Useful Words

3. NormopathyPsychiatric theorist Christopher Bollas invented the idea of normopathy to describe people who are so focused on blending in and conforming to social norms that it becomes a kind of mania. A person who is normotic is often unhealthily fixated on having no personality at all, and only doing exactly what is expected by society. Extreme normopathy is punctuated by breaks from the norm, where normotic person cracks under the pressure of conforming and becomes violent or does something very dangerous. Many people experience mild normopathy at different times in their lives, especially when trying to fit into a new social situation, or when trying to hide behaviors they believe other people would condemn.

Word of the Day a few days ago

Weltschmerz
Sounds like something to be spread on dry toast and choked down between sobs.

Means "world-weariness", or "the kind of feeling experienced by someone who understands that physical reality can never satisfy the demands of the mind". Boy does it never.

I need things like this in my vocabulary; just knowing there's a word for it makes so many things so much better.

Also a favorite because it has a sort of a phlegm sound in it.

Word of the Day

Modalities; in this example, modes of transport

Mom came up with this one.
She got the riding mower stuck, two days after getting her car stuck. (We have recently had an overabundance of rain)
I told her i couldn't unstick it as she had surpassed her quota for the week.
She said it didn't count, as the stuckness ocurred in different modalities.

Blew my freakin' hair back.

I reminded her it's not best to mow dalities; hedge clippers are the preferred implement.

Word of the Day

Esquivalience.

Es, qui, vale - ience. It's beautiful. It's imaginary.
And it means, get this: "the willful avoidance of one's official responsibilities."

A fabulous concept in itself, now with its own concise descriptor.

Read more here,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esquivalience
about how it came to be.