Eudaemonism

First known use 1827.A theory that the highest ethical goal is happiness and personal well being.
A system of ethics that evaluates actions in terms of their capacity to produce happiness.

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The Journal of jurisprudence, Volume 16

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Pp: Ptomaine

n. A basic nitrogenous organic compound produced by bacterial putrefaction of protein. [Italian ptomaina, from Greek ptma, corpse, from piptein, pt-, to fall; see pet- in Indo-European roots.]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

IN Context:

Why, Windrips just something nasty that's been vomited up.   Plenty others still left fermenting in the stomach-quack economists with every sort of ptomaine. 

pg 109 Sinclair lewis It Can't Happen Here

Ee: Epitome

epitome

something representative as a fine example of the whole group of things to which it belongs. See also books.

See also: Representation

-Ologies & -Isms. Copyright 2008 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

Noun

1.

epitome - a standard or typical example; "he is the prototype of good breeding"; "he provided America with an image of the good father" prototype, paradigm, image example, model - a representative form or pattern; "I profited from his example" concentrate - a concentrated example of something; "the concentrate of contemporary despair" imago - (psychoanalysis) an idealized image of someone (usually a parent) formed in childhood

Word in Context:


The individual, the personal, the concrete, as distinguished from, yet revealing in its fulness, the general, the universal--that is Mr. Browning's chosen subject-matter: "Every man is for him an epitome of the universe, a centre of creation." It is always the particular soul, and the particular act or episode, as the flower of the particular soul--the act or episode by which its quality comes to the test--in which he interests us. With him it is always "a drama of the interior, a tragedy or comedy of the soul, to see thereby how each soul becomes conscious of itself."

Nn: Nadir

n. 1. Astronomy A point on the celestial sphere directly below the observer, diametrically opposite the zenith. 2. The lowest point: the nadir of their fortunes. [Middle English, from Medieval Latin, from Arabic nar (as-samt), opposite (the zenith), from naara, to see, watch; see nr in Semitic roots.]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

In the most illustrious lives as in the most obscure, in animals as in secretary-generals, there is a zenith and there is a nadir, a period when the fur is magnificent, the fortune dazzling.

Bureaucracy by de Balzac, Honore 

Aa: Ablutions

ablutions

plural noun washing, bathing, wash, bath, showering, toilet, cleansing, scrubbing, purification, lavation He spent about 15 minutes doing his daily ablutions.

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

Her bridal adornments, it is true, at first caused some little dismay, having painted and anointed herself for the occasion according to the Chinook toilet; by dint, however, of copious ablutions, she was freed from all adventitious tint and fragrance, and entered into the nuptial state, the cleanest princess that had ever been known, of the somewhat unctuous tribe of the Chinooks.

Astoria or Anecdotes of an enterprise beyond the Rocky Mountains by Irving, Washington

v. con·verged, con·verg·ing, con·verg·es

v.intr.

1.

a. To tend toward or approach an intersecting point: lines that converge.

b. To come together from different directions; meet: The avenues converge at a central square.

2. To tend toward or achieve union or a common conclusion or result: In time, our views and our efforts converged.

3. Mathematics To approach a limit.

v.tr.

To cause to converge.

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[Late Latin convergere, to incline together : Latin com-, com- + Latin vergere, to incline; see wer-² in Indo-European roots.]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

They all converge upon the Nore, the warm speck of red upon the tones of drab and gray, with the distant shores running together towards the west, low and flat, like the sides of an enormous canal.The Mirror of the Sea by Conrad, Joseph

Pp: Physiognomy

1.

a. The art of judging human character from facial features.

b. Divination based on facial features.

2.

a. Facial features, especially when regarded as revealing character.

b. Aspect and character of an inanimate or abstract entity: the physiognomy of New England.

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[Middle English phisonomie, from Old French phisionomie, from Late Latin physiognmia, from Greek phusiognmi, variant of phusiognmoni : phusio-, physio- + gnmn, gnmon-, interpreter; see gn- in Indo-European roots.]

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physi·og·nomic (-g-nmk, --nmk), physi·og·nomi·cal (--kl) adj.

physi·og·nomi·cal·ly adv.

physi·ogno·mist n.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

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We were then, for reasons which it is not worth while to specify, in the close neighbourhood of Kerguelen Land; and now, when I open an atlas and look at the tiny dots on the map of the Southern Ocean, I see as if engraved upon the paper the enraged physiognomy of that gale.The Mirror of the Sea by Conrad, Joseph