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Wondrous Words Wednesdays

Wondrous Words Wednesday

Most of today’s new-words-to-me are from the pen of Dallas Willard in The Divine Conspiracy.

He’s not only a prolific writer, but also a quite scholarly one at times, so I have to read and re-read his paragraphs. They’re dense but they’re spiritually meaty and well-worth the extra time.

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1. periphrasis
(n) [puh-RIF-ruh-sis]

Definition—a circumlocution (which is, a roundabout way of expressing something—please note that I’m throwing in a “2-for-1 freebie word special” here!) 

Usage“...the term ‘heaven’ being common in Jewish usage as a reverential periphrasis for the divine name.” from The Divine Conspiracy

2. theophany
(n) [thee-OF-uh-nee]

Definition—the appearance of a god to a human; a divine manifestion

Usage“Similarly, God is, without special theophanies, seen everywhere by those who long have lived for him.” from The Divine Conspiracy

3. axiomatic
(adj) [ak-see-uh-MAT-ik]

Definition—self-evident; obvious

Usage“Everything he taught presupposes this, and to be his students we must understand and accept it. It is in this sense “axiomatic.” from The Divine Conspiracy

4. imprimatur
(n) [imp-rim-AH-ter]

Definition—official approval; sanction

Usage“The maps that passed through Sir John Franklin’s possessions bore the imprimatur of trust.” from Every Day Deserves a Chance

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Check out even more new words at Bermudaonion’s blog.

4 comments:

bermudaonion said...

I can't even pronounce any of those words! I'm glad you defined the definition of periphrasis for me. Thanks for participating!

Lisa said...

I knew the last two, but those are some tough words!

That's a lot of words! I actually knew a lot of them (I used to work for a doctor), but they would make a novel pretty daunting.

My words are from the same book as yesterday's teaser, The Loved One, and they are all about the mortuary profession. You can find them here.

avisannschild said...

Whoo, good words! I knew the last two as well, but I've never even seen the first two before!

Margot said...

Theophany is the only one I knew. I find the word and what it means very comforting.

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