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frisson free-ZAWN noun a thrill; a brief episode of excitement 1905G. K. Chesterton Heretics When a French journalist desires a frisson there is a frisson; he discovers, let us say, that the President of the Republic has murdered three wives. 1991Roger ZelaznyPrince of ChaosAs I grew older, however, I, too, came to enjoy it, partly for the occasional frisson it provided my adolescence.1995Greg EganTap...a frisson of awe at the sheer Power of the Chip.2001Jeffery DeaverThe Blue NowhereHe would rather have had her close, Gillette decided, remembering during her visits how he'd loved to brush fingertips with her or press his shoe against the side of her foot, the contact producing an electric frisson that was akin to making love.Labels: G. K. Chesterton, Greg Egan, Jeffery Deaver, Roger Zelazny
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quadrumanous kwa-DROO-ma-nuhs adjective relating to primates with hand-shaped feet 1860James Emerson TennentCeylonThe only other quadrumanous animal found in Ceylon is the little loris, which, from its sluggish movements, nocturnal habits, and consequent inaction during the day, has acquired the name of the 'Ceylon Sloth.1869Alfred Russel WallaceThe Malay ArchipelagoHe made a spring at me, and if the keeper had not pulled me back would have treated me unhandsomely, like a quadrumanous rough, as he was.1886John C. HutchesonTom Finch's Monkey and How He Dined with the AdmiralBut, alas, he never became sufficiently developed or 'evolved' from his quadrumanous condition to answer the question in person, as the engines which were his hobby in the end compassed his untimely death!1925G. K. ChestertonThe Everlasting ManWe could imagine a Supermonkey more marvellous than any Superman, a quadrumanous creature carving and painting with his hands and cooking and carpentering with his feet.Labels: Alfred Russel Wallace, G. K. Chesterton, James Emerson Tennent, John C. Hutcheson
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amor vincit omnia AW-mor win-kit OM-nee-aw phrase love conquers all; love conquers all things 1400Geoffrey ChaucerThe Canterbury TalesOn which ther was first write a crowned 'A,' | And after, 'Amor vincit omnia.' | Another Nonne with hir hadde she, | That was hire Chapeleyne, and preestes thre.1911Ethel M. DellThe Way of an EagleIt flashed upon her finally, as though a voice had spoken into her ear. The words were: Omnia Vincit Amor. And the ring in her hand was no longer the outward visible sign of her compact. It was a love-token, given to her by a man who had spoken no word of love.1930G. K. ChestertonFour Faultless Felons It’s a pretty thing—sort of imitation fourteenth century, with Amor Vincit Omnia on it.Labels: Ethel M. Dell, G. K. Chesterton, Geoffrey Chaucer
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saeva indignatio see-waw in-dig-NAW-tee-o phrase savage indignation; fierce indignation 1859George EliotThe Lifted VeilThe heart will by and by be still—'ubi saeva indignatio ulterius cor lacerare nequit'; the eye will cease to entreat; the ear will be deaf; the brain will have ceased from all wants as well as from all work.1905G. K. ChestertonHereticsThere is a second type of mind which produces satire with the quality of greatness. That is embodied in the satirist whose passions are released and let go by some intolerable sense of wrong. He is maddened by the sense of men being maddened; his tongue becomes an unruly member, and testifies against all mankind. Such a man was Swift, in whom the saeva indignatio was a bitterness to others, because it was a bitterness to himself.1913Henry W. NevinsonEssays in RebellionThey would gladly be rid of it, for, indeed, it stifles their existence, depriving them alike of pleasure, friends, and the objects of ambition—isolating them in the end as Swift was isolated. If only the causes of their indignation might cease, how gladly they would welcome the interludes of quiet! But hardly is one surmounted than another overtops them like a wave, nor have the stern victims of indignation the smallest hope of deliverance from their suffering, until they lie, as Swift has now lain for so many years, where cruel rage can tear the heart no more—'Ubi saeva indignatio ulterius cor lacerare nequit.'1924Henry Seidel CanbyDefinitionsLike most of the great satirists of the world, Butler's saeva indignatio was aroused by the daily conflicts between reason and stupidity, between candor and disingenuousness, with all their mutations of hypocrisy, guile, deceit, and sham.Labels: G. K. Chesterton, George Eliot, Henry Seidel Canby, Henry W. Nevinson
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nostrum NOS-truhm noun a panacea; a cure-all remedy; a secret recipe for medicine; snake-oil 1912G. K. ChestertonManaliveI must say that for a clergyman to countenance, even in jest, such discredited nostrums of dissipated demagogues as Socialism or Radicalism partakes of the character of the betrayal of a sacred trust.1982Frank HerbertThe White Plague...he dosed himself not only with specifics to which his medical standing gave him access but also with nostrums…2000Robert Ludlum and Galye LyndsThe Hades FactorIn Iraq, life for most people was basic, and this doctor, whose work had been published widely, who once had traveled the globe to address pediatric conferences, was reduced to nostrums and yogurt.Labels: Frank Herbert, G. K. Chesterton, Galye Lynds, Robert Ludlum
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plutocracy PLOO-taw-kruh-see noun a government by the wealthy or moneyed class 1909Thomas A. Wise and Joseph R. GrismerA Gentleman From MississippiHe had his speech all really to warn the country that he thought a crowd of the plutocracy was goin' to get the bonds to resell to the public at advanced rates.1920G. K. ChestertonThe New JerusalemMeanwhile the Labour men talk about the need to 'nationalise' the mines or the land, as if it were not the great difficulty in a plutocracy to nationalise the Government, or even to nationalise the nation.1937George OrwellThe Road To Wigan PierBut if we do get it there will be a struggle, conceivably a physical one, for our plutocracy will not sit quiet under a genuinely revolutionary government.Labels: G. K. Chesterton, George Orwell, Thomas A. Wise and Joseph R. Grismer
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