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I'm CJ Cooney, a writer on communication, ideas, culture and history. This blog is a chronicle of my adventures in lexicography.

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If reading were a sin, the average person today would be a saint.  And this dictionary in progress would be blasphemy. More...

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bromide
ineffable
objectivism

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REFERENCEER
REF-ren-sear. Noun. 1. Anyone who enjoys reading or browsing dictionaries, thesauri, encyclopedias, and other sundry reference materials. 2. A publisher of reference material. 3. CJ's book blog adventure.

bromide
BRO-maid
noun
a banal statement; a clichéd remark; a persistently dull person
1910Louis Joseph VanceThe Fortune Hunter'The pleasure has been all mine,' insisted the gallant bromide, fishing the trite phrase desperately from the grey vacuity of his thoughts.1957Ayn RandAtlas ShruggedShe thought suddenly of those modern college-infected parasites who assumed a sickening air of moral self-righteousness whenever they uttered the standard bromides about their concern for the welfare of others.

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ineffable
i-NE-fuh-buhl
adjective
indescribable; inexpressible
1894W. W. JacobsMany CargoesThe eyes of all were turned upon their youthful deliverer, those of Mr. Smith being painfully prominent. It was a proud moment for Billy, and he sat silent for some time, with a look of ineffable wisdom and thought upon his face.1922Zane GreyTo The Last ManThe nest where she lay was warm and sweet. No eye save that of nature saw her in her abandonment. An ineffable and exquisite smile wreathed her lips, dreamy, sad, sensuous, the supremity of unconscious happiness.1943Ayn RandThe Fountainhead...he imagined a giant of a man, with a rich mane of hair, perhaps just turning gray, with bold, broad features of an ineffable benevolence…1947Cornell WoolrichWaltz Into DarknessHis head fell upon her breast in ineffable surrender.

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objectivism
awb-JEK-ti-vi-zuhm
noun
the propensity to focus on elements external to cognition, in contrast to a focus on thoughts or feelings; a philosophy holding that reality is only what one can objectively determine
1898Henryk SienkiewiczSo Runs the WorldIt was Emile Zola. A great talent, slow but powerful and a potent force, surprising objectivism if the question is about a sentiment, because it is equal to almost complete indifference, such an exceptional gift of seeing the entire soul of humanity and things that it approaches this naturalistic writer to mystics—all that gives him a very great and unusual originality.1961Ayn RandFor the New Intellectual...the name I have chosen for my philosophy is Objectivism.

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