mikhail epstein's definitions
lovedom n love + suffix dom; cf. kingdom, stardom Ð the world of love, the totality of loving emotions and attitudes.
Edward VIII was that rare romantic who challenged society by trading his kingdom for lovedom.
Your heart is large enough to love many, but in all your lovedom, can you find a small corner for me?
Your heart is large enough to love many, but in all your lovedom, can you find a small corner for me?
by Mikhail Epstein November 6, 2003
Get the lovedom mug.traf v (back-formation from traffic) - to drive in heavy traffic, to be held in traffic, to trail in slow traffic.
Back-formation is the creation of a simpler or shorter form from a pre-existing more complex form: "edit" from "editor," "intuit from intuition."
Now, "traf" from "traffic."
I traffed for an hour before I could get home.
I've been traffing for two hours before I could even stop by a gas station to have a cup of coffee.
Now, "traf" from "traffic."
I traffed for an hour before I could get home.
I've been traffing for two hours before I could even stop by a gas station to have a cup of coffee.
by Mikhail Epstein November 8, 2003
Get the traf (verb, from "traffic") mug.egonetics, n. (ego+net+ics)
weaving a network of self-references, increasing one's presence on the interne.
Egonetics is different from "ego surfing" - a search of your name on the internet (using search engines). Egonetics is an active electronic dispersal of your name, making links to your homepage, using various interactive sites and open forums. It can be done for the sake of an idea or a commercial promotion, but in the absence of ideological or professional motifs, this is a clear case of egonetics.
weaving a network of self-references, increasing one's presence on the interne.
Egonetics is different from "ego surfing" - a search of your name on the internet (using search engines). Egonetics is an active electronic dispersal of your name, making links to your homepage, using various interactive sites and open forums. It can be done for the sake of an idea or a commercial promotion, but in the absence of ideological or professional motifs, this is a clear case of egonetics.
I am afraid that my colleague uses her office hours for egonetics.
He is not an egoist in the classical sense, he is simply an egonetic.
He is not an egoist in the classical sense, he is simply an egonetic.
by Mikhail Epstein November 16, 2003
Get the egonetics mug.slavior (to (en)slave + suffix ior, like in savior) Ð the prince of this world, the one who imitates the Savior and promises to save people but makes them slaves.
Outwardly the distinction between Savior and Slavior may be as subtle as one letter difference in their names.
For many old-believers, the Slavior is already here, in our very midst, and they refuse to serve this self-appointed sovereign.
For many old-believers, the Slavior is already here, in our very midst, and they refuse to serve this self-appointed sovereign.
by Mikhail Epstein November 2, 2003
Get the slavior mug.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.
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
Get the happicle mug.ambipathy n (Latin, Greek ambi- (or amphi), both, on both sides + Greek pathos, feeling) - a mixture of sympathy and antipathy, of attraction and repulsion; a condition of being torn apart by conflicting feelings and aspirations.
"... At once I hate and love as well," - this line by Catullus, Roman poet of the first century BC, is one of the first literary expressions of ambipathy.
Dmitry Karamazov in Dostoevsky says that "a man is too broad" and is equally attracted by the two abysses--the upper and the lower ones, the ideal of Madonna and the ideal of Sodom. In this sense, Dmitry and perhaps Dostoevsky himself are the brightest manifestations of this common trait of ambipathy.
Dmitry Karamazov in Dostoevsky says that "a man is too broad" and is equally attracted by the two abysses--the upper and the lower ones, the ideal of Madonna and the ideal of Sodom. In this sense, Dmitry and perhaps Dostoevsky himself are the brightest manifestations of this common trait of ambipathy.
by Mikhail Epstein November 6, 2003
Get the ambipathy mug.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.
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
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