Vocabulary -- Page 4

limerence: a state of mind which results from a romantic attraction to another person and typically includes obsessive thoughts and fantasies and a desire to form or maintain a relationship with the object of love and have one’s feelings reciprocated.

incunabula: early printed books, especially those before 1501; initially called “fifteen’s”, then changed to incunabula;

rhapsodic: o wax rhapsodic, to gush; effusively rapturous or emotional expression

caparison: an ornamental covering spread over a horse's saddle or harness. Used in a sentence: “I see you riding down from the mountains to the desert at that hour when thunderstorms and sunsets caparison the sky.” — page 72, Conant.

susurrus: whispering, murmuring, or rustling as in “He tired of the susurrus of promises, flatter, cajoling …” “"the susurrus of the stream"

noetic: relating to mental activity or intellect. “The noetic quality of a mystical experience….” Feynman: “A noetic Casanova…”

pellucid: translucently clear; lucid in style; easily understood; “a pellucid presentation” but also the “mountains reflected in the pellucid waters”

scabrous: rough and covered with, or as if with, scabs; indecent; salacious. “veered toward scabrous assessments…”

parvenu: noun: parvenu; plural noun: parvenus; noun: parvenue; plural noun: parvenues; a person of obscure origin who has gained wealth, influence, or celebrity."the political inexperience of a parvenu"

eschatology: the part of theology concerned with death, judgment, and the final destiny of the soul and of humankind.

parsimonious: adjective: parsimonious; unwilling to spend money or use resources; stingy or frugal.

Selachians: cartilaginous fishes that include existing sharks and typically most related elasmobranchs (such as rays)

philopatrous: loyal to the site of their birth;

philopatry: the tendency of an animal to remain in or return to the area of its birth

sinless: adjective for “pure white”: as used by Philip Hoare, c. 2010, p. 268

narwhal: from the Old Norse, nor and healer, meaning “corpse whale”

magpie imagination: in many phrases / metaphors, “magpie” is used: magpies are noted for collecting all kinds of things and bringing them back to their nest; so when you see “magpie” think of a collector of large number of things, or ideas, very eclectic, items not otherwise related to each other; I saw this phrase in Hoare, c. 2010, p. 173;