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In a word...

@propitious.bsky.social
691 followers 318 following 689 posts

Sometimes the right word is all you need to make sense of the situation.

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In a word... @propitious.bsky.social · 12/03/2026
Temerity ...(n.) acting fearlessly without consideration of the consequences and doing so in an often reckless and audacious way
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In a word... @propitious.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
ultracrepidarian ...(n.) a person who gives opinions on things that they don't know much about From Latin, meaning the cobbler shouldn't judge things beyond his shoes
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In a word... @propitious.bsky.social · 25/01/2026
Kafkaesque, Orwellian, Atwoodian, Dickensian, Bradburyan... ...enough authors understood the intersection of politics, power and human nature that their names can be used as adjectives.
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In a word... @propitious.bsky.social · 16/01/2026
Hamartia ...(n.) a tragic or fatal flaw that leads to one's downfall.
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In a word... @propitious.bsky.social · 12/01/2026
Mumpsimus ...(n.) a belief that one continues to hold despite all evidence that shows it is not true
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In a word... @propitious.bsky.social · 22/12/2025
subterfuge ...(n.) deceit, evasion or trickery used to achieve a goal
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In a word... @propitious.bsky.social · 18/12/2025
Hamartia ...(n.) a severe flaw or error in judgement that leads to a person's downfall "... And it is the nature of a hamartia that you can’t see it coming. You think, 'Man, this is great, I’m going up forever!' ... you reach the top and you start the descent." -John Greene
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In a word... @propitious.bsky.social · 16/12/2025
scurrilous ... (adj.) meant to attack one's integrity or defame. (as in scurrilous rumors, scurrilous comments, scurrilous social media posts, etc...)
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In a word... @propitious.bsky.social · 07/12/2025
Panoply ...(n.) a large and impressive collection of things (literal or figurative) "Why did the night withhold its panoply of sounds?" -David Wroblewski, The Story of Edgar Sawtelle
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In a word... @propitious.bsky.social · 04/12/2025
Compathy ...(n.) feelings that are shared between or among people (compathy is to share the feeling...empathy is to try to understand the feeling)
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In a word... @propitious.bsky.social · 02/12/2025
otiose ... (adj) serves no purpose. useless. “Belief is otiose; reality is sufficiently awesome as it stands.” -Martin Amis in the Second Plane
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In a word... @propitious.bsky.social · 11/11/2025
Adynaton ...(n.) a hyperbole that is so extreme it can never happen; or when a gross exaggeration becomes exaggerated enough to get a new name.
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In a word... @propitious.bsky.social · 09/11/2025
Intransigent ...(adj.) unwilling to change your mind, stubborn to a fault "Do not lose your knowledge that man's proper estate is an upright posture, an intransigent mind and a step that travels unlimited roads..." -Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged
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In a word... @propitious.bsky.social · 08/11/2025
Obsimath ...(n.) a person who begins learning later in life
Painting by Grandma Moses
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In a word... @propitious.bsky.social · 05/09/2025
badinage ...(noun) witty banter "...playful warfare of badinage..." -Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin
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In a word... @propitious.bsky.social · 29/08/2025
aposiopesis ...breaking off in the middle of a sentence, usually due to emotion. "I'll get you, or else..."
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In a word... @propitious.bsky.social · 28/08/2025
Corybantic ...(adj.) wild and spirited ..cage me and i d go frantic my life is so romantic capricious and corybantic... -Song of Mehitabel by Don Marquis
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In a word... @propitious.bsky.social · 12/08/2025
lassitude ...Weariness. Lack of mental or physical energy. "A deadly lassitude had taken hold of him." -1984, George Orwell
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In a word... @propitious.bsky.social · 06/06/2025
Talion ...an eye-for-an-eye...a tweet-for-a-tweet
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In a word... @propitious.bsky.social · 29/04/2025
Sempiternal ...everlasting, eternal, unchanging "The one thing which we seek with insatiable desire is to forget ourselves, to be surprised out of our propriety, to lose our sempiternal memory and to do something without knowing how or why; in short, to draw a new circle." -R.W. Emerson
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In a word... @propitious.bsky.social · 26/03/2025
Maligner ...back-stabber. Someone who attacks another person's reputation with lies.
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In a word... @propitious.bsky.social · 21/03/2025
Contumelious ...intentionally rude or insulting "...scoffs and scorns and contumelious taunts..." Shakespeare, Henry VI.
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In a word... @propitious.bsky.social · 17/03/2025
Existential dread ...the anxiety that comes from life not being what we expected, hoped or knew it to be “Do you believe we are masters of ourselves or merely dance like puppets on strings having the illusion of independence?” -Winston Graham
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In a word... @propitious.bsky.social · 17/03/2025
Crossing the Rubicon ...passing a point from which one can't turn back From the Rubicon River in Italy. Julius Cesar defiantly crossed it and started a civil war (that he won).
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In a word... @propitious.bsky.social · 16/03/2025
brumous ...very foggy or misty "The skies are brumous, silver-gray, And haunt the world with soft delay." -George Sterling
trees with mist and people
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In a word... @propitious.bsky.social · 12/03/2025
Bibliophilia ...a love of books abibliophobia ...a fear of running out of books or reading materials. (A more recently coined term, not in dictionaries.)
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In a word... @propitious.bsky.social · 11/03/2025
illeism ...talking (or thinking) about yourself in the third person. Can help a person be self-reflective, but can also make you sound like a kindergarten teacher
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In a word... @propitious.bsky.social · 10/03/2025
Phantasmagoria ...a constantly changing sequence of lights and images that make a scene, like in a dream or nightmare. A hallucination or a mental montage. Comes from lantern shows depicting ghosts and other optical illusions with lanterns during the Victorian era
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In a word... @propitious.bsky.social · 09/03/2025
tergiversation ...(n.) beat around the bush... statements that avoid or obscure the truth.
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In a word... @propitious.bsky.social · 09/03/2025
Zeitgebers ...environmental or external cues to your body's circadian rhythm; like light, temperature, meal times, etc. Light is the strongest.
Daylight saving time starts tonight
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In a word... @propitious.bsky.social · 07/03/2025
Peripatetic ...someone who likes to walk from place to place. Someone who travels around, especially for work. Itinerant. From Greek, for walking up and down the hallways. Refers to Aristotle teaching while walking with his students. He founded the Peripatetic School.
Aristotle walking with students
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In a word... @propitious.bsky.social · 04/03/2025
World Obesity Day and World Pancake Day align today. it's an international dilemma.
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In a word... @propitious.bsky.social · 03/03/2025
Logodaedalian (or Logodaedalus) ... a person who is skilled at coining, playing with or using words
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In a word... @propitious.bsky.social · 02/03/2025
The American government interned 120,000 Japanese Americans in rustic camps during WW2 and convinced the public they were a threat. Many lost everything and some were US citizens. Not a single case of spying by a Japanese American was ever found.
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In a word... @propitious.bsky.social · 02/03/2025
"Mr. Trump, you are increasing the volume of your voice but not the logic of your argument." ...President Zelensky
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Reposted by In a word...
Adam Sharp @adamcsharp.bsky.social · 01/03/2025
A German word for being embarrassed by the actions of someone else is Fremdscham, or “foreign shame.” A similar word from Icelandic is aulahrollur, which is quite tricky to translate but basically means something along the lines of “cringe quake” or “douchebag chills”
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In a word... @propitious.bsky.social · 28/02/2025
Solipsistic ...self-centered. Based on the philosophy that one's own mind is all they can know exists.
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In a word... @propitious.bsky.social · 27/02/2025
Venal ...easy to bribe. Corrupt. From Latin 'thing for sale' ....such as your soul (my addition)
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In a word... @propitious.bsky.social · 26/02/2025
pusillanimous ...(adj.) cowardly, weak, scared. Refers more to a personality than a particular action. From Latin for very small mind
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In a word... @propitious.bsky.social · 25/02/2025
Gormandizer ...someone who eats greedily or too much
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In a word... @propitious.bsky.social · 24/02/2025
Pulchritudinous ...physically beautiful (even though the word feels oddly ugly)
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In a word... @propitious.bsky.social · 23/02/2025
stalwart ...(n.) a person who is strong, courageous, loyal and hardworking.
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In a word... @propitious.bsky.social · 23/02/2025
Languorous vs. Languid ...Languorous (adj.) a usually pleasant type of tiredness and inactivity, like laying in a hammock on a summer day ...Languid (adj.) Unmoving or slow due to depression, illness or exhaustion From the same Latin verb
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In a word... @propitious.bsky.social · 20/02/2025
Don't Hesitate by Mary Oliver If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don’t hesitate. Give in to it. There are plenty of lives and whole towns destroyed or about to be. We are not wise, and not very often kind. And much can never be redeemed...1/3
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In a word... @propitious.bsky.social · 19/02/2025
lucubrate ...to write or study; especially at night
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In a word... @propitious.bsky.social · 18/02/2025
Ruderal ...a type of plant that starts to grow in places humans have taken over, like sidewalk cracks, or after distasters like forest fires and volcanic eruptions. It feels like a nice metaphor for hope
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In a word... @propitious.bsky.social · 17/02/2025
tergiversate ...to be evasive ...to desert a cause or political party From Latin, 'to turn's ones back on'
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In a word... @propitious.bsky.social · 16/02/2025
Pangloss ...(n.) someone who is optimistic despite evidence that it is unwarranted
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In a word... @propitious.bsky.social · 15/02/2025
Graft ...(n.) corruption, bribery and other types of illicit behaviors used to get what is not rightfully yours. Can also be used as a verb to describe the same behavior
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In a word... @propitious.bsky.social · 14/02/2025
Mind-boggling First used in 1955 in a book by Eric Fromm. Boggle describes the jerky movement horses make when startled or overwhelmed.
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