This page lists and defines seldom-used words, neologisms, kennings, unfamiliar noun-adjective pairs, and geographical and historical references I have used throughout my “Posts” and Pages on Active Skies, and it will grow over time. It provides literal definitions and brief contextual explanations. This reference may be valuable when a single word or phrase at first confuses, jars, misleads, distracts, raises eyebrows, or starts a pitying chuckle.
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z
A
accretionary years: in “The Space Between the Hands”, lit.: a period of learning or maturation; an adolescence | cont.: The character is engaged in a process of awakening to the world around him, gathering and organizing new information.
active camouflage: in “to whom i share many spaces”, lit. camouflage that adapts, often rapidly, to the surroundings of an object such as an animal or military vehicle (Wikiwand) | cont.: The narrator describes the subtleties of appearance in his/her subject, where reticence conceals vibrancy.
actuation: in “A Wild Majesty, A Latent Fury”, lit. the act of putting into motion; operation (Wordnik) | cont.: VTOL aircraft begin deploying as the narrator observes from the ground.
antifragile: in Purpose, lit. the increase in capability, resilience, or robustness as a response to stressors (credit: Nassim Taleb, Wikiwand) | cont.: Used informally here, this term underscores transparent writing’s ability to weather, disarm, and ultimately accomodate criticism to persist.
apotheosis: in “Oceanography”, lit. deification; ascension to heaven (Wordnik) | cont.: To “recollect apotheosis” is to remember a moment where one saw themselves lifted to an elevated status: in this context, the potent emotional and intellectual position as partner to a significant other. Parallel to this phrase is “to know the wisdom of falling to ground”; that is, the experiential value of empty-handedness, of having nothing. These phrases are seen as bearing equal meaning during the approach of death.
arc-flamed: in “Ouroboros”, lit. fire cast out in a curve | cont.: With “ripples . . . in the blackness”, the narrator’s extended active phrase describes one’s meaningful expressions into or marks on the universe of the non-self, from the miniscule to the epic. Some influence by the Butterfly Effect in chaos theory.
argonaut: in “Oceanography”, lit. (also paper nautilus) an individual of the family Argoanutidae, a group of pelagic octopuses (Wikiwand) | cont.: The argonaut is a solitary, sea-surface-dwelling creature, essentially living at the boundary of two worlds (“nomad”). The narrator comes upon this animal in the open ocean by chance, where the odds of such an encounter are abysmal, yet these two rare ocean creatures, argonaut and human diver, separate at the lightest exploratory touch. A metaphor for the mystic origin of an idealized relationship, its volatility, and its inevitable breakage.
automatic bullet haze: in “to whom i share many spaces”, lit. a hail of projectiles fired from a self-cycling firearm | cont.: These words function as a metaphorical appositive to the thoughts, emotions, probabilities, and “neurochemical signaling” that may be exchanged between two people who have a mutual romantic intent (i.e. part of the emotionally-invoked belief that love is deeply mystical). Both “extrasense” and “mind-tethering” are sequential daughter-thoughts (i.e. “to whom I share many spaces” is a free association piece, so these words are resultants of “automatic bullet haze”). This term also describes the speed of the infatuated mind, where thoughts flow as “water into the breach” (as in a new void below a water body, and, by another extension, through the breech of a firearm, with water as a source of massive or overwhelming ammunition, a means of drowning). *Leave a comment if this explanation is not satisfactory.*
B
backchannels: in “to whom i share many spaces”, lit. separate, secondary conduits used for concealment; a virtual exchange taking place simultaneously with a verbal one (Wordnik) | cont.: The narrator considers the impossibility of communication with his/her subject.
Baikonur: in “Inundation”, lit. the Baikonur Cosmodrone, a Russian spaceport in Baikonur, Kazakhstan notably used for joint Roscosmos-NASA resupply and personnel missions to the International Space Station (Wikiwand) | cont.:
barrows: “to whom i share many spaces”
base flow: Purpose
bathyscaphe: “Oceanography”
battery service: “A Wild Majesty, A Latent Fury”
blackwater: “The Space Between the Hands”
blitz-and-turn: “Oceanography”
boneplate: “Oceanography”
boreal ice: “The Space Between the Hands”
brutalism: “Oceanography”
brute peace: “Inundation”
burning local Sahara: “Ouroboros”
butterfly: “Inundation”
C
Canaveral: “to whom i share many spaces”
cataphract: “Inundation”
chain-span: “Ouroboros”
children who have learned how to learn how to give: “to whom i share many spaces”
common time: “The Space Between the Hands”
convalescence: “Inundation”
D
death-switch: “Inundation”
deep-learned: “The Space Between the Hands”
delirium walkabout: “The Space Between the Hands”
desultory: Purpose
diatom: “Oceanography”
disparition: “The Space Between the Hands”
drift-dance: “Inundation”
E
Earthkind: “Awakening to Sunlight”
earthview: “Inundation”
echo behind the skull: “The Space Between the Hands”
Enewetak: “Inundation”
eviscerating low: “Zoo”
exfoliating wings: “A Wild Majesty, A Latent Fury”
eyes shut wide: “to whom i share many spaces”
F
flat-rock tables: “The Space Between the Hands”
flecktarn: “Inundation”
FOB: “to whom i share many spaces”
G
General Space: “The Space Between the Hands”
ghost-print: “The Space Between the Hands”
Great Works: “The Space Between the Hands”
grokked: “America Necrotica”
ground-truthing: “The Space Between the Hands”
growing buildings: “The Space Between the Hands”
H
hadean violence: “The Space Between the Hands”
harpoon-weavery: “Inundation”
heart-mind: “America Necrotica” and “to whom i share many spaces”
heavy lift: “A Wild Majesty, A Latent Fury”
heavy time: “to whom i share many spaces”
Henrys: “Inundation” and “Ouroboros”
Hercules: “Inundation”
hermetic: “to whom i share many spaces”
honeycomb fullness: “The Space Between the Hands”
humping: “The Space Between the Hands”
I
K
katabatic-across-the-mind: “Inundation”
Kennecott: “America Necrotica”
kissed off: “Ouroboros”
klaxon: “to whom i share many spaces”
L
landscaped, butter-on-bread meanings: About the Writer
Laniakea: “Ouroboros”
latent fury: “A Wild Majesty, A Latent Fury”
lateral burn: Purpose
LD: “Oceanography”
liberty-steel: “to whom i share many spaces”
lifeways: “The Space Between the Hands”
Local Group: “Inundation”
Lomonosov: “Oceanography”
lonely interstitial: “The Space Between the Hands”
long-shadowed: “The Space Between the Hands”
M
mainline: “America Necrotica”
mandala-mayhem: “Inundation”
manta: “Inundation”
Marianas: “to whom i share many spaces”
McMurdo: “America Necrotica”
meteoric Apollo: “Oceanography”
metonymics: “America Necrotica”
micropolitics: “The Space Between the Hands”
mortal crush: “The Space Between the Hands”
N
nadir: “Oceanography”
night-spun: “Ouroboros”
no-man’s-land: “The Space Between the Hands”
O
Occamites: “Inundation”
oneironautic hull: “Ouroboros”
original kick: “The Space Between the Hands”
P
pacificity: “Oceanography”
Pangaea: “to whom i share many spaces”
parsecs: “Inundation”
peace zygotic: “Ouroboros”
pearl-husked: “Oceanography”
penitent scrawl: “A Wild Majesty, A Latent Fury”
perspicacity: “Awakening to Sunlight”
phonics: “America Necrotica”
pioneer dreams: “The Space Between the Hands”
plains-hunter dreams: “Ouroboros”
poignancies: “America Necrotica”
polyfold: “The Space Between the Hands”
power ribbons: “Inundation”
prime calculation: “The Space Between the Hands”
promontory gain: “The Space Between the Hands”
Q
R
racked: “The Space Between the Hands”
radio-rhythms: “Inundation”
rainfall narcotic: “A Wild Majesty, A Latent Fury”
rancorous joy: “Ouroboros”
rapprochement: “Oceanography”
Razor: “Inundation”
renegade virtue: “The Space Between the Hands”
Richat: “America Necrotica”
rigger’s-fingers: Purpose
rolling concavity: “The Space Between the Hands”
Rondônia: “America Necrotica”
S
sacred cockpits: “America Necrotica”
salt ledgers: “Ouroboros”
sand-soaked: “Ouroboros”
San Rafael Swell: “to whom i share many spaces”
saurian: “Oceanography”
scattershot: “Inundation”
scree: “Ouroboros”
seafoam: “Clouds are gathering”
seekers of blindsight: “to whom i share many spaces”
semantic dysphoria: Purpose
sherd: “Ouroboros”
silent towers of youth: “Ouroboros”
singularity: “Zoo”
skullplate: “to whom i share many spaces”
sky-fire: 1. “The Space Between the Hands”; 2. “A Wild Majesty, A Latent Fury”
space-oceans: “Inundation”
spacetime: “Ouroboros”
splashdown: “Oceanography”
starbursts: “Inundation”
storefront reliquary: “Ouroboros”
subsidized effort: “The Space Between the Hands”
substation: “to whom i share many spaces”
Superordinate: “Awakening to Sunlight”
suppressing fire: “Ouroboros”
swim call: “to whom i share many spaces”
T
tachyons: “Inundation”
taiga: “The Space Between the Hands”
tentworks: “Ouroboros”
Tethysian histories: “Oceanography”
third eye: “The Space Between the Hands”
time-life: “Clouds are gathering”, Purpose
tincture: Purpose
tiny uglies: “Zoo”
tongue-connectors: “Inundation”
transects: “to whom i share many spaces”
transistor-fluid: “Oceanography”
U
umbilicals: “A Wild Majesty, A Latent Fury”
unlightedness: “Inundation”
untrafficked: “The Space Between the Hands”
V
W
warbling: “Inundation”
washing-machine world: “to whom i share many spaces”
wave-front: “The Space Between the Hands”
way-lines: “The Space Between the Hands”
the Way of life: “Awakening to Sunlight”
webways: “America Necrotica”
wild majesty: “A Wild Majesty, A Latent Fury”
wise joy: “Zoo”
wolf’s eyes: “The Space Between the Hands”
word-bent augury: Sidebar
woven networks: “to whom i share many spaces”
wracked adumbrations: in “Oceanography”, lit. forcefully smashed or broken (Wordnik); and lit. rough, imperfect, or symbolic representations (Wordnik) | cont.: The youthful sketches of the future crumble as the result of miscommunication between partners.
X
xeric: “to whom i share many spaces”
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