marmoreal
(en)
(adjective) of, relating to, or suggestive of marble or a marble statue especially in coldness or aloofness
7
"marmoreal purity"
unknown
7 years, 7 months ago
"marmoreal purity"
unknown
7 years, 7 months ago
excoriating
(en)
(verb) to wear off the skin of; abrade / (verb) to censure scathingly
7
the novelist's radical, "excoriating purpose"
confirm
7 years, 7 months ago
the novelist's radical, "excoriating purpose"
confirm
7 years, 7 months ago
lapidary
(en)
relating to stone and gems and the work involved in engraving, cutting, or polishing
8
"lapidary concision"
notable
7 years, 7 months ago
"lapidary concision"
notable
7 years, 7 months ago
tenebrous
(en)
(adjective) shut off from the light; dark murky / (adjective) hard to understand; obscure / (adjective) causing gloom
9
"with the tenebrous incense of the oracular"
quoting Steiner
uncertain
7 years, 7 months ago
"with the tenebrous incense of the oracular"
quoting Steiner
uncertain
7 years, 7 months ago
thrall
(en)
(noun) a servant slave; bondman / (noun) serf / (noun) a person in moral or mental servitude / (noun) a state of servitude or submission / (noun) a state of complete absorption / (verb) enthrall enslave
10
Elias Canetti described the true writer as "the thrall of his time"
uncertain
7 years, 7 months ago
Elias Canetti described the true writer as "the thrall of his time"
uncertain
7 years, 7 months ago
coterie
(en)
(noun) an intimate and often exclusive group of persons with a unifying common interest or purpose
13
These works "cannot reach more than the limited coterie of aesthetes".
Quoting Anthony Blunt
confirm
7 years, 7 months ago
These works "cannot reach more than the limited coterie of aesthetes".
Quoting Anthony Blunt
confirm
7 years, 7 months ago
mandarin
(en)
(noun) historically, a high government bureaucrat of the Chinese Empire OR a pedantic or elitist bureaucrat OR senior person of influence in academia or literary circles / (adj) deliberately superior or complex; esoteric, highbrow, obscurantist
18
the fiercely mandarin Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes
I knew it had something to do with Chinese bureaucrats but wasn't sure of the adjectival meaning
strange
7 years, 7 months ago
the fiercely mandarin Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes
I knew it had something to do with Chinese bureaucrats but wasn't sure of the adjectival meaning
strange
7 years, 7 months ago
sclerosis
(en)
a hardening of tissue and other anatomical features / becoming rigid and unresponsive; losing the ability to adapt
21
against the cant of a sclerotic state religion
notable
7 years, 7 months ago
against the cant of a sclerotic state religion
notable
7 years, 7 months ago
colonnade
(en)
(noun) a series of columns set at regular intervals and usually supporting the base of a roof structure
21
To whom do we assign this colonnade or that vestibule?
uncertain
7 years, 7 months ago
To whom do we assign this colonnade or that vestibule?
uncertain
7 years, 7 months ago
condign
(en)
(adj) fitting, appropriate, deserved, especially denoting punishment
27
He seems to have taken the news with condign aplomb
uncertain
7 years, 7 months ago
He seems to have taken the news with condign aplomb
uncertain
7 years, 7 months ago