Lexicon

A woman who emphasizes a life of passion, expressed through personal style, leisurely pastimes, charm, and cultivation.

She arrived at the garden party like a quaintrelle, all silk scarf, old books, and effortless wit.

A time long past.

In days of yore, sailors read the weather from the color of the morning sky.

A person who resists or distrusts new technology or changes in working methods.

He calls himself a luddite, but he still keeps a secret folder of carefully chosen apps.

Understood or implied without being stated directly.

Their quiet nod was a tacit agreement to leave the subject alone.

A formal account of what exists in a domain and how its concepts relate to one another.

Before building the search tool, they sketched an ontology of people, projects, and ideas.

The quality of appearing real, true, or believable, often used to describe literature, film, and art. Derived from Latin verisimilitudo (“likeness to truth”), it means a work feels authentic, even if it is entirely fictional.

She praised the film’s verisimilitude; every cramped apartment and hesitant glance felt borrowed from life.

A community of people dispersed from an ancestral homeland, along with the networks, memories, and cultures they maintain across places.

The diaspora kept the old recipes alive, translating family history into cardamom, smoke, and Sunday calls.

Depending on chance, randomness, or uncertain events.

The composer left one passage aleatoric, letting each performance find its own weather.

Relating to memes: ideas, behaviours, or styles that spread from person to person through imitation.

The slogan’s memetic appeal lay in how easily people could remember it, repeat it, and make it their own.

Departing from established or widely accepted beliefs or doctrines.

Her heterodox views on economics made the seminar livelier than anyone expected.

Known or justified through reasoning independently of experience or observation.

That every bachelor is unmarried can be known a priori, without interviewing a single one.