think. When we make our art we are also making our lives, and I am sure that the reverse is equally true. When Jim wrote in one of his more recent poems that 'Light and dark became my sudden work,' so brilliantly using that adjective, he was talking about photography surely, but for me the line has a larger resonance. I hear it referring also to his long and arduous work of making his life by drawing it from darkness into light, and so making it whole. ~ Wendell Berry,
220:It is ironic-rouse the limpest adjective-that a government as spontaneously tyrannous and callous as ours should, over the years, have come yo care so much about our health as it endlessly tests and retests commercial drugs available in other lands while arresting those who take "hard" drugs on the potential ground that they are bad for the user's health. One is touched by their concern- touched and dubious. After all, these same compassionate guardians of our well-being have sternly, year in and year out, refused to allow us to have what every other First World country simply takes for granted, a national health service. ~ Gore Vidal,
221:On a folded piece of paper, in turn, each one of them would write a predetermined part of a sentence, not knowing the others’ choice. The first would pick an adjective, the second a noun, the third a verb, the fourth an adjective, and the fifth a noun. The first publicized exercise of such random (and collective) arrangement produced the following poetic sentence: The exquisite cadavers shall drink the new wine. (Les cadavres exquis boiront le vin nouveau.) Impressive? It sounds even more poetic in the native French. Quite impressive poetry has been produced in such a manner, sometimes with the aid of a computer. ~ Nassim Nicholas Taleb,
222:Her hand reached up and took a strand of his hair between her fingers. “Simple as that.”
She gently pulled on that curl and let it go. “It’s so springy.”
They’d barely grazed at the truth, but I she was satisfied—and distracted. By his hair, of all things.
“I feel like a sheep that has been overlooked during spring shearing,” he murmured.
“Yes, adorably fluffy.”
Another time he might have protested the use of that adjective. But now he was all too relieved. “Would you like me to pull my chair closer, so you may fondle my hair with greater ease?” he asked.
She beamed at him. “Why, yes, I’d like exactly that. ~ Sherry Thomas,
223:SMaC recipe is a set of durable operating practices that create a replicable and consistent success formula. The word “SMaC” stands for Specific, Methodical, and Consistent. You can use the term “SMaC” as a descriptor in any number of ways: as an adjective (“Let’s build a SMaC system”), as a noun (“SMaC lowers risk”), and as a verb (“Let’s SMaC this project”). A solid SMaC recipe is the operating code for turning strategic concepts into reality, a set of practices more enduring than mere tactics. Tactics change from situation to situation, whereas SMaC practices can last for decades and apply across a wide range of circumstances. ~ James C Collins,
224:The people of that age were phrase slaves. The abjectness of their servitude is incomprehensible to us. There was a magic in words greater than the conjurer's art. So befuddled and chaotic were their minds that the utterance of a single word could negative the generalizations of a lifetime of serious research and thought. Such a word was the adjective UTOPIAN. The mere utterance of it could damn any scheme, no matter how sanely conceived, of economic amelioration or regeneration. Vast populations grew frenzied over such phrases as "an honest dollar" and "a full dinner pail." The coinage of such phrases was considered strokes of genius. ~ Jack London,
225:There’s a big default notion that “spare,” or “precise” prose is somehow better. I keep insisting to them that while such prose is completely legitimate, it’s in no way intrinsically more accurate, more relevant, or better than lush prose. That adjective “precise,” for example, needs unpicking. If a “minimalist” writer describes a table, and a metaphor-ridden adjective-heavy weird fictioneer describes a table, they are very different, but the former is in absolutely no way closer to the material reality than the latter. Both of them are radically different from that reality. They’re just words. A table is a big wooden thing with my tea on it. ~ China Mi ville,
226:Simplicity itself. Skin, debone, demarrow, scarify, melt, render down and destroy. Every adjective that counted, every verb that moved, every metaphor that weighed more than a mosquito--out! Every simile that would have made sub-moron's mouth twitch--gone! Any aside that explained the two-bit philosophy of a first-rate writer--lost!
Every story slenderized, starved, bluepenciled, leeched and bled white, resembled every other story. Twain read like Poe read Shakespeare read like Dostoevsky read like--in the finale--Edgar Guest. Every word of more than three syllables had been razored. Every image that demanded so much as one instant's attention--shot dead. ~ Ray Bradbury,
227:This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” Between that word “save” and the next word “sinners,” there is no adjective. It does not say, “penitent sinners,”” awakened sinners,”” sensible sinners,” “grieving sinners,” or alarmed sinners.” No, it only says “sinners,” and I know this, that when I come, I come to Christ to-day, for I feel it is as much a necessity of my life to come to the cross of Christ to- day as it was to come ten years ago, — when I come to him I dare not come as a conscious sinner or an awakened sinner, but I have to come still as a sinner with nothing in my hands. ~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon,
228:... Feral, from the Latin adjective ferus, wild, via bestia fear, wild animal. Generally held to mean having escaped from domestication, and having devolved back to a natural state.
Turner said, "It's like you've been sanded down to nothing but yes and no, and you and them, and black and white, and live or die. It makes me wonder, what does that to a person?"
"Life," Reacher said. "Mine, anyway."
"You're like a predator. Cold, and hard. Like this whole thing. You have it all mapped out. The four guys in the car, and their bosses. You're swimming toward them, right now, and there's going to be blood in the water. Yours or theirs, but there's going to be blood. ~ Lee Child,
229:By the latter part of 1861 the War Department had taken over from the states the responsibility for feeding, clothing, and arming Union soldiers. But this process was marred by inefficiency, profiteering, and corruption. To fill contracts for hundreds of thousands of uniforms, textile manufacturers compressed the fibers of recycled woolen goods into a material called “shoddy.” This noun soon became an adjective to describe uniforms that ripped after a few weeks of wear, shoes that fell apart, blankets that disintegrated, and poor workmanship in general on items necessary to equip an army of half a million men and to create its support services within a few short months. ~ James M McPherson,
230:Sline: (1) In Fluccish of the late Praxic Age and early Reconstitution, a slang word formed by truncation of baseline, which is a Praxic commercial bulshytt term. It appears to be a noun that turned into an adjective meaning “common” or “widely shared.” (2) A noun denoting an extramuros person with no special education, skills, aspirations, or hope of acquiring same. (3) Derogatory term for a stupid or uncouth person, esp. one who takes pride in those very qualities. Note: this sense is deprecated because it implies that a sline is a sline because of inherent personal shortcomings or perverse choices; sense (2) is preferred because it does not convey any such implication. ~ Neal Stephenson,
231:Instead I understood evangelical to be an adjective synonymous with “real” or “authentic.” There were Christians, and then there were evangelical Christians like us. Only evangelicals were assured salvation. Everyone else was lukewarm and in danger of being spewed out of God’s mouth. Our Catholic neighbors were doomed. Nine-hundred miles away, in Princeton, New Jersey, my future husband was winning trophies in the pinewood derby at Montgomery Evangelical Free Church, which for many years he took to mean was a church free of evangelicals, like sugar-free gum. “But aren’t evangelicals the good guys?” he remembers asking his mother. How early we learn to identify our tribes. ~ Rachel Held Evans,
232:CHAPTER 17 The Lie: I AM DEFINED BY MY WEIGHT When people talk about divorce, they use words like irreconcilable or messy. But those words are too light—too easy for the destruction of a family. Divorce is a book falling onto a house made of Legos. It’s a cannonball shot over the bow that crashes through the deck and sinks the other ship. Divorce is destruction that starts at the top and breaks everything apart on the way down. So, no. Messy isn’t the right adjective. Horrible, ugly, hateful, annihilating—these are closer. When I was sixteen, my parents were in the middle of a horrible, ugly, hateful, annihilating divorce that had been on again, off again since I was nine years old. ~ Rachel Hollis,
233:The adjective so often coupled with mercy is the word tender, but God’s mercy is not tender; this mercy is a blunt instrument. Mercy doesn’t wrap a warm, limp blanket around offenders. God’s mercy is the kind that kills the thing that wronged it and resurrects something new in its place. In our guilt and remorse, we may wish for nothing but the ability to rewrite our own past, but what’s done cannot, will not, be undone. But I am here to say that in the mercy of  God it can be redeemed. I cling to the truth of  God’s ability to redeem us more than perhaps any other. I have to. I need to. I want to. For when we say “Lord have mercy,” what else could we possibly mean than this truth? ~ Nadia Bolz Weber,
234:In the language of the day it is customary to describe a certain sort of book as “escapist” literature. As I understand it, the adjective implies, a little condescendingly, that the life therein depicted cannot be identified with the real life which the critic knows so well in W.C.1: and may even have the disastrous effect on the reader of taking him happily for a few hours out of his own real life in N.W.8. Why this should be a matter for regret I do not know; nor why realism in a novel is so much admired when realism in a picture is condemned as mere photography; nor, I might add, why drink and fornication should seem to bring the realist closer to real life than, say, golf and gardening. ~ A A Milne,
235:At this crucial point, where all rationality risks crumbling beneath the immensity of propagandistic self-evidence, one must be careful to be sure of the details and, in particular, to examine the effects of the nominal chain induced by the passage from the adjective ‘terrorist’ – as the formal qualification of an act – to the substantive ‘terrorism’. For this is the moment when, insidiously, form becomes substance. This process gives rise to three kinds of effect: a subject-effect (facing ‘terrorism’ is a ‘we’ avenging itself); an alterity-effect (this ‘terrorism’ is the other of Civilization, barbarous Islam); and finally, a periodization-effect (now begins the long ‘war against terrorism’). ~ Anonymous,
236:I take it that “gentleman” is a term that only describes a person in his relation to others; but when we speak of him as “a man” , we consider him not merely with regard to his fellow men, but in relation to himself, - to life – to time – to eternity. A cast-away lonely as Robinson Crusoe- a prisoner immured in a dungeon for life – nay, even a saint in Patmos, has his endurance, his strength, his faith, best described by being spoken of as “a man”. I am rather weary of this word “ gentlemanly” which seems to me to be often inappropriately used, and often too with such exaggerated distortion of meaning, while the full simplicity of the noun “man”, and the adjective “manly” are unacknowledged. ~ Elizabeth Gaskell,
237:The environmental movement has palsied two generations of American youth. It has diverted much of our high school curricula into the phony field of environmental science. (As legendary physicist Richard Feynman observed, “If a science has an adjective it probably isn’t science.”) At the same time, the movement has turned many universities into apocalyptic nature cults that divert money from education to an obscurantist debauch. Seventy-two percent of Harvard students in late 2012 actually voted to have their university disinvest from all fossil fuels. This movement has already corrupted most branches of government with a carbon dioxide fetish. Now it is debilitating America’s most precious venture assets. ~ George Gilder,
238:What you delete from your computer, what you take out of your prose, is as important as what you leave in. It is not a loss. When you take away that unnecessary adjective, the removal adds to the ambience surrounding that noun. When you write a page and delete the whole thing, there is a sense in which it is not deleted. The better writer who remained behind is still there. In this sense the analogy to a musician practicing scales is most apt. The point is not to create so many yards of music. The point is to create a particular kind of musician, one who, when called upon, can do what he is expected to do. Writers who throw their scraps away are leaving a better writer behind, and that was the point, wasn't it? ~ Douglas Wilson,
239:Around the same time Democritus (ca 460 BC–ca. 370 BC), from an Ionian colony in northern Greece, pondered what happened when you break or cut an object into pieces. He argued that you ought not to be able to continue the process indefinitely. Instead he postulated that everything, including all living beings, is made of fundamental particles that cannot be cut or broken into parts. He named these ultimate particles atoms, from the Greek adjective meaning “uncuttable.” Democritus believed that every material phenomenon is a product of the collision of atoms. In his view, dubbed atomism, all atoms move around in space, and, unless disturbed, move forward indefinitely. Today that idea is called the law of inertia. ~ Stephen Hawking,
240:An inn, of course, was a place you came to at night (not at three o'clock in the afternoon), preferably a rainy night—wind, too, if it could be managed; and it should be situated on a moor (“bleak,” Kate knew, was the adjective here). And there should be scullions; mine host should be gravy-stained and broad in the beam with a tousled apron pulled across his stomach; and there should be a tall, dark stranger—the one who speaks to nobody—warming thin hands before the fire. And the fire should be a fire—crackling and blazing, laid with an impossible size log and roaring its great heart out up the chimney. And there should be some sort of cauldron, Kate felt, somewhere about—and, perhaps, a couple of mastiffs thrown in for good measure. ~ Mary Norton,
241:So long as our untried senses and our naïve heart recognize themselves and delight in the universe of qualifications, they flourish with the aid and at the risk of the adjective, which, once dissected, proves inadequate, deficient. We say of space, of time, and of suffering that they are infinite; but infinite has no more bearing than beautiful, sublime, harmonious, ugly.... Suppose we force ourselves to see to the bottom of words? We see nothing—each of them, detached from the expansive and fertile soul, being null and void. The power of the intelligence functions by projecting a certain luster upon them, by polishing them and making them glitter; this power, erected into a system, is called culture—pryrotechnics against a night sky of nothingness. ~ Emil M Cioran,
242:The travels to discovery my heritage revealed to me that the South might not be a place so much as it is a series of moments, which in proper composition communicate an indelible history that people cling to as horseshoes do to old barns. In cooking, the style of Southern food is more verb that adjective; it is the exercise of specific histories, not just the result. In food it becomes less a matter of location than of process, and it becomes difficult to separate the nature of the process from the heritage by which one acquired it. Southern cuisine is a series of geographic and gastronomic mutations made long ago by people whose fade into the earth provides half of the justification for why their descendants keep the process going at all. Our ancestry is not an afterthought; it is both raison d'etre and our mise en place, it is action and reaction. ~ Michael W Twitty,
243:Secularity is a way of being dependent on the responses of our milieu. The secular or false self is the self which is fabricated, as Thomas Merton says, by social compulsions. “Compulsive” is indeed the best adjective for the false self. It points to the need for ongoing and increasing affirmation. Who am I? I am the one who is liked, praised, admired, disliked, hated or despised. Whether I am a pianist, a businessman or a minister, what matters is how I am perceived by my world. If being busy is a good thing, then I must be busy. If having money is a sign of real freedom, then I must claim my money. If knowing many people proves my importance, I will have to make the necessary contacts. The compulsion manifests itself in the lurking fear of failing and the steady urge to prevent this by gathering more of the same—more work, more money, more friends. ~ Henri J M Nouwen,
244:Secularity is a way of being dependent on the responses of our milieu. The secular or false self is the self which is fabricated, as Thomas Merton says, by social compulsions. 'Compulsive' is indeed the best adjective for the false self. It points to the need for ongoing and increasing affirmation. Who am I? I am the one who is liked, praised, admired, disliked, hated or despised. Whether I am a pianist, a businessman or a minister, what matters is how I am perceived by my world. If being busy is a good thing, then I must be busy. If having money is a sign of real freedom, then I must claim my money. If knowing many people proves my importance, I will have to make the necessary contacts. The compulsion manifests itself in the lurking fear of failure and the steady urge to prevent this by gathering more of the same - more work, more money, more friends. ~ Henri J M Nouwen,
245:Words are like that, they deceive, they pile up, it seems they do not know where to go, and suddenly, because of two or three or four that suddenly come out, simple in themselves, a personal pronoun, an adverb, a verb, an adjective, we have the excitement of seeing them coming irresistibly to the surface through the skin and the eyes and upsetting the composure of our feelings, sometimes the nerves that cannot bear it it any longer, they put up with a great deal, they put up with everything, it was as if they were wearing armour, we might say. The doctor's wife has nerves of steel, and yet the doctor's wife is reduced to tears because of a personal pronoun, an adverb, a verb, an adjective, mere grammatical categories, mere labels, just like the two women, the others, indefinite pronouns, they too are crying, they embrace the woman of the whole sentence, three graces beneath the falling rain. ~ Jos Saramago,
246:Coleridge’s description of Iago’s actions as "motiveless malignancy" applies in some degree to all the Shakespearian villains. The adjective motiveless means, firstly, that the tangible gains, if any, are clearly not the principal motive, and, secondly, that the motive is not the desire for personal revenge upon another for a personal injury. Iago himself proffers two reasons for wishing to injure Othello and Cassio. He tells Roderigo that, in appointing Cassio to be his lieutenant, Othello has treated him unjustly, in which conversation he talks like the conventional Elizabethan malcontent. In his soliloquies with himself, he refers to his suspicion that both Othello and Cassio have made him a cuckold, and here he talks like the conventional jealous husband who desires revenge. But there are, I believe, insuperable objections to taking these reasons, as some critics have done, at their face value. ~ W H Auden,
247:It doesn’t matter what they think. Dance with me.”
He took her hand, and for the first time in a long while, she felt safe. He pulled her to the center of the floor and into the motions of the dance.
Ronan didn’t speak for a few moments, then touched a slim braid that curved in a tendril along Kestrel’s cheek. “This is pretty.”
The memory of Arin’s hands in her hair made her stiffen.
“Gorgeous?” Ronan tried again. “Transcendent? Kestrel, the right adjective hasn’t been invented to describe you.”
She attempted a light tone. “What will ladies do, when this kind of exaggerated flirtation is no longer the fashion? We shall be spoiled.”
“You know it’s not mere flirtation,” Ronan said. “You’ve always known.”
And Kestrel had, it was true that she had, even if she hadn’t wanted to shake the knowledge out of her mind and look at it, truly see it. She felt a dull spark of dread.
“Marry me, Kestrel. ~ Marie Rutkoski,
248:Consider the following: “Will Mindik be a good leader? She is intelligent and strong…” An answer quickly came to your mind, and it was yes. You picked the best answer based on the very limited information available, but you jumped the gun. What if the next two adjectives were corrupt and cruel? Take note of what you did not do as you briefly thought of Mindik as a leader. You did not start by asking, “What would I need to know before I formed an opinion about the quality of someone’s leadership?” System 1 got to work on its own from the first adjective: intelligent is good, intelligent and strong is very good. This is the best story that can be constructed from two adjectives, and System 1 delivered it with great cognitive ease. The story will be revised if new information comes in (such as Mindik is corrupt), but there is no waiting and no subjective discomfort. And there also remains a bias favoring the first impression. ~ Daniel Kahneman,
249:noun 1. words inscribed, as on a monument or in a book • the inscription on her headstone. 2. the action of inscribing something • the inscription of memorable utterances on durable materials. II. derivatives 1. inscriptional /inzˈkripSHənl inˈskripSHənl inzˈkripSHnəl inˈskripSHnəl / adjective 2. inscriptive /-ˈskriptiv / adjective – origin late Middle English (denoting a short descriptive or dedicatory passage at the beginning of a book): from Latin inscriptio(n-), from the verb inscribere (see inscribe). inscrutable /inˈskro͞odəb(ə)l/ I. adjective impossible to understand or interpret • Guy looked blankly inscrutable. II. derivatives 1. inscrutability /inˌskro͞odəˈbilədē / noun 2. inscrutably /inˈskro͞odəblē / adverb – origin late Middle English: from ecclesiastical Latin inscrutabilis, from in- ‘not’ + scrutari ‘to search’ (see scrutiny). inseam /ˈinˌsēm/ noun (N. Amer.) the seam in a pair of pants from the crotch to the bottom of the leg, or the length of this. ~ Erin McKean,
250:The Bible isn’t an answer book. It isn’t a self-help manual. It isn’t a flat, perspicuous list of rules and regulations that we can interpret objectively and apply unilaterally to our lives. The Bible is a sacred collection of letters and laws, poetry and proverbs, philosophy and prophecies, written and assembled over thousands of years in cultures and contexts very different from our own, that tells the complex, ever-unfolding story of God’s interaction with humanity. When we turn the Bible into an adjective and stick it in front of another loaded word (like manhood, womanhood, politics, economics, marriage, and even equality), we tend to ignore or downplay the parts of the Bible that don’t fit our tastes. In an attempt to simplify, we try to force the Bible’s cacophony of voices into a single tone, to turn a complicated and at times troubling holy text into a list of bullet points we can put in a manifesto or creed. More often than not, we end up more committed to what we want the Bible to say than what it actually says. So ~ Rachel Held Evans,
251:For much of my life I was not acquainted with what may seem the obscure derivation of the adjective 'sincere.' It is from two Latin words, sine, without, and cera, wax. What a rare thing it is to be treated without wax. My desire is always to conduct relationships based upon honest regard. As I sipped the last drops of beef tea I tried to enumerate moments stripped of pretense and all I could come up with was those efforts of mine, with brother-in-law, when he grasped my hand in desperate gratitude, unknowing, and allowed me to really see him. As I relived those moments of extremity, a strange thought met me unawares. Were I not to know him, or someone, some person, at this radical depth, I fear my time on earth would be hideous. I was surprised to think this. But it crossed my mind that to know others on a superficial level only is a desperate hell and life is worth living only if the veneer is stripped away, the polish, the wax, and we see the true grain of the other no matter how far less than perfect, even ugly, even savage at the heart. ~ Louise Erdrich,
252:As I was doing this, I was also reading the book that Charlotte Clingstone had selected from Horace's library and left for me, Candide-- her cafe's namesake.

It was, unexpectedly, a screwball action comedy. The hapless main character, whose name was Candide, travelled with a band of companions from Europe to the New World and back. Along the way, characters were flogged, ship-wrecked, enslaved and nearly executed several times. There were earthquakes and tsunamis and missing body parts.

One of Candide's companions, Pangloss, whose name I recognized from the hundred-dollar adjective he inspired-- I'd never known the etymology-- insisted throughout that all their misfortunes were for the best, for they delivered the companions into situations that seemed, at first, pretty good. Until those situations, too, went to shit.

The story concluded on a small farm outside Istanbul, where Candide plunked a hoe into the dirt and declared his intention to retreat from adventure (and suffering) and simply tend his garden.

The way the author told it-- the book was written in 1959-- it was clear I was supposed to think Candide had finally discovered something important. ~ Robin Sloan,
253:How old are you, asked the girl with the dark glasses, Getting on for fifty, Like my mother, And her, Her, what, Is she still beautiful, She was more beautiful once, that's what happens to all of us, we were all more beautiful once, You were never more beautiful, said the wife of the first blind man. Words are like that, they deceive, they pile up, it seems they do not know where to go, and, suddenly, because of two or three or four that suddenly come out, simple in themselves, a personal pronoun, an adverb, a verb, an adjective, we have the excitement of seeing them coming irresistibly to the surface through the skin and the eyes and upsetting the composure of our feelings, sometimes the nerves that cannot bear it any longer, they put up with a great deal, they put up with everything, it was as if they were wearing armour, we might say. The doctor's wife has nerves of steel, and yet the doctor's wife is reduced to tears because of a personal pronoun, an adverb, a verb, an adjective, mere grammatical categories, mere labels, just like the two women, the others, indefinite pronouns, they too are crying, they embrace the woman of the whole sentence, three graces beneath the falling rain. ~ Jos Saramago,
254:The story of the “exquisite cadavers” is as follows. In the aftermath of the First World War, a collection of surrealist poets—which included André Breton, their pope, Paul Eluard, and others—got together in cafés and tried the following exercise (modern literary critics attribute the exercise to the depressed mood after the war and the need to escape reality). On a folded piece of paper, in turn, each one of them would write a predetermined part of a sentence, not knowing the others’ choice. The first would pick an adjective, the second a noun, the third a verb, the fourth an adjective, and the fifth a noun. The first publicized exercise of such random (and collective) arrangement produced the following poetic sentence: The exquisite cadavers shall drink the new wine. (Les cadavres exquis boiront le vin nouveau.) Impressive? It sounds even more poetic in the native French. Quite impressive poetry has been produced in such a manner, sometimes with the aid of a computer. But poetry has never been truly taken seriously outside of the beauty of its associations, whether they have been produced by the random ranting of one or more disorganized brains, or the more elaborate constructions of one conscious creator. ~ Nassim Nicholas Taleb,
255:Now that the snowball of consciousness is starting to roll, is it going to find that it’s waking up inside a body lying in a gutter with something multiple, the noun doesn’t matter after an adjective like “multiple,” nothing good ever follows “multiple,” or is it going to be a case of crisp sheets, a soothing hand, and a businesslike figure in white pulling open the curtains on a bright new day? Is it all over, with nothing worse to look forward to now than weak tea, nourishing gruel, short, strengthening walks in the garden and possibly a brief platonic love affair with a ministering angel, or was this all just a moment’s blackout and some looming bastard is now about to get down to real business with the thick end of a pickax helve? Are there, the consciousness wants to know, going to be grapes? At this point some outside stimulus is helpful. “It’s going to be all right” is favorite, whereas “Did anyone get his number?” is definitely a bad sign; either, however, is better than “You two hold his hands behind his back.” In fact someone said, “You were nearly a goner there, Captain.” The pain sensations, which had taken advantage of Vimes’s unconscious state to bunk off for a metaphorical quick cigarette, rushed back. ~ Terry Pratchett,
256:Hard Work
One day, in ages dark and dim,
A toiler, weary, worn and faint,
Who found his task too much for him,
Gave voice unto a sad complaint.
And seeking emphasis to give
Unto his trials (day ill-starred!)
Coupled to 'work' this adjective,
This little word of terror: Hard.
And from that day to this has work
Its frightening description worrn;
'Tis spoken daily by the shirk,
The first cloud on the sky at morn.
To-day when there are tasks to do,
Save that we keep ourselves on guard
With fearful doublings them we view,
And think and speak of them as hard.
That little but ill-chosen word
Has wrought great havoc with men's souls,
Has chilled the hearts ambition stirred
And held the pass to splendid goals.
Great dreams have faded and been lost,
Fine youth by it been sadly marred
As plants beneath a withering frost,
Because men thought and whispered: 'Hard.'
Let's think of work in terms of hope
And speak of it with words of praise,
And tell the joy it is to grope
Along the new, untrodden ways!
Let's break this habit of despair
And cheerfully our task regard;
The road to happiness lies there:
Why think or speak of it as hard?
~ Edgar Albert Guest,
257:The word psychogeography, suggested by an illiterate Kabyle as a general term for the phenomena a few of us were investigating around the summer of 1953, is not too inappropriate. It does not contradict the materialist perspective of the conditioning of life and thought by objective nature. Geography, for example, deals with the determinant action of general natural forces, such as soil composition or climatic conditions, on the economic structures of a society, and thus on the corresponding conception that such a society can have of the world. Psychogeography could set for itself the study of the precise laws and specific effects of the geographical environment, whether consciously organized or not, on the emotions and behavior of individuals. The charmingly vague adjective psychogeographicalcan be applied to the findings arrived at by this type of investigation, to their influence on human feelings, and more generally to any situation or conduct that seems to reflect the same spirit of discovery.

It has long been said that the desert is monotheistic. Is it illogical or devoid of interest to observe that the district in Paris between Place de la Contrescarpe and Rue de l’Arbalète conduces rather to atheism, to oblivion and to the disorientation of habitual reflexes? ~ Guy Debord,
258:Before his and Pushkin's advent Russian literature was purblind. What form it perceived was an outline directed by reason: it did not see color for itself but merely used the hackneyed combinations of blind noun and dog-like adjective that Europe had inherited from the ancients. The sky was blue, the dawn red, the foliage green, the eyes of beauty black, the clouds grey, and so on. It was Gogol (and after him Lermontov and Tolstoy) who first saw yellow and violet at all. That the sky could be pale green at sunrise, or the snow a rich blue on a cloudless day, would have sounded like heretical nonsense to your so-called "classical" writer, accustomed as he was to the rigid conventional color-schemes of the Eighteenth Century French school of literature. Thus the development of the art of description throughout the centuries may be profitably treated in terms of vision, the faceted eye becoming a unified and prodigiously complex organ and the dead dim "accepted colors" (in the sense of "idées reçues") yielding gradually their subtle shades and allowing new wonders of application. I doubt whether any writer, and certainly not in Russia, had ever noticed before, to give the most striking instance, the moving pattern of light and shade on the ground under trees or the tricks of color played by sunlight with leaves. ~ Vladimir Nabokov,
259:The number 6 was the first perfect number, and the number of creation. The adjective "perfect" was attached that are precisely equal to the sum of all the smaller numbers that divide into them, as 6=1+2+3. The next such number, incidentally, is 28=1+2+4+7+14, followed by 496=1+2+4+8+16+31+62+124+248; by the time we reach the ninth perfect number, it contains thirty-seven digits. Six is also the product of the first female number, 2, and the first masculine number, 3. The Hellenistic Jewish philosopher Philo Judaeus of Alexandria (ca. 20 B.C.-c.a. A.D. 40), whose work brought together Greek philosophy and Hebrew scriptures, suggested that God created the world in six days because six was a perfect number. The same idea was elaborated upon by St. Augustine (354-430) in The City of God: "Six is a number perfect in itself, and not because God created the world in six days; rather the contrary is true: God created the world in six days because this number is perfect, and it would remain perfect, even if the work of the six days did not exist." Some commentators of the Bible regarded 28 also as a basic number of the Supreme Architect, pointing to the 28 days of the lunar cycle. The fascination with perfect numbers penetrated even into Judaism, and their study was advocated in the twelfth century by Rabbi Yosef ben Yehudah Ankin in his book, Healing of the Souls. ~ Mario Livio,
260:For me that's the only way of understanding a particular term that everyone here bandies about quite happily, but which clearly can't be quite that straight forward because it doesn't exist in many languages, only in Italian and Spanish, as far as I know, but then again, I don't know that many languages. Perhaps in German too, although I can't be sure: el enamoramiento--the state of falling or being in love, or perhaps infatuation. I'm referring to the noun, the concept; the adjective, the condition, are admittedly more familiar, at least in French, although not in English, but there are words that approximate that meaning ... We find a lot of people funny, people who amuse and charm us and inspire affection and even tenderness, or who please us, captivate us, and can even make us momentarily mad, we enjoy their body and their company or both those things, as is the case for me with you and as I've experienced before with other women, on other occasions, although only a few. Some become essential to us, the force of habit is very strong and ends up replacing or even supplanting almost everything else. It can supplant love, for example, but not that state of being in love, it's important to distinguish between the two things, they're easily confused, but they're not the same ... It's very rare to have a weakness, a genuine weakness for someone, and for that someone to provoke in us that feeling of weakness. ~ Javier Mar as,
261:So what else can I tell you?" I asked. "I mean, to get you to reveal Lily to me."
She triangled her fingers under her chin. "Let's see. Are you a bed wetter?"
"Am I a...?"
"Bed wetter. I am asking if you are a bed wetter."
I knew she was trying to get me to blink. But I wouldn't.
"No, ma'am. I leave my beds dry."
"Not even a little drip every now and then?"
"I'm trying hard to see how this is germane."
"I'm gauging your honesty. What is the last periodical you read methodically?"
"Vogue. Although, in the interest of full disclosure, that's mostly because I was in my mother's bathroom, enduring a rather long bowel movement. You know, the kind that requires Lamaze."
"What adjective do you feel the most longing for?"
That was easy. "I will admit I have a soft spot for fanciful."
"Let's say I have a hundred million dollars and offer it to you. The only condition is that if you take it, a man in China will fall off his bicycle and die. What do you do?"
"I don't understand why it matters whether he's in China or not. And of course I wouldn't take the money."
The old woman nodded.
"Do you think Abraham Lincoln was a homosexual?"
"All I can say for sure is that he never made a pass at me."
"Are you a museumgoer?"
"Is the pope a churchgoer?"
"When you see a flower painted by Georgia O'Keefe, what comes to mind?"
"That's just a transparent ploy to get me to say the word vagina, isn't it? There. I said it. Vagina. ~ David Levithan,
262:He was incredibly and unbearably beautiful.
There was no other way for her to adequately describe it to herself. It was beyond being just handsome. Handsome was a common masculine adjective, limited in its scope. This man was honestly beautiful. His facial features were so very elegant, taking the term noble to the extreme. Dark brows winged up over dark eyes, both of indeterminate color in the shadows of the night. So dramatic, but then so belied by the ridiculous childlike length of lush lashes. His magnificent eyes were lit with a soft, smoldering light of amusement as his sensual mouth was lifting up at the corner in a smile she could only call sinful.
“How did you . . . but that’s . . . you couldn’t possibly!” she spluttered, her hands opening and closing reflexively on his lapels.
“I did. It is not. And apparently, I could.” He was smiling broadly now, and Isabella was certain she was the cause of some unseen bit of amusement. She glowered at him, completely forgetting he’d just saved her neck. Literally.
“I’m so glad you find this so entertaining!”
Jacob couldn’t help his growing smile. She was so focused on him that she hadn’t realized they were still a good ten feet off the ground and floating at the exact spot where he’d met her precipitous fall. That was for the best, he thought, sinking down to the pavement while she was distracted by the taunt of his amusement. He was going to have enough trouble as it was explaining how he’d managed to catch a woman hurtling to her death from five stories up. ~ Jacquelyn Frank,
263:There are no specific memories of the first time I used ketamine, which was around age 17 or 18. The strongest recollection of ketamine use regarded an instance when I was concurrently smoking marijuana and inhaling nitrous oxide. I was in an easy chair and the popular high school band Sublime was playing on the CD player. I was with a friend. We were snorting lines of ketamine and then smoking marijuana from a pipe and blowing the marijuana smoke into a nitrous-filled balloon and inhaling and exhaling the nitrous-filled balloon until there was no more nitrous oxide in the balloon to achieve acute sensations of pleasure, [adjective describing state in which one is unable to comprehend anything], disorientation, etc. The first time I attempted this process my vision behaved as a compact disc sound when it skips - a single frame of vision replacing itself repeatedly for over 60 seconds, I think. Everything was vibrating. Obviously I couldn't move. My friend was later vomiting in the bathroom a lot and I remember being particularly fascinated by the sound of it; it was like he was screaming at the same time as vomiting, which I found funny, and he was making, to a certain degree, demon-like noises. My time 'with' ketamine lasted three months at the most, but despite my attempts I never achieved a 'k-hole.' At a party, once, I saw a girl sitting in bushes and asked her what she was doing and she said "I'm in a 'k-hole.'" While I have since stopped doing ketamine because of availability and lack of interest, I would do ketamine again because I would like to be in a 'k-hole. ~ Brandon Scott Gorrell,
264:Granted, vegetarian naming wrests meat eating from a context of acceptance; this does not invalidate its mission. One thing must be acknowledged about vegetarian naming as exemplified in the above examples: these are true words. The dissonance they produce is not due to their being false, but to their being too accurate. These words do not adhere to our common discourse which presumes the edibility of animals.

Just as feminists proclaimed that 'rape is violence, not sex,' vegetarians wish to name the violence of meat eating. Both groups challenge commonly used terms. Mary Daly calls the phrase 'forcible rape' a reversal by redundancy because it implies that all rapes are not forcible. This example highlights the role of language in masking violence, in this case an adjective deflects attention from the violence inherent in the meaning of the noun. The adjective confers a certain benignity on the word 'rape.' Similarly, the phrase 'humane slaughter' confers a certain benignity on the term 'slaughter.' Daly would call this the process of 'simple inversion': 'the usage of terms and phrases to label...activities as the opposite of what they really are.' The use of adjectives in the phrases 'humane slaughter' and 'forcible rape' promotes a conceptual misfocusing that relativizes these acts of violence. Additionally, as we ponder how the end is achieved, 'forcibly,' 'humanely,' our attention is continously framed so that the absent referents--women, animals--do not appear. Just as all rapes are forcible, all slaughter of animals for food is inhumane regardless of what it is called. ~ Carol J Adams,
265:I’d better have a glass then. To complete my ensemble.” Kestrel didn’t quite forget her promise to Arin not to drink, but rather willed it away along with everything else about him.
“Oh, yes,” said Jess. “You must. Don’t you think so, Ronan?”
“I don’t think. I am thinking of nothing other than what Kestrel could be thinking, and whether she will dance with me. If I’m not mistaken, there is one final dance before this legendary wine is served.”
Kestrel’s happiness faltered. “I’d love to, but…won’t your parents mind?”
Ronan and Jess exchanged a glance. “They’re not here,” Ronan said. “They’ve left to spend the winter season in the capital.”
Which meant that, were they here, they would object--as would any parents, given the scandal.
Ronan read Kestrel’s face. “It doesn’t matter what they think. Dance with me.”
He took her hand, and for the first time in a long while, she felt safe. He pulled her to the center of the floor and into the motions of the dance.
Ronan didn’t speak for a few moments, then touched a slim braid that curved in a tendril along Kestrel’s cheek. “This is pretty.”
The memory of Arin’s hands in her hair made her stiffen.
“Gorgeous?” Ronan tried again. “Transcendent? Kestrel, the right adjective hasn’t been invented to describe you.”
She attempted a light tone. “What will ladies do, when this kind of exaggerated flirtation is no longer the fashion? We shall be spoiled.”
“You know it’s not mere flirtation,” Ronan said. “You’ve always known.”
And Kestrel had, it was true that she had, even if she hadn’t wanted to shake the knowledge out of her mind and look at it, truly see it. She felt a dull spark of dread.
“Marry me, Kestrel. ~ Marie Rutkoski,
266:Hunter slipped from the bed and grabbed his breeches to pull them on. Bathed in moonlight, the planes of his body were gilded with silver, its contours cast into delineative shadow. Clutching a fur to her chest, Loretta sat up, pretending not to notice. She did, though, and what she saw set her pulse to skittering. Perhaps beautiful wasn’t an appropriate adjective for a man, but it was the only word that came to her.
Watching him, she was, for the first time in her life, appreciative of the male form, the smooth play of muscle in motion, the subtle grace in strength. Lean tendons roped his buttocks and thighs. When he turned slightly she glimpsed his manhood, jutting forth, hard and proud from a mahogany nest of short curly hair. Her throat tightened, and deep within her there welled feelings she could scarcely credit, longing, tenderness, delicious excitement--and fierce pride. That such a man loved her and wanted her was nothing short of incredible. He could have had any girl in the village, someone supple and dark with liquid brown eyes, a dozen such someones if he chose, but instead he had picked her, a skinny, pallid farm girl.
Cinching the drawstring of his pants, he tied a quick bowknot and extended a hand to her. For an instant Loretta was swept back in time to that first afternoon, when he had commanded she place her palm across his. She had been so terrified then, but no longer. His arm was her shield, just as he had promised.
“Come, wife. My cousin brings a gift, eh?”
“Hunter, I’m not dressed!”
Chuckling, he grabbed a buffalo robe and draped it around her shoulders. After enveloping her in the fur, he drew her from the bed and to the door, untying the flap to sweep it aside. ~ Catherine Anderson,
267:Defective is an adjective that has long been deemed too freighted for liberal discourse, but the medical terms that have supplanted it—illness, syndrome, condition—can be almost equally pejorative in their discreet way. We often use illness to disparage a way of being, and identity to validate that same way of being. This is a false dichotomy. In physics, the Copenhagen interpretation defines energy/matter as behaving sometimes like a wave and sometimes like a particle, which suggests that it is both, and posits that it is our human limitation to be unable to see both at the same time. The Nobel Prize–winning physicist Paul Dirac identified how light appears to be a particle if we ask a particle-like question, and a wave if we ask a wavelike question. A similar duality obtains in this matter of self. Many conditions are both illness and identity, but we can see one only when we obscure the other. Identity politics refutes the idea of illness, while medicine shortchanges identity. Both are diminished by this narrowness.

Physicists gain certain insights from understanding energy as a wave, and other insights from understanding it as a particle, and use quantum mechanics to reconcile the information they have gleaned. Similarly, we have to examine illness and identity, understand that observation will usually happen in one domain or the other, and come up with a syncretic mechanics. We need a vocabulary in which the two concepts are not opposites, but compatible aspects of a condition. The problem is to change how we assess the value of individuals and of lives, to reach for a more ecumenical take on healthy. Ludwig Wittgenstein said, ―All I know is what I have words for.‖ The absence of words is the absence of intimacy; these experiences are starved for language. ~ Andrew Solomon,
268:Runach took the book in hand and went to look for that Bruadarian lass, who was likely having a conversation with the flora and fauna of his grandfather's garden...
He just hadn't expected her to be singing.
It wasn't loud singing, though he could hear it once he'd wandered the garden long enough to catch sight of her, standing beneath a flowering linden tree, holding a blossom in her hand. Runach came to a skidding halt and gaped at her.
Very well, so he had ceased to think of her as plain directly after Gobhann, and he had been struggling to come up with a worthy adjective ever since. He supposed he might spend the rest of his life trying, and never manage it.
It was difficult to describe a dream.
He had to sit down on the first bench he found, because he couldn't stand any longer. He wondered if the day would come where she ceased to surprise him with the things she did.
Her song was nothing he had ever heard before, but for some reason it seemed familiar in a way he couldn't divine. It was enough for the moment to simply sit there and watch as she and the tree--and several of the flowers, it had to be said--engaged in an ethereal bit of music making. It was truthfully the most beautiful thing he had ever heard, and that was saying something, because the musicians who graced his grandfather's hall were unequalled in any Elvish hall he'd ever visited.
And then Runach realized why what she was doing sounded so familiar.
She was singing in Fadaire.
He grasped for the rapidly disappearing shreds of anything resembling coherent thought, but it was useless. All he could do was sit on that very cold bench and listen to a woman who had hardly set foot past her place of incarceration, sing a song in his mother's native tongue, that would have brought any elf in the vicinity to tears if they had heard it. He knew because it was nigh onto bringing him to that place in spite of his sorry, jaded self. ~ Lynn Kurland,
269:My, my," he said, looking the note over. "If only students would write this much in their essays. One of you has considerably worse writing than the other, so forgive me if I get anything wrong here." He cleared his throat."'So, I saw J last night,' begins the person with bad handwriting, to which the response is,'What happened,' followed by no fewer than five question marks. Understandable, since sometimes one—let alone four—just won't get the point across, eh?" The class laughed, and I noticed Mia throwing me a particularly mean smile. "The first speaker responds:'What do you think happened? We hooked up in one of the empty lounges.'
Mr. Nagy glanced up after hearing some more giggles in the room. His British accent only added to the hilarity.
"May I assume by this reaction that the use of 'hook up' pertains to the more recent, shall we say,carnal application of the term than the tamer one I grew up with?”
More snickers ensued. Straightening up, I said boldly, "Yes, sir, Mr. Nagy. That would be correct, sir."
A number of people in the class laughed outright.
"Thank you for that confirmation, Miss Hathaway. Now, where was I? Ah yes, the other speaker then asks,'How was it?' The response is,'Good,' punctuated with a smiley face to confirm said adjective. Well. I suppose kudos are in order for the mysterious J, hmmm?'So, like, how far did you guys go?' Uh, ladies," said Mr. Nagy, "I do hope this doesn't surpass a PG rating.'Not very.We got caught.'And again, we are shown the severity of the situation, this time through the use of a not-smiling face.'What happened?' 'Dimitri showed up. He threw Jesse out and then bitched me out.'
The class lost it, both from hearing Mr. Nagy say "bitched" and from finally getting some participants named.
"Why, Mr.Zeklos, are you the aforementioned J? The one who earned a smiley face from the sloppy writer? ~ Richelle Mead,
270:Grateful! Good God! Am I never to get away from the bleat of that filmy adjective? I don’t want gratitude. I don’t want kindness. I don’t want sentimentality. I don’t even want love—I could make you give me that—of a sort. I want common honesty.’ ‘Do you? But that’s what I’ve always wanted—I don’t think it’s to be got.’ ‘Listen, Harriet. I do understand. I know you don’t want either to give or to take. You’ve tried being the giver, and you’ve found that the giver is always fooled. And you won’t be the taker, because that’s very difficult, and because you know that the taker always ends by hating the giver. You don’t want ever again to have to depend for happiness on another person.’ ‘That’s true. That’s the truest thing you ever said.’ ‘All right. I can respect that. Only you’ve got to play the game. Don’t force an emotional situation and then blame me for it.’ ‘But I don’t want any situation. I want to be left in peace.’ ‘Oh! but you are not a peaceful person. You’ll always make trouble. Why not fight it out on equal terms and enjoy it? Like Alan Breck, I’m a bonny fighter.’ ‘And you think you’re sure to win.’ ‘Not with my hands tied.’ ‘Oh!—well, all right. But it all sounds so dreary and exhausting,’ said Harriet, and burst idiotically into tears. ‘Good Heavens!’ said Wimsey, aghast. ‘Harriet! darling! angel! beast! vixen! don’t say that.’ He flung himself on his knees in a frenzy of remorse and agitation. ‘Call me anything you like, but not dreary! Not one of those things you find in clubs! Have this one, darling, it’s much larger and quite clean. Say you didn’t mean it! Great Scott! Have I been boring you interminably for eighteen months on end? A thing any right-minded woman would shudder at I know you once said that if anybody ever married me it would be for the sake of hearing me piffle on, but I expect that kind of thing palls after a bit. I’m babbling—I know I’m babbling. What on earth am I to do about it?’ ‘Ass! Oh, it’s not fair. You always make me laugh. I can’t fight—I’m so tired. You don’t seem to know what being tired is. Stop. Let go. I won’t be bullied. Thank God! there’s the telephone. ~ Dorothy L Sayers,
271:Jackson?”

“Hmm?”

“Can I tell you something and will you promise not to get mad or make me feel bad or irresponsible or reckless?”

“You’re pregnant?”

“What?” She sat up resting on her elbow, giving him a scrunched-face expression. “I’m having my period.”

He shrugged. “I wasn’t convinced if that’s what it was for sure since a few days ago you accused me of trying to ‘break your vagina.’”

She jabbed him in the side with her fist. He chuckled.

“It’s not funny. A few times I wondered if you were going to rip me straight up the middle in two. You’ve been weird … even kind of angry. That’s it … it’s felt like angry sex. Not even sex at times, more like just effing.”

“Effing?”

“Yes, fucking,” she whispered.

He roared a big laugh that only turned her face true crimson. “Why…” he tried to catch his breath through his laughter “…are you whispering? Are you worried about Gunner hearing you or God? Because I’m quite certain that dog has already told me to back the fuck away from you in more than one language, and I know you haven’t been to church in a while, but as far as I know, God can still read minds.”

“Well excuse me, Mr. Vulgar, I didn’t grow up using explicit language, and I had a baby before I had a chance to sow any wild oats and making a habit of using the F-word as an adjective and adverb to every single word in the English language. Don’t people realize it starts to lose its effect after a while? It’s like putting an explanation point at the end of every sentence.

‘I’m going to wake the F up tomorrow and roll the F out of my effing bed, and take an effing hot shower before I effing eat an effing bowl of cereal. Then I’m going to get the F going to my first effing job, then meet my effing amazing boyfriend for an effing good lunch, and then if I’m done with my effing period we might F a few times until we’re effing exhausted.’”

Jackson’s body vibrated with laughter. “Am I the ‘effing amazing boyfriend’ in your little story?”

Ryn kissed along his chest, following the lines of ink. “Maybe.”

“Maybe, huh? I can work with that. So before you went off on your effing tangent, what were you going to tell me? ~ Jewel E Ann,
272:It doesn’t matter what they think. Dance with me.”
He took her hand, and for the first time in a long while, she felt safe. He pulled her to the center of the floor and into the motions of the dance.
Ronan didn’t speak for a few moments, then touched a slim braid that curved in a tendril along Kestrel’s cheek. “This is pretty.”
The memory of Arin’s hands in her hair made her stiffen.
“Gorgeous?” Ronan tried again. “Transcendent? Kestrel, the right adjective hasn’t been invented to describe you.”
She attempted a light tone. “What will ladies do, when this kind of exaggerated flirtation is no longer the fashion? We shall be spoiled.”
“You know it’s not mere flirtation,” Ronan said. “You’ve always known.”
And Kestrel had, it was true that she had, even if she hadn’t wanted to shake the knowledge out of her mind and look at it, truly see it. She felt a dull spark of dread.
“Marry me, Kestrel.”
She held her breath.
“I know things have been hard lately,” Ronan continued, “and that you don’t deserve it. You’ve had to be so strong, so proud, so cunning. But all of this unpleasantness will go away the instant we announce our engagement. You can be yourself again.”
But she was strong. Proud. Cunning. Who did he think she was, if not the person who mercilessly beat him at every Bite and Sting game, who gave him Irex’s death-price and told him exactly what to do with it? Yet Kestrel bit back her words. She leaned into the curve of his arm. It was easy to dance with him. It would be easy to say yes.
“Your father will be happy. My wedding gift to you will be the finest piano the capital can offer.”
Kestrel glanced into his eyes.
“Or keep yours,” he said hastily. “I know you’re attached to it.”
“It’s just…you are very kind.”
He gave a short, nervous laugh. “Kindness has little to do with it.”
The dance slowed. It would end soon.
“So?” Ronan had stopped, even though the music continued and dancers swirled around them. “What…well, what do you think?”
Kestrel didn’t know what to think. Ronan was offering everything she could want. Why, then, did his words sadden her? Why did she feel like something had been lost? Carefully, she said, “The reasons you’ve given aren’t reasons to marry.”
“I love you. Is that reason enough? ~ Marie Rutkoski,
273:A Real Motorcycle
Unspeakable. The word that fills up the
poem, that the head
tries to excise.
At 6 a.m., the wet lion. Its sewn plush face
on the porch rail in the rain.
Heavy rains later, & maybe a thunderstorm.
12 or 13 degrees.
Inside: an iris, candle, poster of the
many-breasted Artemis in a stone hat
from Anatolia
A little pedal steel guitar
A photograph of her at a table by the sea,
her shoulder blocked by the red geranium.
The sea tho invisible can be smelled by the casual watcher
Incredible salt air
in my throat when I see her.
'Suddenly you discover that you'll spend your entire life
in disorder; it's all that you have; you must learn to live
with it.'
Four tanks, & the human white-shirted body
stopped on June 5 in Place Tian an Men.
Or 'a red pullover K-Way.' There is not much time left
to say these things. The urgency of that,
desire that dogged the body all winter
& has scarcely left,
now awaits the lilacs, their small white bunches.
Gaily.
As if their posies will light up
the curious old intentional bruise.
10
Adjective, adjective, adjective, noun!
Or just, lilac moon.
What we must, & cannot, excise from the head.
Her hand holding, oh, The New Path to the Waterfall?
Or the time I walked in too quickly, looked up
at her shirtless, grinning.
Pulling her down into the front of me, silly!
Sitting down sudden to make a lap for her...
Kissing the back of her leg.
Actually the leg kiss was a dream, later enacted
we laughed at it,
why didn't you do it
she said
when you thought of it.
The excisable thought, later
desired or
necessary.
Or shuddered at, in memory.
Later, it is repeated for the cameras
with such unease.
& now, stuck in the head.
Like running the motorcycle full-tilt into the hay bales.
What is the motorcycle doing in the poem
A. said.
It's an image, E. said back.
It's a crash in the head, she said.
It's a real motorcycle.
11
Afterthought 1
0 excise this: her back turned,
she concentrates on something
in a kitchen sink,
& I sit behind her,
running my fingers on
the table edge.
0 excise this.
Afterthought 2
& after, excise, excise.
If the source of the pain could be located
using geological survey equipment.
Into the sedimentary layers, the slippage,
the surge of the igneous intrusion.
Or the flat bottom of the former sea
I grew up on,
Running the motorcycle into the round
bay bales.
Hay grass poking the skin.
The back wet.
Hey, I shouted,
Her back turned to me, its location
now visible only in the head.
When I can't stand it,
I invent anything, even memories.
She gets up, hair stuck with hay.
I invented this. Yeow.
~ Erin Mouré,
274:It doesn’t matter what they think. Dance with me.”
He took her hand, and for the first time in a long while, she felt safe. He pulled her to the center of the floor and into the motions of the dance.
Ronan didn’t speak for a few moments, then touched a slim braid that curved in a tendril along Kestrel’s cheek. “This is pretty.”
The memory of Arin’s hands in her hair made her stiffen.
“Gorgeous?” Ronan tried again. “Transcendent? Kestrel, the right adjective hasn’t been invented to describe you.”
She attempted a light tone. “What will ladies do, when this kind of exaggerated flirtation is no longer the fashion? We shall be spoiled.”
“You know it’s not mere flirtation,” Ronan said. “You’ve always known.”
And Kestrel had, it was true that she had, even if she hadn’t wanted to shake the knowledge out of her mind and look at it, truly see it. She felt a dull spark of dread.
“Marry me, Kestrel.”
She held her breath.
“I know things have been hard lately,” Ronan continued, “and that you don’t deserve it. You’ve had to be so strong, so proud, so cunning. But all of this unpleasantness will go away the instant we announce our engagement. You can be yourself again.”
But she was strong. Proud. Cunning. Who did he think she was, if not the person who mercilessly beat him at every Bite and Sting game, who gave him Irex’s death-price and told him exactly what to do with it? Yet Kestrel bit back her words. She leaned into the curve of his arm. It was easy to dance with him. It would be easy to say yes.
“Your father will be happy. My wedding gift to you will be the finest piano the capital can offer.”
Kestrel glanced into his eyes.
“Or keep yours,” he said hastily. “I know you’re attached to it.”
“It’s just…you are very kind.”
He gave a short, nervous laugh. “Kindness has little to do with it.”
The dance slowed. It would end soon.
“So?” Ronan had stopped, even though the music continued and dancers swirled around them. “What…well, what do you think?”
Kestrel didn’t know what to think. Ronan was offering everything she could want. Why, then, did his words sadden her? Why did she feel like something had been lost? Carefully, she said, “The reasons you’ve given aren’t reasons to marry.”
“I love you. Is that reason enough?”
Maybe. Maybe it would have been. But as the music drained from the air, Kestrel saw Arin on the fringes of the crowd. He watched her, his expression oddly desperate. As if he, too, were losing something, or it was already lost.
She saw him and didn’t understand how she had ever missed his beauty. How it didn’t always strike her as it did now, like a blow.
“No,” Kestrel whispered.
“What?” Ronan’s voice cut into the quiet.
“I’m sorry.”
Ronan swiveled to find the target of Kestrel’s gaze. He swore.
Kestrel walked away, pushing past slaves bearing trays laden with glasses of pale gold wine. The lights and people blurred in her stinging eyes. She walked through the doors, down a hall, out of the palace, and into the cold night, knowing without seeing or hearing or touching him that Arin was at her side. ~ Marie Rutkoski,
275:The Grammarians Funeral
Eight Parts of Speech this Day wear Mourning Gowns
Declin'd Verbs, Pronouns, Participles, Nouns.
And not declined, Adverbs and Conjunctions,
In Lillies Porch they stand to do their functions.
With Preposition; but the most affection
Was still observed in the Interjection.
The Substantive seeming the limbed best,
Would set an hand to bear him to his Rest.
The Adjective with very grief did say,
Hold me by strength, or I shall faint away.
The Clouds of Tears did over-cast their faces,
Yea all were in most lamentable Cases.
The five Declensions did the Work decline,
And Told the Pronoun Tu, The work is thine:
But in this case those have no call to go
That want the Vocative, and can't say O!
The Pronouns said that if the Nouns were there,
There was no need of them, they might them spare:
But for the sake of Emphasis they would,
In their Discretion do what ere they could.
Great honour was confer'd on Conjugations,
They were to follow next to the Relations.
Amo did love him best, and Doceo might
Alledge he was his Glory and Delight.
But Lego said by me he got his skill,
And therefore next the Herse I follow will.
Audio said little, hearing them so hot,
Yet knew by him much Learning he had got.
O Verbs the Active were, Or Passive sure,
Sum to be Neuter could not well endure.
But this was common to them all to Moan
Their load of grief they could not soon Depone.
A doleful Day for Verbs, they look so moody,
They drove Spectators to a Mournful Study.
The Verbs irregular, 'twas thought by some,
Would break no rule, if they were pleas'd to come.
Gaudeo could not be found; fearing disgrace
He had with-drawn, sent Maereo in his Place.
Possum did to the utmost he was able,
17
And bore as Stout as if he'd been A Table.
Volo was willing, Nolo some-what stout,
But Malo rather chose, not to stand out.
Possum and Volo wish'd all might afford
Their help, but had not an Imperative Word.
Edo from Service would by no means Swerve,
Rather than fail, he thought the Cakes to Serve.
Fio was taken in a fit, and said,
By him a Mournful POEM should be made.
Fero was willing for to bear a part,
Altho' he did it with an aking heart.
Feror excus'd, with grief he was so Torn,
He could not bear, he needed to be born.
Such Nouns and Verbs as we defective find,
No Grammar Rule did their attendance bind.
They were excepted, and exempted hence,
But Supines, all did blame for negligence.
Verbs Offspring, Participles hand-in-hand,
Follow, and by the same direction stand:
The rest Promiscuously did croud and cumber,
Such Multitudes of each, they wanted Number.
Next to the Corpse to make th' attendance even,
Jove, Mercury, Apollo came from heaven.
And Virgil, Cato, gods, men, Rivers, Winds,
With Elegies, Tears, Sighs, came in their kinds.
Ovid from Pontus hast's Apparrell'd thus,
In Exile-weeds bringing De Tristibus:
And Homer sure had been among the Rout,
But that the Stories say his Eyes were out.
Queens, Cities, Countries, Islands, Come
All Trees, Birds, Fishes, and each Word in Um.
What Syntax here can you expect to find?
Where each one bears such discomposed mind.
Figures of Diction and Construction,
Do little: Yet stand sadly looking on.
That such a Train may in their motion chord,
Prosodia gives the measure Word for Word.
18
~ Benjamin Tompson,
276:Hyphen This word comes from two Greek words together meaning ‘under one’, which gets nobody anywhere and merely prompts the reflection that argument by etymology only serves the purpose of intimidating ignorant antagonists. On, then. This is one more case in which matters have not improved since Fowler’s day, since he wrote in 1926: The chaos prevailing among writers or printers or both regarding the use of hyphens is discreditable to English education … The wrong use or wrong non-use of hyphens makes the words, if strictly interpreted, mean something different from what the writers intended. It is no adequate answer to such criticisms to say that actual misunderstanding is unlikely; to have to depend on one’s employer’s readiness to take the will for the deed is surely a humiliation that no decent craftsman should be willing to put up with. And so say all of us who may be reading this book. The references there to ‘printers’ needs updating to something like ‘editors’, meaning those who declare copy fit to print. Such people now often get it wrong by preserving in midcolumn a hyphen originally put at the end of a line to signal a word-break: inter-fere, say, is acceptable split between lines but not as part of a single line. This mistake is comparatively rare and seldom causes confusion; even so, time spent wondering whether an exactor may not be an ex-actor is time avoidably wasted. The hyphen is properly and necessarily used to join the halves of a two-word adjectival phrase, as in fair-haired children, last-ditch resistance, falling-down drunk, over-familiar reference. Breaches of this rule are rare and not troublesome. Hyphens are also required when a phrase of more than two words is used adjectivally, as in middle-of-the-road policy, too-good-to-be-true story, no-holds-barred contest. No hard-and-fast rule can be devised that lays down when a two-word phrase is to be hyphenated and when the two words are to be run into one, though there will be a rough consensus that, for example, book-plate and bookseller are each properly set out and that bookplate and book-seller might seem respectively new-fangled and fussy. A hyphen is not required when a normal adverb (i.e. one ending in -ly) plus an adjective or other modifier are used in an adjectival role, as in Jack’s equally detestable brother, a beautifully kept garden, her abnormally sensitive hearing. A hyphen is required, however, when the adverb lacks a final -ly, like well, ill, seldom, altogether or one of those words like tight and slow that double as adjectives. To avoid ambiguity here we must write a well-kept garden, an ill-considered objection, a tight-fisted policy. The commonest fault in the use of the hyphen, and the hardest to eradicate, is found when an adjectival phrase is used predicatively. So a gent may write of a hard-to-conquer mountain peak but not of a mountain peak that remains hard-to-conquer, an often-proposed solution but not of one that is often-proposed. For some reason this fault is especially common when numbers, including fractions, are concerned, and we read every other day of criminals being imprisoned for two-and-a-half years, a woman becoming a mother-of-three and even of some unfortunate being stabbed six-times. And the Tories have been in power for a decade-and-a-half. Finally, there seems no end to the list of common phrases that some berk will bung a superfluous hyphen into the middle of: artificial-leg, daily-help, false-teeth, taxi-firm, martial-law, rainy-day, airport-lounge, first-wicket, piano-concerto, lung-cancer, cavalry-regiment, overseas-service. I hope I need not add that of course one none the less writes of a false-teeth problem, a first-wicket stand, etc. The only guide is: omit the hyphen whenever possible, so avoid not only mechanically propelled vehicle users (a beauty from MEU) but also a man eating tiger. And no one is right and no-one is wrong. ~ Kingsley Amis,
277:Elegy: Walking the Line
Every month or so, Sundays, we walked the line,
The limit and the boundary. Past the sweet gum
Superb above the cabin, along the wall—
Stones gathered from the level field nearby
When first we cleared it. (Angry bumblebees
Stung the two mules. They kicked. Thirteen, I ran.)
And then the field: thread-leaf maple, deciduous
Magnolia, hybrid broom, and, further down,
In light shade, one Franklinia Alatamaha
In solstice bloom, all white, most graciously.
On the sunnier slope, the wild plums that my mother
Later would make preserves of, to give to friends
Or sell, in autumn, with the foxgrape, quince,
Elderberry, and muscadine. Around
The granite overhang, moist den of foxes;
Gradually up a long hill, high in pine,
Park-like, years of dry needles on the ground,
And dogwood, slopes the settlers terraced; pine
We cut at Christmas, berries, hollies, anise,
And cones for sale in Mister Haymore's yard
In town, below the Courthouse Square. James Haymore,
One of the two good teachers at Boys' High,
Ironic and demanding, chemistry;
Mary Lou Culver taught us English: essays,
Plot summaries, outlines, meters, kinds of clauses
(Noun, adjective, and adverb, five at a time),
Written each day and then revised, and she
Up half the night to read them once again
Through her pince-nez, under a single lamp.
Across the road, on a steeper hill, the settlers
Set a house, unpainted, the porch fallen in,
The road a red clay strip without a bridge,
A shallow stream that liked to overflow.
Oliver Brand's mules pulled our station wagon
Out of the gluey mire, earth's rust. Then, here
And there, back from the road, the specimen
Shrubs and small trees my father planted, some
Taller than we were, some in bloom, some berried,
And some we still brought water to. We always
14
Paused at the weed-filled hole beside the beech
That, one year, brought forth beech nuts by the thousands,
A hole still reminiscent of the man
Chewing tobacco in among his whiskers
My father happened on, who, discovered, told
Of dreaming he should dig there for the gold
And promised to give half of what he found.
During the wars with Germany and Japan,
Descendents of the settlers, of Oliver Brand
And of that man built Flying Fortresses
For Lockheed, in Atlanta; now they build
Brick mansions in the woods they left, with lawns
To paved and lighted streets, azaleas, camellias
Blooming among the pines and tulip trees—
Mercedes Benz and Cadillac Republicans.
There was another stream further along
Divided through a marsh, lined by the fence
We stretched to posts with Mister Garner's help
The time he needed cash for his son's bail
And offered all his place. A noble spring
Under the oak root cooled his milk and butter.
He called me "honey," working with us there
(My father bought three acres as a gift),
His wife pale, hair a country orange, voice
Uncanny, like a ghost's, through the open door
Behind her, chickens scratching on the floor.
Barred Rocks, our chickens; one, a rooster, splendid
Sliver and grey, red comb and long sharp spurs,
Once chased Aunt Jennie as far as the daphne bed
The two big king snakes were familiars of.
My father's dog would challenge him sometimes
To laughter and applause. Once, in Stone Mountain,
Travelers, stopped for gas, drove off with Smokey;
Angrily, grievingly, leaving his work, my father
Traced the car and found them way far south,
Had them arrested and, bringing Smokey home,
Was proud as Sherlock Holmes, and happier.
Above the spring, my sister's cats, black Amy,
Grey Junior, down to meet us. The rose trees,
Domestic, Asiatic, my father's favorites.
The bridge, marauding dragonflies, the bullfrog,
15
Camellias cracked and blackened by the freeze,
Bay tree, mimosa, mountain laurel, apple,
Monkey pine twenty feet high, banana shrub,
The owls' tall pine curved like a flattened S.
The pump house Mort and I built block by block,
Smooth concrete floor, roof pale aluminum
Half-covered by a clematis, the pump
Thirty feet down the mountain's granite foot.
Mort was the hired man sent to us by Fortune,
Childlike enough to lead us. He brought home,
Although he could not even drive a tractor,
Cheated, a worthless car, which we returned.
When, at the trial to garnishee his wages,
Frank Guess, the judge, Grandmother's longtime neighbor,
Whose children my mother taught in Cradle Roll,
Heard Mort's examination, he broke in
As if in disbelief on the bank's attorneys:
"Gentlemen, must we continue this charade?"
Finally, past the compost heap, the garden,
Tomatoes and sweet corn for succotash,
Okra for frying, Kentucky Wonders, limas,
Cucumbers, squashes, leeks heaped round with soil,
Lavender, dill, parsley, and rosemary,
Tithonia and zinnias between the rows;
The greenhouse by the rock wall, used for cuttings
In late spring, frames to grow them strong for planting
Through winter into summer. Early one morning
Mort called out, lying helpless by the bridge.
His ashes we let drift where the magnolia
We planted as a stem divides the path
The others lie, too young, at Silver Hill,
Except my mother. Ninety-five, she lives
Three thousand miles away, beside the bare
Pacific, in rooms that overlook the Mission,
The Riviera, and the silver range
La Cumbre east. Magnolia grandiflora
And one druidic live oak guard the view.
Proudly around the walls, she shows her paintings
Of twenty years ago: the great oak's arm
Extended, Zeuslike, straight and strong, wisteria
Tangled among the branches, amaryllis
16
Around the base; her cat, UC, at ease
In marigolds; the weeping cherry, pink
And white arms like a blessing to the blue
Bird feeder Mort made; cabin, scarlet sweet gum
Superb when tribes migrated north and south.
Alert, still quick of speech, a little blind,
Active, ready for laughter, open to fear,
Pity, and wonder that such things may be,
Some Sundays, I think, she must walk the line,
Aunt Jennie, too, if she were still alive,
And Eleanor, whose story is untold,
Their presences like muses, prompting me
In my small study, all listening to the sea,
All of one mind, the true posterity.
~ Edgar Bowers,

IN CHAPTERS [49/49]



   12 Integral Yoga
   5 Occultism
   4 Philosophy
   2 Yoga
   2 Poetry
   2 Christianity
   1 Thelema
   1 Hinduism
   1 Alchemy


   13 Sri Aurobindo
   5 The Mother
   5 Aleister Crowley
   4 Jorge Luis Borges
   3 Satprem
   2 Swami Vivekananda
   2 Aldous Huxley


   4 Labyrinths
   3 Vedic and Philological Studies
   3 Magick Without Tears
   2 The Secret Of The Veda
   2 The Secret Doctrine
   2 The Perennial Philosophy
   2 Letters On Yoga II


0.00 - The Book of Lies Text, #The Book of Lies, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
    Being is the Noun; Form is the adjective.
    Matter is the Noun; Motion is the Verb.

0 1961-01-17, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   Anger, moreover, like all forms of violence, is always a sign of weakness, impotence and incapacity. Here the deception comes from the approval one gives it or the flattering adjective one covers it with; for rage can be no more than blind, ignorant and asuricopposed to the light.
   But this is still the best of cases.

0 1965-06-26, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   For a long time I have been in touch with C.S. about the German translation of the book [The Adventure of Consciousness]. He has thought about it a lot (so have I), and finally P. has made a suggestion. The word for spirit in German, Geist, is used indifferently, and of course especially to denote the mindas in French esprit is used very vaguely. So P. suggested we keep the word Geist for the mind and qualify it: thinking mind, illuminated mind, etc. But the word spirit would still have to be translated, and there is no word for it in German. There exist a few adjectives that derive from the Latin word spiritus, but nothing for spirit. P. suggested we use der Spirit, derived from Latin. C.S. hesitates. So I wanted to ask you if you had some impression or other. Can we introduce der Spirit in German? Thats the sort of thing that brings all the German translators into conflict.
   But theres no guarantee of their accepting a suggestion.

0 1968-02-17, #Agenda Vol 09, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   Beware of the word love if it is not preceded by the adjective divine, because in the general mentality the word evokes sexuality.
   Just this, nothing else, no opinion about what shes done, but this. (Mother writes her note)

1.00 - The way of what is to come, #The Red Book Liber Novus, #unset, #Zen
    13. Lit. Vermessener. This also carries the connotation of the adjective vermessen, that is, a lack or loss of measure, and thus implies overconfidence, presumptuousness
    14. A reference to the vision that follows.

1.02.3.1 - The Lord, #Isha Upanishad, #unset, #Zen
  a series of neuter adjectives, "Bright, bodiless, without scar,
  without sinews, pure, unpierced by evil." To express the same

1.02 - The Philosophy of Ishvara, #Bhakti-Yoga, #Swami Vivekananda, #Hinduism
  Why? Because He is the subject of all the scriptural texts as regards creation etc., and the liberated souls are not mentioned therein in any connection whatsoever. The Supreme Lord indeed is alone engaged in ruling the universe. The texts as to creation etc. all point to Him. Besides, there is given the adjective 'ever-perfect'. Also the scriptures say that the powers Anima etc. of the others are from the search after and the worship of God. Therefore they have no place in the ruling of the universe. Again, on account of their possessing their own minds, it is possible that their wills may differ, and that, whilst one desires creation, another may desire destruction. The only way of avoiding this conflict is to make all wills subordinate to some one will. Therefore the conclusion is that the wills of the liberated are dependent on the will of the Supreme Ruler."
  next chapter: 1.03 - Spiritual Realisation, The aim of Bhakti-Yoga

1.04 - The Gods of the Veda, #Vedic and Philological Studies, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  Such is his general nature and power. But there are also certain particular subjective functions to which he is called. He is rishadasa, he harries and slays the enemies of the soul, and with Mitra of pure discernment he works at the understanding till he brings it to a gracious pureness and brightness. He is like Agni, a kavih, one of those who has access to and commands ideal knowledge and with Mitra he supports and upholds Daksha when he is at his works; for so I take Daksham apasam. Mitra has already been described as having a pure daksha. The adjective daksha means in Sanscrit clever, intelligent, capable, like dakshina, like the Greek . We may also compare the Greek , meaning judgment, opinion etc & , I think or seem, and Latin doceo, I teach, doctrina etc. As these identities indicate, Daksha is originally he who divides, analyses, discerns; he is the intellectual faculty or in his person the master of the intellectual faculty which discerns and distinguishes. Therefore was Mitra able to help in making the understanding bright & pure,by virtue of his purified discernment.
  So much Varuna does but what is he actually?We cannot tell with accuracy until we have separated him from his companion Mitra. We come across him next no longer in company withMitra, but still not by himself, accompanied this time by Indra and helping him in his work, in the seventeenth sukta of the first Mandala, a hymn of Medhatithi Kanwa, a hymn whose burden is joy, calm, purity & fulfilment. Of Indra & Varuna, the high rulers, I choose the protection, may they be gracious to us in this our state (of attainment). For ye are they who come to the call of the enlightened soul that can contain you; you are they who are upbearers of his actions. Take ye your pleasure to your hearts content in the felicity, O Indra, O Varuna; so we desire you utterly near to us. May we gain the full pitch of the powers, the full vigour of the right thoughts that give men the assured plenty.Indra is the desirable Strength of all that gives force, Varuna of all that is ample & noble. By their protection may we remain in safety and meditate, may there be indeed an utter purification. Indra and Varuna, I call you for rich and varied ecstasy, do ye render us victorious. Indra and Varuna, now may our understandings be entirely obedient to you, that in them you may give to us peace. May the good praise be grateful to you, O Indra & Varuna, which I call aloud to you, the fulfilling praise which you bring to prosperity.

1.07 - TRUTH, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
  In connection with the Mahayanist view that words play an important and even creative part in the evolution of unregenerate human nature, we may mention Humes arguments against the reality of causation. These arguments start from the postulate that all events are loose and separate from one another and proceed with faultless logic to a conclusion that makes complete nonsense of all organized thought or purposive action. The fallacy, as Professor Stout has pointed out, lies in the preliminary postulate. And when we ask ourselves what it was that induced Hume to make this odd and quite unrealistic assumption that events are loose and separate, we see that his only reason for flying in the face of immediate experience was the fact that things and happenings are symbolically represented in our thought by nouns, verbs and adjectives, and that these words are, in effect, loose and separate from one another in a way which the events and things they stand for quite obviously are not. Taking words as the measure of things, instead of using things as the measure of words, Hume imposed the discrete and, so to say, pointilliste pattern of language upon the continuum of actual experiencewith the impossibly paradoxical results with which we are all familiar. Most human beings are not philosophers and care not at all for consistency in thought or action. Thus, in some circumstances they take it for granted that events are not loose and separate, but co-exist or follow one another within the organized and organizing field of a cosmic whole. But on other occasions, where the opposite view is more nearly in accord with their passions or interests, they adopt, all unconsciously, the Humian position and treat events as though they were as independent of one another and the rest of the world as the words by which they are symbolized. This is generally true of all occurrences involving I, me, mine. Reifying the loose and separate names, we regard the things as also loose and separatenot subject to law, not involved in the network of relationships, by which in fact they are so obviously bound up with their physical, social and spiritual environment. We regard as absurd the idea that there is no causal process in nature and no organic connection between events and things in the lives of other people; but at the same time we accept as axiomatic the notion that our own sacred ego is loose and separate from the universe, a law unto itself above the moral dharma and even, in many respects, above the natural law of causality. Both in Buddhism and Catholicism, monks and nuns were encouraged to avoid the personal pronoun and to speak of themselves in terms of circumlocutions that clearly indicated their real relationship with the cosmic reality and their fellow creatures. The precaution was a wise one. Our responses to familiar words are conditioned reflexes. By changing the stimulus, we can do something to change the response. No Pavlov bell, no salivation; no harping on words like me and mine, no purely automatic and unreflecting egotism. When a monk speaks of himself, not as I, but as this sinner or this unprofitable servant, he tends to stop taking his loose and separate selfhood for granted, and makes himself aware of his real, organic relationship with God and his neighbours.
  In practice words are used for other purposes than for making statements about facts. Very often they are used rhetorically, in order to arouse the passions and direct the will towards some course of action regarded as desirable. And sometimes, too, they are used poetically that is to say, they are used in such a way that, besides making a statement about real or imaginary things and events, and besides appealing rhetorically to the will and the passions, they cause the reader to be aware that they are beautiful. Beauty in art or nature is a matter of relationships between things not in themselves intrinsically beautiful. There is nothing beautiful, for example, about the vocables, time, or syllable. But when they are used in such a phrase as to the last syllable of recorded time, the relationship between the sound of the component words, between our ideas of the things for which they stand, and between the overtones of association with which each word and the phrase as a whole are charged, is apprehended, by a direct and immediate intuition, as being beautiful.
  --
  And so, having triumphantly urinated on the proffered hand of Wisdom, the Monkey within us turns back and, full of a bumptious confidence in his own omnipotence, sets out to re-fashion the world of men and things into something nearer to his hearts desire. Sometimes his intentions are good, sometimes consciously bad. But, whatever the intentions may be, the results of action undertaken by even the most brilliant cleverness, when it is unenlightened by the divine Nature of Things, unsubordinated to the Spirit, are generally evil. That this has always been clearly understood by humanity at large is proved by the usages of language. Cunning and canny are equivalent to knowing, and all three adjectives pass a more or less unfavourable moral judgment on those to whom they are aplied. Conceit is just concept; but what a mans mind conceives most clearly is the supreme value of his own ego. Shrewd, which is the participial form of shrew, meaning malicious, and is connected with beshrew, to curse, is now applied, by way of rather dubious compliment, to astute business men and attorneys. Wizards are so called because they are wisewise, of course, in the sense that, in American slang, a wise guy is wise. Conversely, an idiot was once popularly known as an innocent. This use of innocent, says Richard Trench, assumes that to hurt and harm is the chief employment, towards which men turn their intellectual powers; that where they are wise, they are oftenest wise to do evil. Meanwhile it goes without saying that cleverness and accumulated knowledge are indispensable, but always as means to proximate means, and never as proximate means or, what is even worse, as ends in themselves. Quid faceret eruditio sine dilectione? says St. Bernard. Inftaret. Quid, absque eruditione dilectio? Erraret. What would learning do without love? It would puff up. And love without learning? It would go astray.
  Such as men themselves are, such will God Himself seem to them to be.

1.08 - The Gods of the Veda - The Secret of the Veda, #Vedic and Philological Studies, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  If indeed the philology of the Europeans were an exact science or its conclusions inevitable results from indisputable premises, there would be no room for any reopening of the subject. But the failure of comparative philology to develop a sound scientific basis & to create a true science of language has been one of the conspicuous intellectual disappointments of the nineteenth century. There can be no denial of that failure. This so-called science is scouted by scientific minds and even the possibility of an etymological science has been disputed. The extravagances of the philological sun myth weavers have been checked by a later method which prefers the evidence of facts to the evidence of nouns & adjectives. The later ethnological theories ignore the conclusions & arguments of the philologists. The old theory of Aryan, Semite, Dravidian & Turanian races has everywhere been challenged and is everywhere breached or rejected. The philologists have indeed established some useful identities and established a few rules of phonetical modification and detrition. But the rest is hypothesis and plausible conjecture. The capacity of brilliant conjecture, volatile inference and an ingenious imagination have been more useful to the modern Sanscrit scholar than rigorous research, scientific deduction or patient and careful generalisation. We are therefore at liberty even on the ground of European science & knowledge to hesitate before the conclusions of philological scholarship.
  But for my own part I do not hold myself bound by European research&European theories.My scepticism of nineteenth century results goes farther than is possible to any European scepticism. The Science of comparative religion in Europe seems to me to be based on a blunder. The sun & star theory of comparative mythology with its extravagant scholastic fancies & lawless inferences carries no conviction to my reason. I find in the Aryan & Dravidian tongues, the Aryan and Dravidian races not separate & unconnected families but two branches of a single stock. The legend of the Aryan invasion & settlement in the Panjab in Vedic times is, to me, a philological myth. The naturalistic interpretation of theVedas I accept only as a transference or adhyaropa of European ideas into the Veda foreign to the mentality of the Vedic Rishis & Max Mullers discovery of Vedic henotheism as a brilliant & ingenious error. Whatever is sound & indisputable in European ideas & discoveries, I am bound to admit & shall use, but these large generalisations & assumptions ought, I think, no longer to pass current as unchallengeable truth or the final knowledge about the Vedas. My method is rather to make a tabula rasa of all previous theories European or Indian & come back to the actual text of the Veda for enlightenment, the fundamental structure & development of the old Sanscrit tongue for a standard of interpretation and the connection of thought in the hymns for a guide to their meaning. I have arrived as a result at a theory of the Vedic religion, of which this book is intended to give some initial indications.
  --
  What then is maho arnas? Is it the great sea of general being, substance of general existence out of which the substance of thought & speech are formed? It is possible; but such an interpretation is not entirely in consonance with the context of this passage. The suggestion I shall advance will therefore be different. Mahas, as a neuter adjective, means great,maho arnas, the great water; but mahas may be equally a noun and then maho arnas will mean Mahas the sea. In some passages again, mahas is genitive singular or accusative plural of a noun mah; maho arnas may well be the flowing stream or flood of Mah, as in the expression vasvo arnavam, the sea of substance, in a later Sukta.We are therefore likely to remain in doubt unless we can find an actual symbolic use of either word Mah or Mahas in a psychological sense which would justify us in supposing this Maho Arnas to be a sea of substance of knowledge rather than vaguely the sea of general substance of being. For this is the significance which alone entirely suits the actual phraseology of the last Rik of the Sukta. We find our clue in the Taittiriya Upanishad. It is said there that there are three recognised vyahritis of the Veda, Bhur, Bhuvar, Swah, but the Rishi Mahachamasya affirmed a fourth. The name of this doubtful fourth vyahriti is Mahas. Now the mystic vyahritis of the Veda are the shabdas or sacred words expressing objectively the three worlds, subjectively mentalised material being, mentalised vital being & pure mental being, the three manifest states of our phenomenal consciousness. Mahas, therefore, must express a fourth state of being, which is so much superior to the other three or so much beyond the ordinary attainment of our actual human consciousness that it is hardly considered in Vedic thought a vyahriti, whatever one or two thinkers may have held to the contrary. What do we know of this Mahas from Vedantic or later sources? Bhuh, Bhuvah, Swar of the Veda rest substantially upon the Annam, Prana, Manas, matter, life & mind of the Upanishads. But the Upanishads speak of a fourth state of being immediately aboveManas, preceding it therefore & containing it, Vijnanam, ideal knowledge, and a fifth immediately above Vijnanam, Ananda or Bliss. Physically, these five are the pancha kshitayah, five earths or dwelling-places, of the Rig Veda and they are the pancha koshas, five sheaths or bodies of the Upanishads. But in our later Yogic systems we recognise seven earths, seven standing grounds of the soul on which it experiences phenomenal existence. The Purana gives us their names [the names of the two beyond the five already mentioned], Tapas and Satya, Energy&Truth. They are the outward expressions of the two psychological principles, Self-Awareness &Self-Being (Chit&Sat) which with Ananda, Self-Bliss, are the triune appearance in the soul of the supreme Existence which the Vedanta calls Brahman. Sat, Chit & Ananda constitute to Vedantic thought the parardha or spiritual higher half [of] our existence; in less imaginative language, we are in our supreme existence self-existence, self-awareness & self-delight. Annam, Prana & Manas constitute to Vedantic thought the aparardha or lower half; again, in more abstract speech, we are in our lower phenomenal existence mind, life & matter. Vijnana is the link; standing in ideal knowledge we are aware, looking upward, of our spiritual existence, looking downward, we pour it out into the three vyahritis, Bhur, Bhuvah & Swar, mental, vital & material existence, the phenomenal symbols of our self-expression. Objectively vijnana becomes mahat, the great, wide or extended state of phenomenal being,called also brihat, likewise signifying vast or great,into which says the Gita, the Self or Lord casts his seed as into a womb in order to engender all these objects & creatures. The Self, standing in vijnanam or mahat, is called the Mahan Atma, the great Self; so that, if we apply the significance [of] these terms to the Vedic words mah, mahas, mahi, mahn, then, even accepting mahas as an adjective and maho arnas in the sense of the great Ocean, it may very well be the ocean of the ideal or pure ideative state of existence in true knowledge which is intended, the great ocean slumbering in our humanity and awakened by the divine inspiration of Saraswati. But have we at all the right to read these high, strange & subtle ideas of a later mysticism into the primitive accents of the Veda? Let us at least support for a while that hypothesis. We may very well ask, if not from the Vedic forefa thers, whence did the Aryan thinkers get these striking images, this rich & concrete expression of the most abstract ideas and persist in them even after the Indian mind had rarefied & lifted its capacity to the height of the most difficult severities & abstractions known to any metaphysical thinking? Our hypothesis of a Vedic origin remains not only a possible suggestion but the one hypothesis in lawful possession of the field, unless a foreign source or a later mixed ideation can be proved. At present this later ideation may be assumed, it has not been & cannot be proved. The agelong tradition of India assigns the Veda as the source & substance of our theosophies; Brahmana, Aranyaka, Upanishad & Purana as only the interpretation & later expression; the burden of disproof rests on those who negative the tradition.
  Vjebhir vjinvat and maho arnas are therefore fixed in their significance. The word vashtu in the tenth Rik offers a difficulty. It is equivalent to vahatu, says the Brahmana; to kmayatu, says Sayana; but, deferring to the opinion of the Brahmana, he adds that it means really kmayitw vahatu. Undoubtedly the root va means in classical Sanscrit to desire; but from the evidence of the classical Sanscrit we have it established that in more ancient times its ordinary meaning must have been to subdue or control; for although the verb has lost this sense in the later language, almost all its derivatives bear that meaning & the sense of wish, will or desire only persists in a few of them, va, wish and possibly va, a woman. It is this sense which agrees best with the context of the tenth rik and is concealed in the vahatu of the Brahmanas. There is no other difficulty of interpretation in the passage.
  --
  There are two epithets yet left which we have to fix to their right significance, before we sum up the evidence of this passage and determine the subjective physiognomy of the Aswins,purudansas & nsaty. Sayana interprets dansas as active,the Aswins are gods of a great activity; I suggest fashioning or forming activity,they are abundant fashioners. Sayanas interpretation suits better with the idea of the Aswins as gods full of strength, speed and delight, purudansas, full of a rich activity. But the sense of fashioning is also possible; we have in I.30.16 the expression sa no hiranyaratham dansanvn sa nah sanit sanaye sa no adt, where the meaning may be he gave a car, but would run better he fashioned for us a brilliant car, unless with Sayana we are to disregard the whole structure & rhythmic movement of unahepas sentence. The other epithet Nsaty has long been a puzzle for the grammarians; for the ingenious traditional rendering of Yaska & Sayana, na asaty, not untruthful, is too evidently a desperate shift of entire ignorance. The word by its formation must be either a patronymic, Sons of Nasata, or an adjective formed by the termination tya from the old Aryan noun Nsa, which still exists in the Greek o, an island. The physical significance of n in the Aryan tongues is a gliding or floating motion; we find it in the Latin, nare, to swim or float, the Greek Nais, a river goddess, nama, a stream, nxis, swimming, floating, naros, water, (S. nra, water), necho, I swim, float or sail; but in Sanscrit, except in nra, water, and nga, a snake, elephant, this signification of the long root n, shared by it originally with na, ni, n, nu & n, has disappeared. Nevertheless, the word Nsa, in some sense of motion, floating, gliding, sailing, voyaging, must have existed among the more ancient Sanscrit vocables. But in what sense can it be applied to the Aswins? It seems to me that we get the clue in the seventh sloka of Praskanwas Hymn to the Aswins which I have already quoted. For immediately after he has spoken of the jyotishmat ish, the luminous force which has carried him over to the other shore of the Ignorance, Praskanwa proceeds,
     no nv matnm, ytam prya gantave,
  --
  Sayanas interpretation there is a miracle of ritualism & impossibility which it is best to ignore. ach means in the Veda power, sumati, right thought or right feeling, as we have seen, vjadvan, strength-giving,strength in the sense of steadfast substance whether of moral state or quality or physical state or quality. Yuvku in such a connection & construction cannot mean mixed. The word is in formation the root yu and the adjectival ku connected by the euphonic v. It is akin therefore to yuv, youth, & yavas, energy, plenty or luxuriance; the common idea is energy & luxuriance. The adjective yuvku, if this connection be correct, would mean full of energy or particularly of the energy of youth. We get, therefore, a subjective sense for yuvku which suits well with ach, sumati & vjadvan and falls naturally into the structure & thought of Medhatithis rik. Bhyma may mean become in the state of being or like the Greek (bh) it may admit a transitive sense, to bring about in oneself or attain; yuvku achnm will mean the full energy of the powers & we get this sense forMedhatithis thought: Let us become or For we would effect in ourselves the full energy of the powers, the full energy of the right thoughts which give substance to our inner state or faculties.
  We have reached a subjective sense for yuvku. But what of vriktabarhishah? Does not barhih always mean in the Veda the sacred grass strewn as a seat for the gods? In the Brahmanas is it not so understood and have [we] not continually the expression barhishi sdata? I have no objection; barhis is certainly the seat of the Gods in the sacrifice, stritam nushak, strewn without a break. But barhis cannot originally have meant Kusha grass; for in that case the singular could only be used to indicate a single grass and for the seat of the Gods the plural barhnshi would have to be used,barhihshu sdata and not barhishi sdata.We have the right to go behind the Brahmanas and enquire what was the original sense of barhis and how it came to mean kusha grass. The root barh is a modified formation from the root brih, to grow, increase or expand, which we have in brihat. From the sense of spreading we may get the original sense of seat, and because the material spread was usually the Kusha grass, the word by a secondary application came to bear also that significance. Is this the only possible sense of barhis? No, for we find it interpreted also as sacrifice, as fire, as light or splendour, as water, as ether. We find barhana & barhas in the sense of strength or power and barhah or barham used for a leaf or for a peacocks tail. The base meaning is evidently fullness, greatness, expansion, power, splendour or anything having these attri butes, an outspread seat, spreading foliage, the outspread or splendid peacocks tail, the shining flame, the wide expanse of ether, the wide flow of water. If there were no other current sense of barhis, we should be bound to the ritualistic explanation. Even as it is, in other passages the ritualistic explanation may be found to stand or be binding; but is it obligatory here? I do not think it is even admissible. For observe the awkwardness of the expression, sut vriktabarhishah, wine of which the grass is stripped of its roots. Anything, indeed, is possible in the more artificial styles of poetry, but the rest of this hymn, though subtle & deep in thought, is sufficiently lucid and straightforward in expression. In such a style this strained & awkward expression is an alien intruder. Moreover, since every other expression in these lines is subjective, only dire necessity can compel us to admit so material a rendering of this single epithet. There is no such necessity. Barhis means fundamentally fullness, splendour, expansion or strength & power, & this sense suits well with the meaning we have found for yuvkavah. The sense of vrikta is very doubtful. Purified (cleared, separated) is a very remote sense of vrij or vrich & improbable. They can both mean divided, distributed, strewn, outspread, but although it is possible that vriktabarhishah means their fullness outspread through the system or distributed in the outpouring, this sense too is not convincing. Again vrijana in the Veda means strong, or as a noun, strength, energy, even a battle or fight. Vrikta may therefore [mean] brought to its highest strength. We will accept this sense as a provisional conjecture, to be confirmed or corrected by farther enquiry, and render the line The Soma distillings are replete with energy and brought to their highest fullness.

1.09 - Concentration - Its Spiritual Uses, #Raja-Yoga, #Swami Vivkenanda, #unset
  Every idea that you have in the mind has a counterpart in a word; the word and the thought are inseparable. The external part of one and the same thing is what we call word, and the internal part is what we call thought. No man can, by analysis, separate thought from word. The idea that language was created by men certain men sitting together and deciding upon words, has been proved to be wrong. So long as man has existed there have been words and language. What is the connection between an idea and a word? Although we see that there must always be a word with a thought, it is not necessary that the same thought requires the same word. The thought may be the same in twenty different countries, yet the language is different. We must have a word to express each thought, but these words need not necessarily have the same sound. Sounds will vary in different nations. Our commentator says, "Although the relation between thought and word is perfectly natural, yet it does not mean a rigid connection between one sound and one idea." These sounds vary, yet the relation between the sounds and the thoughts is a natural one. The connection between thoughts and sounds is good only if there be a real connection between the thing signified and the symbol; until then that symbol will never come into general use. A symbol is the manifester of the thing signified, and if the thing signified has already an existence, and if, by experience, we know that the symbol has expressed that thing many times, then we are sure that there is a real relation between them. Even if the things are not present, there will be thousands who will know them by their symbols. There must be a natural connection between the symbol and the thing signified; then, when that symbol is pronounced, it recalls the thing signified. The commentator says the manifesting word of God is Om. Why does he emphasise this word? There are hundreds of words for God. One thought is connected with a thousand words; the idea "God" is connected with hundreds of words, and each one stands as a symbol for God. Very good. But there must be a generalization among all time words, some substratum, some common ground of all these symbols, and that which is the common symbol will be the best, and will really represent them all. In making a sound we use the larynx and the palate as a sounding board. Is there any material sound of which all other sounds must be manifestations, one which is the most natural sound? Om (Aum) is such a sound, the basis of all sounds. The first letter, A, is the root sound, the key, pronounced without touching any part of the tongue or palate; M represents the last sound in the series, being produced by the closed lips, and the U rolls from the very root to the end of the sounding board of the mouth. Thus, Om represents the whole phenomena of sound-producing. As such, it must be the natural symbol, the matrix of all the various sounds. It denotes the whole range and possibility of all the words that can be made. Apart from these speculations, we see that around this word Om are centred all the different religious ideas in India; all the various religious ideas of the Vedas have gathered themselves round this word Om. What has that to do with America and England, or any other country? Simply this, that the word has been retained at every stage of religious growth in India, and it has been manipulated to mean all the various ideas about God. Monists, dualists, mono-dualists, separatists, and even atheists took up this Om. Om has become the one symbol for the religious aspiration of the vast majority of human beings. Take, for instance, the English word God. It covers only a limited function, and if you go beyond it, you have to add adjectives, to make it Personal, or Impersonal, or Absolute God. So with the words for God in every other language; their signification is very small. This word Om, however, has around it all the various significances. As such it should be accepted by everyone.
  28. The repetition of this (Om) and meditating on its meaning (is the way).

1.09 - The Ambivalence of the Fish Symbol, #Aion, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
  182 He comments: "It is remarkable that the two adjectives brh
  and 'qltn are the ones which qualify, in Isaiah 27 : 1, a particu-

1.10 - Theodicy - Nature Makes No Mistakes, #Preparing for the Miraculous, #George Van Vrekhem, #Integral Yoga
  This adjective, with its ethical associations, applied to God has caused
  enormous confusion in all subsequent philosophy and theology refer-

1.11 - Woolly Pomposities of the Pious Teacher, #Magick Without Tears, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
  Well, then! You realize, of course, how many millions or billions of memories there must be to compose any average well-trained mind. Those strings of adjectives all sprang spontaneously; I did not look them up in books of reference; so imagine the extent of my full vocabulary! And words are but the half-baked bricks with which one constructs. Millions, yes: billions probably: but there is a limit.
  See to it, then, that you accept no worthless material; that you select, and select again, always in proper order and proportion; organize, structuralize your thought, always with the one aim in view of accomplishing the Great Work.

1.19 - The Victory of the Fathers, #The Secret Of The Veda, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  Cittim acittim cinavad vi vidvan, pr.s.t.heva vta vr.jina ca martan. Vr.jina means crooked, and is used in the Veda to indicate the crookedness of the falsehood as opposed to the open straightness of the Truth, but the poet has evidently in his mind the verbal sense of vr.j, to separate, screen off, and it is this verbal sense in the adjective that governs martan.
  208

1.2.01 - The Call and the Capacity, #Letters On Yoga II, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  - first, because he has his psychic much more directly open to the Transcendent Divine. Leaving out the adjective, (for it is not many who are by nature drawn to the Transcendent, most seek more readily the Personal, the Divine immanent here, especially if they can find it in a human body), there is there no doubt an advantage. It arises simply from the strong survival in India of an atmosphere of spiritual seeking, and a long tradition of practice and experience, while in Europe the atmosphere has been lost, the tradition interrupted and both have to be rebuilt. There is an absence too of the essential doubt which so much afflicts
  The Call and the Capacity

1.2.04 - Sincerity, #Letters On Yoga II, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  Sincere is simply an adjective meaning that the will must be a true will. If you simply think "I aspire" and do things inconsistent with the aspiration, or follow your desires or open yourself to contrary influences, then it is not a sincere will.
  Sincerity means more than mere honesty. It means that you mean what you say, feel what you profess, are earnest in your will. As the sadhak aspires to be an instrument of the Divine and one with the Divine, sincerity in him means that he is really in earnest in his aspiration and refuses all other will or impulse except the

1.23 - Improvising a Temple, #Magick Without Tears, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
  And so on for ever I fear it would be nugatory, pleonastic (and oh! several other lovely long adjectives!) to try to guard you from these hydra-headed and protean booby-traps; you must tackle them yourself as they arise, and deal with them as best you can: always remembering that often enough you cannot tell which is you and which is the Monkey Puzzle, or who has won. ("Everybody's won; so everybody must have a prize" applies beautifully). And none of it all matters a row of haricots verts sauts; for the conclusion must always be Doubt (see that beastly The Book of Lies again there's a gorgeous chapter about it[40]) and the practical moral is this: these contradictions don't occur (or don't matter) in Neschamah.
  Also, it might help you quite a lot (by encouraging you when depressed, or amusing you when you want to relax) to read Sir Palamede the Saracen; Supplement to The Equinox, Vol. I, No. 4. I expect quite a few of his tragi-comic misadventures will be already familiar to you in one disguise or another.

1.24 - RITUAL, SYMBOL, SACRAMENT, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
  If sacramental rites are constantly repeated in a spirit of faith and devotion, a more or less enduring effect is produced in the psychic medium, in which individual minds ba the and from which they have, so to speak, been crystallized out into personalities more or less fully developed, according to the more or less perfect development of the bodies with which they are associated. (Of this psychic medium an eminent contemporary philosopher, Dr. C. D. Broad, has written, in an essay on telepathy contri buted to the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, as follows. We must therefore consider seriously the possibility that a persons experience initiates more or less permanent modifications of structure or process in something which is neither his mind nor his brain. There is no reason to suppose that this substratum would be anything to which possessive adjectives, such as mine and yours and his, could properly be applied, as they can be to minds and animated bothes. Modifications which have been produced in the substratum by certain of Ms past experience are activated by Ns present experiences or interests, and they become cause factors in producing or modifying Ns later experiences.) Within this psychic medium or non-personal substratum of individual minds, something which we may think of metaphorically as a vortex persists as an independent existence, possessing its own derived and secondary objectivity, so that, wherever the rites are performed, those whose faith and devotion are sufficiently intense actually discover something out there, as distinct from the subjective something in their own imaginations. And so long as this projected psychic entity is nourished by the faith and love of its worshippers, it will possess, not merely objectivity, but power to get peoples prayers answered. Ultimately, of course, I alone am the giver, in the sense that all this happens in accordance with the divine laws governing the universe in its psychic and spiritual, no less than in its material, aspects. Nevertheless, the devas (those imperfect forms under which, because of their own voluntary ignorance, men worship the divine Ground) may be thought of as relatively independent powers. The primitive notion that the gods feed on the sacrifices made to them is simply the crude expression of a profound truth. When their worship falls off, when faith and devotion lose their intensity, the devas sicken and finally the. Europe is full of old shrines, whose saints and Virgins and relics have lost the power and the second-hand psychic objectivity which they once possessed. Thus, when Chaucer lived and wrote, the deva called Thomas Becket was giving to any Canterbury pilgrim, who had sufficient faith, all the boons he could ask for. This once-powerful deity is now stone-dead; but there are still certain churches in the West, certain mosques and temples in the East, where even the most irreligious and un-psychic tourist cannot fail to be aware of some intensely numinous presence. It would, of course, be a mistake to imagine that this presence is the presence of that God who is a Spirit and must be worshipped in spirit; it is rather the psychic presence of mens thoughts and feelings about the particular, limited form of God, to which they have resorted according to the impulse of their inborn naturethoughts and feelings projected into objectivity and haunting the sacred place in the same way as thoughts and feeling of another kind, but of equal intensity, haunt the scenes of some past suffering or crime. The presence in these consecrated buildings, the presence evoked by the performance of traditional rites, the presence inherent in a sacramental object, name or formulaall these are real presences, but real presences, not of God or the Avatar, but of something which, though it may reflect the divine Reality, is yet less and other than it.
  Dulcis Jesu memoria

1.43 - The Holy Guardian Angel is not the Higher Self but an Objective Individual, #Magick Without Tears, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
  They are, of course, entirely lacking in the Supernal Triad. There is therefore no question of anything in them which would persist through change. Perhaps it would be better to say that changed does not really affect them. Another way to put it would be that they are adjectives, not nouns. They are merely sensible manifestations of the elements to which they are attri buted, and to the letters of their name.
  Now, on the other hand, there is an entirely different type of angel; and here we must be especially careful to remember that we include gods and devils, for there are such beings who are not by any means dependent one one particular element for their existence. They are microcosms in exactly the same sense as men and women are. They are individuals who have picked up the elements of their composition as possibility and convenience dictates, exactly as we do ourselves. I want you to understand that a goddess like Astarte, Astaroth, Cotytto, Aphrodite, Hathoor, Venus, are not merely aspects of the planet;*[AC41] they are separate individuals who have been identified with each other, and attri buted to Venus merely because the salient feature in their character approximates to this ideal.

1953-12-16, #Questions And Answers 1953, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   What adjectives have I used?
   High and wide, generous and disinterested.

1954-07-14 - The Divine and the Shakti - Personal effort - Speaking and thinking - Doubt - Self-giving, consecration and surrender - Mothers use of flowers - Ornaments and protection, #Questions And Answers 1954, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
  One canif one wants to split hairs, as it is saidone can make a distinction between self-giving, consecration and offering. These are three they may be three different phases. But that is if truly one wants to create complications; because in writing, as I said, one can very well use one word in place of another, according to the rhythm of the sentence, and this keeps the meaning intact. For if you want to make a distinction, you are immediately obliged to put adjectives, arent you? Take the word in itself, self-giving, offering, consecration. Now, if you want to make a distinction, you say a total consecration, a partial self-giving. You see, you are obliged to use adjectives: they are synonyms.
  Who asked the questions? It was you? Now, it depends on the sentence you are going to writeyou will use one word or another. But you must know: the word soumission does not have the precise meaning thats necessary. Soumission (submission) compared with surrender gives the same difference that there isperhaps less strongly but a difference analogous to that between obedience and collaboration. In one case there is a perfect adherence, and in the other there is an acceptance which perhaps reserves itself; it accepts because it realises that it cant do otherwise, but it does not collaborate entirely. One does not give total adherence.

1.poe - Eureka - A Prose Poem, #Poe - Poems, #unset, #Zen
  "Well, Aries Tottle flourished supreme, until the advent of one Hog, surnamed 'the Ettrick shepherd,' who preached an entirely different system, which he called the a posteriori or in ductive. His plan referred altogether to sensation. He proceeded by observing, analyzing, and classifying facts -instantiae Naturae, as they were somewhat affectedly called -and arranging them into general laws. In a word, while the mode of Aries rested on noumena, that of Hog depended on phenomena; and so great was the admiration excited by this latter system that, at its first introduction, Aries fell into general disrepute. Finally, however, he recovered ground, and was permitted to divide the empire of Philosophy with his more modern rival: -the savans contenting themselves with proscribing all other competitors, past, present, and to come; putting an end to all controversy on the topic by the promulgation of a Median law, to the effect that the Aristotelian and Baconian roads are, and of right ought to be, the sole possible avenues to knowledge: -'Baconian,' you must know, my dear friend," adds the letter-writer at this point, "was an adjective invented as equivalent to Hog-ian, and at the same time more dignified and euphonious.
  "Now I do assure you most positively" -proceeds the epistle -"that I represent these matters fairly; and you can easily understand how restrictions so absurd on their very face must have operated, in those days, to retard the progress of true Science, which makes its most important advances -as all History will show -by seemingly intuitive leaps. These ancient ideas confined investigation to crawling; and I need not suggest to you that crawling, among varieties of locomotion, is a very capital thing of its kind; -but because the tortoise is sure of foot, for this reason must we clip the wings of the eagles? For many centuries, so great was the infatuation, about Hog especially, that a virtual stop was put to all thinking, properly so called. No man dared utter a truth for which he felt himself indebted to his soul alone. It mattered not whether the truth was even demonstrably such; for the dogmatizing philosophers of that epoch regarded only the road by which it professed to have been attained. The end, with them, was a point of no moment, whatever: -'the means!' they vociferated -'let us look at the means!' and if, on scrutiny of the means, it was found to come neither under the category Hog, nor under the category Aries (which means ram), why then the savans went no farther, but, calling the thinker a fool and branding him a 'theorist,' would never, thenceforward, have any thing to do either with him or with his truths.

1.ww - Extempore Effusion upon the Death of James Hogg, #Wordsworth - Poems, #unset, #Zen
  the frolic and the gentle: adjectives chosen as true of Lamb and a lamb.
  20.

2.03 - Indra and the Thought-Forces, #The Secret Of The Veda, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  Vanani. The word means both "forests" and "enjoyments" or as an adjective, "enjoyable". It has commonly the double sense in the Veda, the "pleasant growths" of our physical existence, roman.i pr.thivyah..
  Usrah.. In the feminine the word is used as a synonym for the Vedic go, meaning at once Cow and ray of light. Usha, the Dawn, also, is gomat, girt with rays or accompanied by the herds of the Sun. There is in the text a significant assonance, usra vy-us.t.is.u, one of the common devices used by the Vedic Rishis to suggest a thought or a connection which they do not consider it essential to bring out expressly.

2.1.7.08 - Comments on Specific Lines and Passages of the Poem, #Letters On Poetry And Art, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  Cant see the validity of any prohibition of double adjectives in abundance. If a slow rich wealth-burdened movement is the right thing, as it certainly is here in my judgment, the necessary means have to be used to bring it aboutand the double adjective is admirably suited for the purpose.
  25 October 1936
  --
  Now as to the double adjectiveswell, man alive, your proposed emendations are an admirable exposition of the art of bringing a line down the steps till my poor slow miraculous above-mind line meant to give or begin the concrete portrayal of an act of some hidden Godhead finally becomes a mere metaphor thrown out from its more facile mint by a brilliantly imaginative poetic intelligence. First of all, you shift my dimly out of the way and transfer it to something to which it does not inwardly belong, make it an epithet of the gesture or an adverb qualifying its epithet instead of something that qualifies the atmosphere in which the act of the godhead takes place. That is a preliminary havoc which destroys what is very important to the action, its atmosphere. I never intended the gesture to be dim, it is a luminous gesture, but forcing its way through the black quietude it comes dimly. Then again the bald phrase a gesture came without anything to psychicise it becomes simply something that happened, came being a poetic equivalent for happened instead of the expression of the slow coming of the gesture. The words slow and dimly assure this sense of motion and this concreteness to the words sense here. Remove one or both whether entirely or elsewhere and you ruin the vision and change altogether its character. That is at least what happens wholly in your penultimate version and as for the last the came gets another meaning and one feels that somebody very slowly decided to let out the gesture from himself and it was quite a miracle that it came out at all! Dimly miraculous means what precisely or what miraculously dimit was miraculous that it managed to be so dim or there was something vaguely miraculous about it after all? No doubt they try to mean something else but these interpretations lurk in their way and trip them over. The only thing that can stand is the first version which is no doubt fine poetry, but the trouble is that it does not give the effect I wanted to give, the effect which is necessary for the dawns inner significance. Moreover what becomes of the slow lingering rhythm of my line which is absolutely indispensable?
  Do not forget that the Savitri is an experiment in mystic poetry, spiritual poetry cast into a symbolic figure. Done on this scale, it is really a new attempt and cannot be hampered by old ideas of technique except when they are assimilable. Least of all by standards proper to a mere intellectual and abstract poetry which makes reason and taste the supreme arbiters, aims at a harmonised poetic-intellectual balanced expression of the sense, elegance in language, a sober and subtle use of imaginative decoration, a restrained emotive element etc. The attempt at mystic spiritual poetry of the kind I am at demands above all a spiritual objectivity, an intense psycho-physical concreteness. I do not know what you mean exactly here by obvious and subtle. According to certain canons epithets should be used sparingly, free use of them is rhetorical, an obvious device, a crowding of images is bad taste, there should be a subtlety of art not displayed but severely concealedsumma ars est celare artem. Very good for a certain standard of poetry, not so good or not good at all for others. Shakespeare kicks over these traces at every step, Aeschylus freely and frequently, Milton whenever he chooses. Such lines as
  --
  (note two double adjectives in three lines in the last)are not subtle or restrained, or careful to conceal their elements of powerful technique, they show rather a vivid richness or vehemence, forcing language to its utmost power of expression. That has to be done still more in this kind of mystic poetry. I cannot bring out the spiritual objectivity if I have to be miserly about epithets, images, or deny myself the use of all available resources of sound significance.
  The double epithets are indispensable here and in the ex act order in which they are arranged by me. You say the rich burdened movement can be secured by other means, but a rich burdened movement of any kind is not my primary object, it is desirable only because it is needed to express the spirit of the action here; and the double epithets are wanted because they are the best, not only one way of securing it. The gesture must be slow miraculousif it is merely miraculous or merely slow that does not create a picture of the thing as it is, but of something quite abstract and ordinary or concrete but ordinaryit is the combination that renders the exact nature of the mystic movement, with the dimly came supporting it, so that gesture is not here a metaphor, but a thing actually done. Equally a pale light or an enchanted light may be very pretty, but it is only the combination that renders the luminosity which is that of the hand acting tentatively in the darkness. That darkness itself is described as a quietude, which gives it a subjective spiritual character and brings out the thing symbolised, but the double epithet inert black gives it the needed concreteness so that the quietude ceases to be something abstract and becomes something concrete, objective, but still spiritually subjective. I might go on, but that is enough. Every word must be the right word, with the right atmosphere, the right relation to all the other words, just as every sound in its place and the whole sound together must bring out the imponderable significance which is beyond verbal expression. One cant chop and change about on the principle that it is sufficient if the same mental sense or part of it is given with some poetical beauty or power. One can only change if the change brings out more perfectly the thing behind that is seeking for expressionbrings out in full objectivity and also in the full mystic sense. If I can do that, well, other considerations have to take a back seat or seek their satisfaction elsewhere.
  --
  I suppose the repetition of adjective and noun in four consecutive line-endings is meant to create an accumulating grandiose effect.
  Yes; the purpose is to create a large luminous trailing repetitive movement like the flight of the Bird with its dragon tail of white fire.

2.3.07 - The Vital Being and Vital Consciousness, #Letters On Yoga I, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  I don't know about subtle vital. One says subtle physical to distinguish from gross material physical - because to our normal experience all physical is gross, sthula. But the vital is in its nature non-material, so the adjective is superfluous. By material vital, we mean the vital so involved in matter as to be bound by its movements and gross physical character. The action is to support and energise the body and keep in it the capacity of life, growth, movement etc., also of sensitiveness to outer impacts.
  A Strong Vital

2.4.2 - Interactions with Others and the Practice of Yoga, #Letters On Yoga IV, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  And if some find that retirement is the best way of giving oneself to the Higher, to the Divine by avoiding as much as possible occasions for the bubbling up of the lower, why not? The aim they have come for is that and why blame or look with distrust and suspicion on the means they find best or daub it with disparaging adjectives to discredit itgrim, inhuman and the rest? It is your vital that shrinks from it and your vital mind that supplies these epithets which express only your shrinking and not what the retirement really is. For it is the vital or the social part of it that shrinks from solitude; the thinking mind does not but rather courts it. The poet seeks solitude with himself or with Nature to listen to his inspiration; the thinker plunges into solitude to meditate on things and commune with a deeper knowledge; the scientist shuts himself up in his laboratory to pore by experiment into the secrets of Nature; these retirements are not grim and inhuman. Neither is the retirement of the sadhak into the exclusive concentration of which he feels the need; it is a means to an end, to the end on which his whole heart is set. As for the Yogin or bhakta who has already begun to have the fundamental experience, he is not in a grim and inhuman solitude. The Divine and all the world are there in the being of the one, the supreme Beloved or his Ananda is there in the heart of the other.
  I say this as against your depreciation of retirement founded on ignorance of what it really is; but I do not, as I have often said, recommend a total seclusion, for I hold that to be a dangerous expedient which may lead to morbidity and much error. Nor do I impose retirement on anyone as a method or approve of it unless the person himself seeks it, feels its necessity, has the joy of it and the personal proof that it helps to the spiritual experience. It is not to be imposed on anyone as a principle, for that is the mental way of doing things, the way of the ordinary mindit is as a need that it has to be accepted, when it is felt as a need, not as a general law or rule.

3.20 - Of the Eucharist, #Liber ABA, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
  an Arabic term consisting of the article al and the adjective
  khemi which means that which pertains to Egypt.1 A rough

36.07 - An Introduction To The Vedas, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 08, #unset, #Zen
   In this instance too the fundamental idea is not something very abstruse. It is commonsense that the theme is related to the experience of Truth, the spiritual realisation and psychological concept. Acharya Sayana was at sea to interpret these few slokas in the light of natural phenomena and sacrificial ceremonies, so much so that he provokes our laughter as well as a sense of pity. We know Saraswati as the Deity of knowledge. So it is natural that the words dhiyavasuh (one whose wealth consists of pure intellect), dhiyo visvah (universal intellect), or words like sumati (right movements of thought) should be applicable to Saraswati. The word dhi (pure intellect) is well-known. But such an obvious meaning does not serve Sayana's purpose. So he used karma (action), i.e. the action of showering as a synonym for dhi. In another place concerning Mitra and Varuna it has been said that these two gods made up such dhi, as is ghrtacim, literally "besmeared with ghrta" (dhiyam ghrtacim sadhanta - 1.2.7). But according to the interpreter Sayana, the phrase dhiyarh ghrtacim means the rain that pours water! In some other context (1.14.6) Sayana himself says that the root ghr may also mean "to make something shine"; so the plain meaning of dhiyarh ghrtacim is the enlightened intellect. But Sayana preferred to interpret the word ghrta (lit. clarified butter) as water and rains. If we refer to the context where Sayana explains ghrta as effulgence it will be clearer to us that this effulgence is not even the physical external light; it refers to the inner illumination. There (1.14.6) Agni (fire) has been called (one with a blazing front; along with this adjective another adjective, namely manoyujah has also been used; it means that Agni has to be brought under control with the help of the mind. This very truth has been expressed elsewhere by the sage Vishwamitra:
   "Kindling the Vaishwanara fire with the aid of the mind." Agni is kavi-kratu. Sayana himself has explained the word kratu as making or action. We would like to call it the power of action - the Greek kratos. So kavi-kratu would mean one endowed with the power of action, the creative genius. It is well known that the Kavi, the poet, is a creator. The Veda has applied the epithet kavi to all the gods as well as to a man who has, attained or realised the divine knowledge. Agni kavikratuh means the dynamic power of vision. But this plain meaning amounts to a profound spiritual concept and ceases to be the fire with which we are familiar; that is why Sayana explains 'Kavi' as 'Kranta' - and 'Kavi-kratu' as the one who performs the action of sacrifice. We cite another instance. It is known to us all - I speak of the Gayatri Mantra: Tat saviturvarenyam Bhargo devasya dhimahi, dhiyo yo nah prachodayat (Let our intelligence dwell on the beloved light of that. creative godhead, the Sun who is the Creator, so that he may endow us with the right intelligence.)1

3 - Commentaries and Annotated Translations, #Hymns to the Mystic Fire, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  but it is originally the past verbal adjective of Eh. The sound h^
  conveys contact, motion or emission with force. Thus the root
  --
  of the adjective Eht.
  y.-y. This word is of the utmost importance in the Veda.
  --
  plic, a city; so in front. Ehtm^ is the participial adjective from
  the root Eh in the sense of to cast down, throw down, plant,
  --
  an adjective meaning lovely, charming, and a noun meaning
  sometimes an object of love or pursuit, sometimes beauty, ambition, fame etc, or love itself, favour, partiality. This is a brief
  --
  verb -j^ with its adjective -j; straight, cf Lat. rego, rectus;
  -t straight, right, true; -tm^, truth, right, established law or
  --
  Evj^ is noun or adjective from the verb Evj^ meaning to
  shake, be troubled, excited, tremble, to be ecstatic, joyous, full
  --
  indicate a verbal adjective, "one who enjoys". The root af^ is a
  secondary root from a in its transitive sense "to have". It is the
  --
  This word is an adjective formed by the addition of the
  common adjectival suffix r to a@v (zEcr from zEc, as;r from
  --
  it is part of a compound verb, adjective or noun; it had not
  at that time either become otiose or lost its separate existence
  --
  analyse, group, arrange and collect. Its verbal adjective Ec/
  means that which discerns, groups, arranges in a collection or
  --
  Originally possessive adjective from t;, thou.
  s(ym^.
  --
  The participle used in place of the finite verb; the use is almost that of a loose nominative absolute or an anacoluthon. Rt B (Gr. frw, Lat. fero) with the verbal adjective or participial form of a, to be. B means to occupy, fill, hold, uphold, bear, carry, contain, convey, bestow, be full of, feel within. It is used in this passage in the latter sense, to be full of.
  emEs.
  --
  Not a vocative, but the old accusative of gop^, root g$p^ modified and forming a noun, both substantive and adjective. Cf
  Grk. gy, gpa. The secondary root g$p^ is a strongly active,
  --
  a@vrm^. Not sacrifice, but an adjective from aD^ a secondary
  root of a to be. The sounds D & v appear to have given an idea
  --
  & aDm,, lower & lowest from some lost adjective aD, low;
  we have a@vn^ a path, originally perhaps a way of descent, a
  --
  meant activity, mastery, strength, doing, action, or the adjectives of these significations. It also meant like k
  t;, a word of
  --
  more probably noun than adjective.
  in the Veda means 1. a hero. 2. force, strength.
  --
  d$Y^y, is either a verbal adjective like kAy from a root d$Y^
  or a nominal adjective from a noun d$Y,. Its use twice in this
  passage is of a kind favourable to the nominal force. The root d$
  --
  must be taken as an adjective, formed from the root rs^ nasalised
  + u or the root rm^ + s; = that which is delightful as Ey\ is used
  --
  an adjective with an understood aBvn^, & his gloss upon smFcF
  that it is equivalent to sm\c\(yO, as if it were derived from the root
  --
  double entendre of rivers & cows. smFc is an adjective formed
  from sm on the system explained in my Origins of Aryan Speech,
  --
  therefore merely secondary adjectives, (cf likely, whitish etc in
  English) modifying temperamentally the original senses of sm in
  --
  . mn;y from mn;q^ a man is originally an adjective, human, belonging to man; but it cannot mean, surely, good for
  man. This is a strained and far-fetched interpretation resorted
  --
  {, of a later verse, & both are, I think, adjectives from
  dm,, house. In that case, dm$nA will mean, dwelling in the house
  --
  y, I take as an adjective from Edd"A, the
  power of seeing, Edd"
  --
  Sy. takes eq = y., & rEy as an adjective = DnvAn^, but the
  epithets are all suitable & most of them common epithets of the
  --
  after the verbal idea in the adjective vEjnA, a frequent type of
   expresses the purpose of the action
  --
  classical tongue. Moreover tnEy&; is here obviously an adjective
  & not the noun thunder.
  --
  simply as an adjective to iE,, cf s;Edn(vm>Am^.
  8. acAEm t
  --
  fighter, assailant, enemy, sometimes it is an adjective and seems
  almost equivalent to arya or even arya. But mark that these
  --
  an adjective qualifying y., a@vro y.,. It must therefore express
  some characteristic so inherent in the sacrifice as to be able to
  --
  strong enemy. shs^ may be used as an adjective as well as a noun
  like yfs^ = strength or strong, but there is no clear instance in
  --
  curious indeclinable adjectives. rA, like rEy, is taken by Sayana
  as meaning wealth; so taking it he misses the whole sense of

5.4.01 - Notes on Root-Sounds, #Vedic and Philological Studies, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  x softness, effeminacy, sickness. OS . Feminine nominal suffix implying often the abstract quality peculiar to the adjective or noun to the stem of which it is attached. Later Sanscrit preferred , , etc. Cf , , , and the more frequent neuter form in answering to the Greek o.
  x I soften, soothe, unman. Greek formation. OS verbal form in with a frequentative sense, preserved in words like , preceded by connecting enclitic .
  --
   I soften, mitigate, relax. OS (), Nominal Verb, from the adjective , soft.
   mallows. OS from Rt to thrive, flourish, be plump, with the adjectival suffix .
  --
   and followed by neuter termination . Originally an adjective, meaning round and plump.
  ***

Aeneid, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
  Acge'an adjective used with reference to the sea between Greece
  and Asia; also applied to Neptune, in, 97.
  --
  Auso'nia Italy (from which the adjective Ausonian). in, 226.
  Auso'nian of Ausonia. iv, 316.
  --
  Lavi'nian of LAVINIUM; an adjective describing the coasts of
  Latium because Aeneas was to found there the city of Lavinium.
  --
  Ti'burtines (following the OED accent for the adjective Ti'burtine)
  or Tibur'tines (the line allows both) people of TIBUR. XI, 1005.

A Secret Miracle, #Labyrinths, #Jorge Luis Borges, #Poetry
  his own specialization, is not credulous; two or three adjectives in Gothic
  type were enough to persuade Julius Rothe of Hladik's importance, and he

Blazing P2 - Map the Stages of Conventional Consciousness, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
  A trait adjective common at this level, at least among women, is feminine. Different people
  cherish different connotations to the term: passive, seductive, manipulative, intraceptive,

BOOK II. -- PART II. THE ARCHAIC SYMBOLISM OF THE WORLD-RELIGIONS, #The Secret Doctrine, #H P Blavatsky, #Theosophy
  meaning first Lord, as Ad-Iswara, or any Ad (the first) followed by any adjective or substantive. The
  reason for this is that such truths were a common inheritance. It was a revelation received by the first
  --
  their living in caves. Thus, when Ezekiel applies the adjective of Cherub to the King of Tyre, and tells
  him that by his wisdom and his understanding there is no secret that can be hidden from him (v. 3, 4,

BOOK I. -- PART II. THE EVOLUTION OF SYMBOLISM IN ITS APPROXIMATE ORDER, #The Secret Doctrine, #H P Blavatsky, #Theosophy
  only with the adjective of "divine" before the cognomen. Thus those "Uranides" who are called
  everywhere "divine Titans," and who, having rebelled against Kronos (Saturn), are therefore also
  --
  deities: the latter adjective applying simply to the Earth. They were "Spirits of the Earth" under their
  respective names of Yama, Pluto, Osiris, the "Lord of the lower kingdom, etc., etc.," and their tellurial

BOOK XIII. - That death is penal, and had its origin in Adam's sin, #City of God, #Saint Augustine of Hippo, #Christianity
  And therefore I think it has not unsuitably nor inappropriately come to pass, though not by the intention of man, yet perhaps with divine purpose, that this Latin word moritur cannot be declined by the grammarians according to the rule followed by similar words. For oritur gives the form ortus est for the perfect; and all similar verbs form this tense from their perfect participles. But if we ask the perfect of moritur, we get the regular answer, mortuus[Pg 533] est with a double u. For thus mortuus is pronounced, like fatuus, arduus, conspicuus, and similar words, which are not perfect participles but adjectives, and are declined without regard to tense. But mortuus, though in form an adjective, is used as perfect participle, as if that were to be declined which cannot be declined; and thus it has suitably come to pass that, as the thing itself cannot in point of fact be declined, so neither can the word significant of the act be declined. Yet, by the aid of our Redeemer's grace, we may manage at least to decline the second. For that is more grievous still, and, indeed, of all evils the worst, since it consists not in the separation of soul and body, but in the uniting of both in death eternal. And there, in striking contrast to our present conditions, men will not be before or after death, but always in death; and thus never living, never dead, but endlessly dying. And never can a man be more disastrously in death than when death itself shall be deathless.
  12. What death God intended, when He threatened our first parents with death if they should disobey His commandment.

Diamond Sutra 1, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
  Sat down on the appointed seat: There is some difference of opinion concerning the Buddhas seat. Most translators and commentators interpret prajnapta (arranged) to mean that the Buddha arranged his own seat. But prajnapta is not used as a verb here but as an adjective modifying asane (seat). Still, it is unclear whether the Buddha did the arranging or simply sat down on a seat that had been arranged for him. I have decided in favor of the latter and translated prajnapta as appointed.
  Conze has arranged for him, while Mller has intended for him. Also, according to the Perfection of Wisdom in Seven Hundred Lines , the seat on which the Buddha delivered his discourses was just outside his cell or dwelling.

ENNEAD 03.07 - Of Time and Eternity., #Plotinus - Complete Works Vol 03, #Plotinus, #Christianity
  5. (6). As this nature that is eternal and radiant with beauty refers to the One, issues from Him, and returns to Him, as it never swerves from Him, ever dwelling around Him and in Him, and lives according to Him, Plato was quite right438 in saying not casually, but with great profundity of thought, that "eternity is immutable in unity." Thereby Plato not only reduces the eternity to the unity that it is in itself, but also relates the life of existence to the One itself. This life is what we seek; its permanence is eternity. Indeed that which remains in that manner, and which remains the same thing, that is, the actualization of that life which remains turned towards, and united with the One, that whose existence and life are not deceptive, that truly is eternity. (For intelligible or) true existence is to have no time when it does not exist, no time when it exists in a different manner; it is therefore to exist in an immutable manner without any diversity, without being first in one, and then in another state. To conceive of (existence), therefore, we must neither imagine intervals in its existence, nor suppose that it develops or acquires, nor believe that it contains any succession; consequently we could neither distinguish within it, or assert within it either before or after. If it contain neither "before" nor "after," if the truest thing that can be affirmed of it be that it is, if it exist as "being" and life, here again is eternity revealed. When we say that existence exists always, and that there is not one time in which it is, and another in which it is not, we speak thus only for the sake of greater clearness; for when we use the word "always," we do not take it in an absolute sense; but if we use it to show that existence is incorruptible, it might well mislead the mind in leading it to issue out from the unity (characteristic of eternity) to make it run994 through the manifold (which is foreign to eternity). "Always" further indicates that existence is never defective. It might perhaps be better to say simply "existence." But though the word "existence" suffices to designate "being," as several philosophers have confused "being" with generation, it was necessary to clear up the meaning of existence by adding the term "always." Indeed, though we are referring only to one and the same thing by "existence" and "existing always," just as when we say "philosopher," and "the true philosopher," nevertheless, as there are false philosophers, it has been necessary to add to the term "philosophers" the adjective "true." Likewise, it has been necessary to add the term "always" to that of "existing," and that of "existing" to that of "always;" that is the derivation of the expression "existing always," and consequently (by contraction), "aion," or, eternity. Therefore the idea "always" must be united to that of "existing," so as to designate the "real being."
  THE CREATOR, BEING OUTSIDE OF TIME, PRECEDES THE UNIVERSAL ONLY AS ITS CAUSE.

Euthyphro, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
  The next definition, 'Piety is that which is loved of the gods,' is shipwrecked on a refined distinction between the state and the act, corresponding respectively to the adjective (philon) and the participle (philoumenon), or rather perhaps to the participle and the verb (philoumenon and phileitai). The act is prior to the state (as in Aristotle the energeia precedes the dunamis); and the state of being loved is preceded by the act of being loved. But piety or holiness is preceded by the act of being pious, not by the act of being loved; and therefore piety and the state of being loved are different. Through such subtleties of dialectic Socrates is working his way into a deeper region of thought and feeling. He means to say that the words 'loved of the gods' express an attri bute only, and not the essence of piety.
  Then follows the third and last definition, 'Piety is a part of justice.' Thus far Socrates has proceeded in placing religion on a moral foundation. He is seeking to realize the harmony of religion and morality, which the great poets Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Pindar had unconsciously anticipated, and which is the universal want of all men. To this the soothsayer adds the ceremonial element, 'attending upon the gods.' When further interrogated by Socrates as to the nature of this 'attention to the gods,' he replies, that piety is an affair of business, a science of giving and asking, and the like. Socrates points out the anthropomorphism of these notions, (compare Symp.; Republic; Politicus.) But when we expect him to go on and show that the true service of the gods is the service of the spirit and the co-operation with them in all things true and good, he stops short; this was a lesson which the soothsayer could not have been made to understand, and which every one must learn for himself.

Liber 71 - The Voice of the Silence - The Two Paths - The Seven Portals, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
   adjective implying 'fatal to the purpose of the Student.' But even so,
   the comment appears to me out of place. On this high Path action should

Talks 100-125, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
  Mr. P. Brunton, while reading Upadesa Manjari, came across the statement that the ego, the world and God are all unreal. He desired to use a different word for God or at least a qualifying adjective, e.g., the Creative Force or personal God.
  Sri Bhagavan explained that God means SAMASHTI - i.e., all that is, plus the Be-ing - in the same way as I means the individual plus the Be-ing, and the world means the variety plus Be-ing. The

Talks With Sri Aurobindo 1, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
  SRI AUROBINDO: Then it should not be sukara but sukrita as the adjective.
  NIRODBARAN: In Pali it may be sukara.

The Act of Creation text, #The Act of Creation, #Arthur Koestler, #Psychology
  a colloquial adjective) and progresses to Heine's esoteric comparison
  of a girl's face to a palimpsest. A similar progression could be shown
  --
  colours make for gaiety, and so on. (The adjectives in quotes have
  become so current that we tend to overlook their synesthetic origin).
  --
  The adjectives used to describe a face 'soft', 'bony', 'pinched',
  'humorous', etc. refer to part visual, part verbal schemata, some of
  --
  for the right adjective, will sample several with his literary taste-
  buds; even the Lord Almighty, according to Genesis, proceeded by
  --
  out this book. The lack of an adjective derived from the noun "in-
  sight", apart from other considerations, makes this procedure neces-
  --
  verb, an adjective or an adverb. Concepts of this type have been formed
  gradually over the years from childhood on. Each time a thing is seen
  --
  vested, between nouns, adjectives, and verbs. Lala refers to music; it
  functions as a collective name for bells, soldiers, instruments; and if we
  --
  to emerge which roughly correspond to substantive-nouns, adjective-
  attri butes, and action-words or verbs. But these classes, and the types
  --
  characteristic ratios .e.g. between the number of adjectives to verbs.
  The total matrix, which comprises all these frames of behaviour, con-

The Dwellings of the Philosophers, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
  (8) Translators Note: The author uses the adjective Rose Cross instead of Rosicrucian and explains why further
  on.

The Immortal, #Labyrinths, #Jorge Luis Borges, #Poetry
  The Troglodyte's lowly birth and condition recalled to my memory the image of Argos, the moribund old dog of the Odyssey, so I gave him the name Argos, and tried to teach it to him. Time and time again, I failed. No means I employed, no severity, no obstinacy of mine availed. Motionless, his eyes dead, he seemed not even to perceive the sounds which I was attempting to imprint upon him. Though but a few paces from me, he seemed immensely distant. Lying in the sand like a small, battered sphinx carved from lava, he allowed the heavens to circle in the sky above him from the first dusky light of morning to the last dusky light of night. It seemed simply impossible that he had not grasped my intention. I recalled that it is generally believed among the Ethiopians that monkeys deliberately do not speak, so that they will not be forced to work; I attributed Argos' silence to distrust or fear. From that vivid picture I passed on to others, even more extravagant. I reflected that Argos and I lived our lives in separate universes; I reflected that our perceptions were identical but that Argos combined them differently than I, constructed from them different objects; I reflected that perhaps for him there were no objects, but rather a constant, dizzying play of swift impressions. I imagined a world without memory, without time; I toyed with the possibility of a language that had no nouns, a language of impersonal verbs or indeclinable adjectives. In these reflections many days went by, and with the days, years. Until one morning, something very much like joy occurred - the sky rained slow, strong rain.
  Nights in the desert can be frigid, but that night had been like a cauldron. I dreamed that a river in Thessaly (into whose waters I had thrown back a golden fish) was coming to save me; I could hear it approaching over the red sand and the black rock; a coolness in the air and the scurrying sound of rain awakened me. I ran out naked to welcome it. The night was waning; under the yellow clouds, the tribe, as joyously as I, was offering itself up to the vivid torrents in a kind of ecstasy - they reminded me of Corybantes possessed by the god. Argos, his eyes fixed on the empyrean, was moaning; streams of water rolled down his face - not just rain, but also (I later learned) tears. Argos, I cried, Argos!

The Library Of Babel 2, #Labyrinths, #Jorge Luis Borges, #Poetry
  I have just written the word "infinite." I have not included that adjective
  out of mere rhetorical habit; I hereby state that it is not illogical to think

The Library of Babel, #Labyrinths, #Jorge Luis Borges, #Poetry
  I have just written the word "infinite".' I have not interpolated this adjective out
  of rhetorical habit; I say that it is not illogical to think that the world is infinite.

WORDNET



--- Overview of noun adjective

The noun adjective has 2 senses (first 2 from tagged texts)
                  
1. (3) adjective ::: (a word that expresses an attribute of something)
2. (2) adjective ::: (the word class that qualifies nouns)

--- Overview of adj adjective

The adj adjective has 2 senses (no senses from tagged texts)
                  
1. adjectival, adjective ::: (of or relating to or functioning as an adjective; "adjectival syntax"; "an adjective clause")
2. adjective, procedural ::: (relating to court practice and procedure as opposed to the principles of law; "adjective law")


--- Synonyms/Hypernyms (Ordered by Estimated Frequency) of noun adjective

2 senses of adjective                        

Sense 1
adjective
   => modifier, qualifier
     => content word, open-class word
       => word
         => language unit, linguistic unit
           => part, portion, component part, component, constituent
             => relation
               => abstraction, abstract entity
                 => entity

Sense 2
adjective
   => major form class
     => part of speech, form class, word class
       => grammatical category, syntactic category
         => class, category, family
           => collection, aggregation, accumulation, assemblage
             => group, grouping
               => abstraction, abstract entity
                 => entity


--- Hyponyms of noun adjective

1 of 2 senses of adjective                      

Sense 1
adjective
   => descriptive adjective, qualifying adjective
   => relational adjective, classifying adjective
   => positive, positive degree
   => comparative, comparative degree
   => superlative, superlative degree


--- Synonyms/Hypernyms (Ordered by Estimated Frequency) of noun adjective

2 senses of adjective                        

Sense 1
adjective
   => modifier, qualifier

Sense 2
adjective
   => major form class


--- Similarity of adj adjective

2 senses of adjective                        

Sense 1
adjectival, adjective

Sense 2
adjective (vs. substantive), procedural


--- Antonyms of adj adjective

1 of 2 senses of adjective                      

Sense 2
adjective (vs. substantive), procedural

substantive (vs. adjective), essential


--- Coordinate Terms (sisters) of noun adjective

2 senses of adjective                        

Sense 1
adjective
  -> modifier, qualifier
   => intensifier, intensive
   => adjective
   => adverb
   => dangling modifier, misplaced modifier

Sense 2
adjective
  -> major form class
   => noun
   => verb
   => adjective
   => adverb


--- Pertainyms of adj adjective

2 senses of adjective                        

Sense 1
adjectival, adjective
   Pertains to noun adjective (Sense 2)
   =>adjective
   => major form class

Sense 2
adjective (vs. substantive), procedural


--- Derived Forms of adj adjective
                                    


--- Grep of noun adjective
adjective
classifying adjective
descriptive adjective
qualifying adjective
relational adjective



IN WEBGEN [10000/59]

Wikipedia - Adjective phrase
Wikipedia - Adjectives
Wikipedia - Adjective -- Part of speech that describes a noun or pronoun
Wikipedia - Anarchism without adjectives -- Doctrine of anarchism without any qualifying labels
Wikipedia - Attributive adjective
Wikipedia - Attributive expression -- Adjective, noun, verb or phrase that modifies a noun
Wikipedia - Aussie -- Australian slang for Australian, both the adjective and the noun, and less commonly, Australia
Wikipedia - Calcareous -- An adjective meaning mostly or partly composed of calcium carbonate
Wikipedia - Collateral adjective
Wikipedia - Demonstrative adjective
Wikipedia - Four Marks of the Church -- Four adjectives-M-bM-^@M-^\one, holy, catholic and apostolicM-bM-^@M-^]-attributed to the Church according to the Nicene Creed
Wikipedia - Grammatical case -- Categorization of nouns, pronouns and adjectives in linguistics
Wikipedia - Japanese adjectives
Wikipedia - List of adjectives and demonyms for states and territories of India -- Wikipedia list article
Wikipedia - List of eponymous adjectives in English -- Wikipedia list article
Wikipedia - List of phrases using ethnic or place names as derisive adjectives -- Wikipedia list article
Wikipedia - Lunatic -- Antiquated adjective epithet of one given to lunacy
Wikipedia - Nominalized adjective
Wikipedia - Police, Adjective -- 2009 film
Wikipedia - Possessive adjective
Wikipedia - Postpositive adjective
Wikipedia - Predicate adjective
Wikipedia - Privative adjective
Wikipedia - Proper adjective
Wikipedia - Red (political adjective)
Wikipedia - Scotch (adjective) -- A largely obsolescent adjective meaning "of or from Scotland"
Wikipedia - Ungradable adjective
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/138270.When_You_Catch_an_Adjective_Kill_It
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Laconic/AdverblyAdjectiveNoun
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AdjectiveAnimalAlehouse
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AdjectiveNounFred
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AdverblyAdjectiveNoun
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NameMcAdjective
https://analytical.fandom.com/wiki/Absolute_adjective
https://analytical.fandom.com/wiki/Adjective
https://gknowledge.fandom.com/wiki/Adjective
https://mlg-parody.fandom.com/wiki/MLG_(adjective)
https://scribblenauts.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_Adjectives
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:German_pronunciation_of_adjective_inflections
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Simple_(adjective)
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Module:NationAndOccupation/CountryAdjective2iso
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Module:NationAndOccupation/CountryAdjective2iso
Adjective
Adjective Check List
Adjective phrase
Anarchism without adjectives
Arabic nouns and adjectives
Collateral adjective
German adjectives
Intersective adjective
Japanese equivalents of adjectives
List of eponymous adjectives in English
List of irregular English adjectives
List of phrases using ethnic or place names as derisive adjectives
Nominalized adjective
Police, Adjective
Postpositive adjective
Proper adjective
Talk:Latin (adjective)



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