inventurer

inventurer n (invention+adventurer) - adventurer of thinking, seeker of intellectual adventures.
Inventurers know how much they donÕt know; like Socrates and Kant, they start their journey with the confessed Òignorance
by Mikhail Epstein November 6, 2003
mugGet the inventurermug.

ride the edge

to be ahead in a certain skill or profession, to be on a cutting edge and take all the risks of being the first and leading the others
A recent graduate in quantum physics, Amalia now rides the edge of nanotechnology.
by Mikhail Epstein November 6, 2003
mugGet the ride the edgemug.

EGG

abbreviation for Electronically Generated Groups, such as smart mobs
or bookcrossing communities, that use the web to ferment their social
bonds in real space and time.
These EGGs are indeed the eggs of new, trans-electronic sociality.

Do you participate in any EGG? - Yes, I am a seasoned egger.
by Mikhail Epstein October 2, 2003
mugGet the EGGmug.

defriend

defriend smbd v , transitive de + friend; cf. befriend - to break off friendly relations (with smbd).
He defriended me a year after we met, with no reason or explanation. He just stopped calling, period.

I want to defriend you. Ð What's wrong? - I need something more than friendship from you. I need love.
by Mikhail Epstein November 2, 2003
mugGet the defriendmug.

happicle

happicle n (happy + diminutive suffix Ðicle, like in "particle," "icicle") Ð a particle of happiness, the smallest unit of happiness; a single happy occurrence or a momentary feeling of happiness.
There is no happiness in this world, but there are happicles. Sometimes we can catch them, fleeting and unpredictable as they are.

Like photons, happicles have zero mass at rest--the inertial mass that we identify with happiness. Happicles just flash and go out in passing. They may be as transitory as a fragrance in the air, or a yellow falling leaf, or a glance of a passerby on the street.

Happicles make life worth of living, even in the absence of stable happiness.
by Mikhail Epstein November 8, 2003
mugGet the happiclemug.

chronosome

chronosome n (Greek khronos, time + Greek soma, body; cf. chromosome) Ð a unit of historical heredity, in contrast with a chromosome as a unit of biological heredity; a mental code of a historical period that is transmitted to next generations through styles, traditions and unconscious influences ("cultural air").
The chronosomes of the early 20th c. avant-garde have reached the generation of the 1960s and shaped its political views and artistic styles.

Nabokov's novel "Invitation to a Beheading" bears many Kafka's chronosomes, even if the author claims to have never read Kafka.
by Mikhail Epstein November 13, 2003
mugGet the chronosomemug.

uchronia

uchronia n. (Gr. ou, not + Gr. khronos, time; literally "no time"; cf. utopia, "no place) Ð a historical period when "nothing happens," a time of stagnation.
As soon as utopia finds its fulfilment in history, it turns into uchronia, a disruption of history itself.
by Mikhail Epstein November 13, 2003
mugGet the uchroniamug.

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