User:Charlie/Word Stew

.. Personal repository of words, terms and concepts found in my reading, research and so on .. ✍︎

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Apophatic

Knowing what something is by knowing what it is not.

Most often used in relation to christian theology; the belief that you can only know God through knowing what they are not.

Etymology: From Greek apophatikós, meaning "denial".

Found in: On Anarchism by Noam Chomsky - Used in the context of anarchists defining anarchism apophatically, by describing anarchism only through what anarchism opposes.

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Concatenation

A series/string of interconnected things.

"A group of things linked together or occurring together in a way that produces a particular result or effect."

Also Concat: A function combining texts/strings.

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Despotism

An oppressive and often cruel exercise of power (by a government).

Stemming from the Greek word despot: an autocratic ruler.

Aristotle distinguishes despotism from tyranny; Defining tyranny as a form of governance that is acquired by force, maintained by violence, and therefore inherently unstable. Whereas despotism is a continuous oppressive rule of its abiding subjects by an absolute power, the only form of power they now.

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Fabulation

A fabulation is a false or fantastical tale.

To fabulate means to invent a tale, to fabricate a story, or to lie.

In the early 20th century, fabulations was coined as a term to designate an emerging literary genre that employed e.g. magic realism thropes, and mythological and folkloric elements. A new genre breaking away from the then customary realistic, rational and novelistic literary traditions.

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Hagiography

A term that refers to a biography which overtly and unjustifiably exalts its subject.

Also: The biography and study of a saint.

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Inoculate

To inoculate is to introduce an infective agent into an organism, to treat, prevent or to immunize from a disease.

It can also be used analogously to mean the introduction or implantation of a thought/idea into a mind.

Etymology/original use in Middle English: "to insert a bud in a plant for propagation." 𓇚

Intransitive

An intransitive verb does not require a direct object (noun, pronoun, noun phrase) to designate the person or thing acted upon.

Example: "The bird flies", flying is intransitive, since it does not require an object to act upon/refer to, as opposed to: "The eagle sees prey."

*Add found in context*

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Manicheaism

Originally, it refers to an ancient Persian religious belief and philosophy of dualism.

In everyday use, a "manichaean belief" often refers to a dualistic view on things, black-and-white thinking and the belief in an absolute good and an absolute evil.

Found in: On Anarchism by Noam Chomsky - One could argue that the United States two-party political system, the cold-war red scare and christian conservatism have contributed to manichaeist thinking-patterns in US-American culture, especially in political discourse.

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Opprobium

An occurrence that both brings about great shame, dishonor and/or bad reputation, as well as, the public criticism, shaming and reproach it causes.

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Panacea

A cure for all problems and/or diseases; A "cure-all", the universal remedy.

From Greek "panakḗs", pan- meaning "all", and ákos, meaning "cure".

In Alchemy, the panacea is also referred to as the Elixir of Life, which was believed to be a concoction capable of healing all and extending life.

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Solipsism

In 19th century Philosophy, solipsism meant: A person's believe that they, and only they exist. Later used to derogatorily infer: A person's belief that only they and their existence matters.

To be solipsistic: To be selfish, self-centered and extremely egotistical.

From Latin: "Solus" = alone and "ipse" = self.

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Technological determinism

The theory that a technology's political potential is embedded within itself. It undermines the greater societal context in which a technology is implemented. Instead, it argues that a technology's politics is (pre-)determined by its design.

In comparison, the theory of the "social determination of technology" argues that: It is primarily the systems in which the technology exists that affect whether, and how a technology becomes a political instrument.

Tilde

Usually, "tilde" refers to a name after a URL to indicate the website being in a user space/directory. (Like, hub.xpub.nl/cerealbox/~margaret)

Context: tilde.town and tilde.club are two online communities build on shared servers, a Linux server (tilde.town) and a UNIX computer (tilde.club). Community members receive access to the shared server and their own user space/directory from which to build and share personal websites.

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Web Brutalism

Web Brutalism is a type of web design, derived from the architectural Brutalism movement, which prioritizes function over form. The style is most often characterized through an intentionally rudimentary and rough use of design elements. As a movement it aims to counter overly trivial and ornamental web design practices.