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ochlocracy aw-KLAW-kruh-see noun control of a government by criminal elements; the rule of the mob 1849Charles KingsleyAlton Locke: Tailor and PoetRemember always that Democracy means a government not merely by numbers of isolated individuals, but by a Demos—by men accustomed to live in Demoi, or corporate bodies, and accustomed, therefore, to the self-control, obedience to law, and self-sacrificing public spirit, without which a corporate body cannot exist: but that a 'democracy' of mere numbers is no democracy, but a mere brute 'arithmocracy,' which is certain to degenerate into an 'ochlocracy,' or government by the mob, in which the numbers have no real share: an oligarchy of the fiercest, the noisiest, the rashest, and the most shameless, which is surely swallowed up either by a despotism, as in France, or as in Athens, by utter national ruin, and helpless slavery to a foreign invader.1867John Lothrop MotleyThe Rise of the Dutch Republic 1574-84The Prince had not power enough, however, nor the nascent commonwealth sufficient consistency, to repress the disorganizing tendency of a fanatical Romanism on the one side, and a retaliatory and cruel ochlocracy on the other.1905S. J. Joseph RickabyMoral PhilosophyBy such perversion monarchy passes into tyranny, aristocracy into oligarchy, and democracy into ochlocracy or mob-rule.Labels: Charles Kingsley, John Lothrop Motley, S. J. Joseph Rickaby
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omne ignotum pro magnifico awm-nee ig-NO-tum pro mawg-NI-fi-ko phrase that which is unknown is exaggerated in importance; the unknown is thought to be grand 1831William Godwin Thoughts on Man One of the most glaring infirmities of our nature is discontent. One of the most unquestionable characteristics of the human mind is the love of novelty. Omne ignotum pro magnifico est. 1864Charles Kingsley The Roman and the Teuton The usual rejoinder to this argument is to fall back upon man's weakness and ignorance, and to take refuge in the infinite unknown. Man, it is said, may of course interfere a little with some of the less important laws of his being: but who is he, to grapple with the more vast and remote ones? Because he can prevent a pebble from falling, is he to suppose that he can alter the destiny of nations, and grapple forsooth with 'the eternities and the immensities,' and so forth? The argument is very powerful: but addrest rather to the imagination than the reason. It is, after all, another form of the old omne ignotum pro magnifico…1891Olph SchreionGasps (Punch Vol. 100, May 1891)And over everything hangs that inscrutable charm which hovers forever for the human intellect over the incomprehensible and shadowy. Omne ignotum pro mirifico, I might say, but I prefer the longer phrase.1892Arthur Conan Doyle The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes 'I begin to think, Watson,' said Holmes, 'that I make a mistake in explaining. 'Omne ignotum pro magnifico,' you know, and my poor little reputation, such as it is, will suffer shipwreck if I am so candid….'Labels: Arthur Conan Doyle, Charles Kingsley, Olph Schreion, William Godwin
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Malleus Maleficarum MAL-ee-uhs mayl-FIK-uh-ruhm noun a how-to book on persecuting witches, originally published in 1486; literally: the witch hammer 1852Charles MacKayMemoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions, Volume Two It was now that the Witch Mania, properly so called, may be said to have fairly commenced. Immediately a class of men sprang up in Europe, who made it the sole business of their lives to discover and burn the witches. Sprenger, in Germany, was the most celebrated of these national scourges. In his notorious work, the 'Malleus Maleficarum,' he laid down a regular form of trial, and appointed a course of examination by which the inquisitors in other countries might best discover the guilty. The questions, which were always enforced by torture, were of the most absurd and disgusting nature. The inquisitors were required to ask the suspected whether they had midnight meetings with the devil? whether they attended the witch's sabbath on the Brocken? whether they had their familiar spirits? whether they could raise whirlwinds and call down the lightning? 1880Charles KingsleyScientific Essays and LecturesFor when he has reduced his superstition to a science, then he will reduce his cruelty to a science likewise, and write books like the 'Malleus Maleficarum,' and the rest of the witch literature of the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries; of which Mr. Lecky has of late told the world so much, and told it most faithfully and most fairly.1989Nancy CollinsSunglasses After DarkI searched countless volumes for information, no matter how distorted, that might shed some light on my condition. I had access to Ariosto's Orlando Furioso, Rabelais' Gargantua, Walpole's Castle of Otranto, Beckford's Vathek, Radcliffe's Mysteries of Udolpho, Huysmans' La Bas, and even the infamous Malleus Maleficarum.2003Dan BrownThe Da Vinci CodeMalleus Maleficarum—or The Witches' Hammer—indoctrinated the world to 'the dangers of freethinking women' and instructed the clergy how to locate, torture, and destroy them.Labels: Charles Kingsley, Charles MacKay, Dan Brown, Nancy Collins
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bantling BANT-ling noun a bratty child; a small child 1855Charles Kingsley Westward Ho! 'Oh, bathos!' said Lady Bath, while the 'prentices shouted applause. 'Is this hedge-bantling to be fathered on you, Mr. Frank?' 1920John O'RourkeThe History of the Great Irish Famine of 1847Is not the ex-officio clause in the Poor-law Bill your bantling, or that of your leader, Lord Stanley? 1934Ruth Plumly ThompsonSpeedy in OzNow attend closely, my valiant bantling.Labels: Charles Kingsley, John O'Rourke, Ruth Plumly Thompson
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minnesinger mi-NUH-sing-ur noun an ancient German troubadour; a medieval poet or singer 1847Hans Christian AndersenThe True Story of My LifeI approached that land which had been rendered sacred by Luther, by the strife of the Minnesingers on the Wartburg, and by the memory of many noble and great events.1855Charles KingsleyWestward Ho!'I am a bad sleeper,' said he; 'I spend more time, I fear, in burning the midnight oil than prudent men should. Come and be my jongleur, my minnesinger, and tell me about Andes, and cannibals, and the ice-regions, and the fire-regions, and the paradises of the West.'1890Vernon LeeHauntingsAs to Tannhäuser, he was a real knight, and a sorry one, and a real Minnesinger not of the best.1934Knut HamsunThe Road Leads OnHolm followed as best he could and got in many a splendid howl, though as a minnesinger he held no brief for his own powers.Labels: Charles Kingsley, Hans Christian Andersen, Knut Hamsun, Vernon Lee
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bedizen bi-DAI-zuhn verb to dress-up or decorate in a garish or gaudy manner 1850Nathaniel Hawthorne The Scarlet Letter Prithee, young one, who art thou, and what has ailed thy mother to bedizen thee in this strange fashion?1864Charles Kingsley The Roman and the Teuton But still the Trolls can tempt and bribe the greedier or the more vain; and still the wonders inside haunt their minds; till it becomes a fixed idea among them all, to conquer the garden for themselves and bedizen themselves in the fine clothes, and drink their fill of the wine. 1895Grant Allen The British Barbarians Sometimes people cover their heads with filth or ashes; and sometimes they bedizen them with crape and white streamers. 1997Jack VanceThe Demon PrincesBedizened and fashionable, Gersen now failed to recognize himself in the mirror. Labels: Charles Kingsley, Grant Allen, Jack Vance, Nathaniel Hawthorne
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wittol WI-tuhl noun a stupid person; a cuckolded man 1866Charles KingsleyHereward: The Last of the EnglishGospatrick! the wittol! the woodcock! looking at the springe, and then coolly putting his head therein.1896William MorrisThe Well at the World's EndBy St. Nicholas! it were a good deed, once we are past the mountains again, to ride to Utterbol and drag that swine and wittol from his hall and slay him, and give his folk a good day.1993Harry HarrisonThe Hammer and the CrossNow what was the wittol staring at?Labels: Charles Kingsley, Harry Harrison, William Morris
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dragonnade DRA-guhn-ayd noun persecution by military forces 1867Charles KingsleyThe Ancient RégimeWhen the ancient chivalry of France descended to that level, or rather delegated their functions to mercenaries of that level—when the knightly hosts who fought before Jerusalem allowed themselves to be superseded by the dragoons and dragonnades of Louis XIV.—then the end of the French chivalry was at hand, and came.1884Joris-Karl HuysmansAgainst The GrainThe architecture, costumes and customs during the time of the Maccabeans, of Rome under the Christian persecutions, of Spain under the Inquisition, of France during the Middle Ages, at the time of Saint Bartholomew and the Dragonnades, were studied with a meticulous care and noted with scientific accuracy.1888Richard C. TrenchOn the Study of WordsThe atrocious attempt of Lewis XIV. to convert the Protestants in his dominions to the Roman Catholic faith by quartering dragoons upon them, with license to misuse to the uttermost those who refused to conform, this 'booted mission' (mission bottée), as it was facetiously called at the time, has bequeathed 'dragonnade' to the French language. 'Refugee' had at the same time its rise, and owed it to the same event. They were called 'réfugiés' or 'refugees' who took refuge in some land less inhospitable than their own, so as to escape the tender mercies of these missionaries.Labels: Charles Kingsley, Joris-Karl Huysmans, Richard C. Trench
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nóesis no-EE-sis noun intellectual process; cognitive process 1835Charles Kingsley Alexandria and Her Schools Had he not mapped out all heaven and earth, things seen and unseen, with his entelechies, and energies, and dunameis, and put every created and uncreated thing henceforth into its proper place, from the ascidians and polypes of the sea to the virtues and the vices—yea, to that Great Deity and Prime Cause (which indeed was all things), Noesis Noeseon, 'the Thought of Thoughts,' whom he discovered by irrefragable processes of logic, and in whom the philosophers believe privately, leaving Serapis to the women and the sailors? 1871PlatoCratylusFor Athene we must turn to the allegorical interpreters of Homer, who make the name equivalent to theonoe, or possibly the word was originally ethonoe and signified moral intelligence (en ethei noesis).1913William TurnerThe Catholic EncyclopediaIn the 'Metaphysics' he takes the stand that the actual is of its nature antecedent to the potential, that consequently, before all matter, and all composition of matter and form, of potentiality and actuality, there must have existed a Being Who is pure actuality, and Whose life is self-contemplative thought (noesis noeseos).Labels: Charles Kingsley, Plato, William Turner
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sophism SAW-fi-zuhm noun a false argument often crafted to deceive 1849Charles Kingsley Yeast: A ProblemBut poor truth-seeking Lancelot did not see what sex had to do with logic; he flew at her as if she had been a very barrister, and hunted her mercilessly up and down through all sorts of charming sophisms, as she begged the question, and shifted her ground, as thoroughly right in her conclusion as she was wrong in her reasoning, till she grew quite confused and pettish. 1867George MacDonaldUnspoken SermonsIt is reproach. Then he reproaches them that they had not seen God, when no man hath seen God at any time, and Paul says no man can see him! Is there here any paradox? There cannot be the sophism: 'No man hath seen God; ye are to blame that ye have not seen God; therefore all men are to blame that they have not seen God!' If we read, 'No man hath seen God, but some men ought to have seen him,' we do not reap such hope for the race as will give the aspect of a revelation to the assurance that not one of those capable of seeing him has ever seen him!1905Jack LondonThe War of the ClassesMr. O'Neil is right, and that this is no sophism it is the intention of this article, among other things, to show. Labels: Charles Kingsley, George MacDonald, Jack London
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mammon MA-muhn noun material wealth; riches; a false god from the old Christian testament; the god of wealth 1651Thomas HobbesLeviathanThe sixth place is Luke, 16. 9: 'Make ye friends of the unrighteous mammon, that when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting tabernacles.' This he alleges to prove invocation of saints departed. But the sense is plain, that we should make friends, with our riches, of the poor; and thereby obtain their prayers whilst they live. 'He that giveth to the poor lendeth to the Lord.'1849Charles Kingsley Yeast: A ProblemIn God's name, if the Stock Exchange, and railway stagging, and the advertisements in the Protestant Hue-and-Cry, and the frantic Mammon-hunting which has been for the last fifty years the peculiar pursuit of the majority of Quakers, Dissenters, and Religious Churchmen, are not The World, what is? 1955Saint AugustineAugustine: Confessions and EnchiridionNor can that possibly be void which was uttered by the mouth of Thy truth: 'If, therefore, you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? And if you have not been faithful in that which is another man's, who shall give you that which is your own?'1991Joel Coen and Ethan CoenBarton FinkMAYHEW: Why thank you, son, how kind. Bein' occupied here in the worship of Mammon, I haven't had the chance yet to see your play…Labels: Charles Kingsley, Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, Saint Augustine, Thomas Hobbes
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à propos de rien a pro-PO d' ree-uhn phrase in connection with nothing; apropos of nothing 1849Charles KingsleyYeast: A ProblemThe ice thawed rapidly; and one evening it split up altogether, when Bracebridge, who was sitting drawing by Lancelot's sofa, instead of amusing himself with the ladies below, suddenly threw his pencil into the fire, and broke out, a propos de rien—'What a strange pair we are, Smith! I think you just the best fellow I ever met, and you hate me like poison—you can't deny it.'1859Charles ReadeLove Me Little Love Me LongI must repeat, they have not that excuse. Perhaps their risibility had been exhausted. After laughing three hours a propos de rien, it is time to be serious out of place.1907Frances Hodgson BurnettThe ShuttleIt might seem a propos de rien, but he did not care in the least. He wanted to hear what she would say.Labels: Charles Kingsley, Charles Reade, Frances Hodgson Burnett
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