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nullifidian NUL-li-fid-ee-uhn noun a person having no faith 1871George EliotMiddlemarchShe was disposed rather to accuse the intolerable narrowness and the purblind conscience of the society around her: and Celia was no longer the eternal cherub, but a thorn in her spirit, a pink-and-white nullifidian, worse than any discouraging presence in the 'Pilgrim's Progress.'1892George GissingBorn In Exile'Orthodox? Oh, of course not, of course not! But a rich vein of humanity. Don't you find that?—Pray allow me to throw off my overcoat. Ha, thanks!—A rich vein of humanity. Walsh is by no means to be confused with the nullifidians.Labels: George Eliot, George Gissing
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Entry By: CJ Cooney
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xystus ZAI-stuhs noun a long porch or portico used for exercise, usually during bad weather; a garden; a portico 1876George EliotDaniel DerondaThen, this, where she is standing on the Xystus with Agrippa, entreating the people not to injure themselves by resistance.1897XenophonThe Economist...the xystus, 'a covered corrider in the gymnasium where the athletes exercised in winter.'1901Lew WallaceBen HurBut go up to Jerusalem next Passover, and stand on the Xystus or in the Street of Barter, and see him as he is.1919Vicente Blasco IbanezMare Nostrum (Our Sea) a NovelThe xystus, or garden, adjoining the house had been laid out like a Grecian landscape with cypresses and laurels between squares of roses and violets.Labels: George Eliot, Lew Wallace, Vicente Blasco Ibanez, Xenophon
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Entry By: CJ Cooney
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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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