Lexical Compendium

Wait... what is this? Sometimes I come across a word, phrase, idiom, quote, reference, bit of slang, person of interest, etc that either I don't know or I find amusing, interesting, etc. This is a collection of those items so that I can refer back to them in emails, texts, etc.

Recent Entries:

Tag Cloud eponymous grammar science technology television vocabulary ai acronym internet music comics software podcast slang games quote idiom entomology jargon computer-science netspeak space tipofmytongue politics movie history legal

DSKY

An acronym for Display Keyboard (pronounced diskey). This was the interface that Apollo astronauts used to communicate with the computers on the Command and Lunar Modules.

I first came across this acronym while watching the television series For All Mankind.


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References:

  1. IMDB: For All Mankind
  2. Smithsonian: DSKY - A Smithsonian description and image of a DSKY.

Tags: television , space , astronaut , apollo

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Pale Blue Dot

The "pale blue dot" is how Carl Sagan described the Earth as seen in a photograph taken by Voyager 1 in 1990 (the last picture of the Earth it took as it continued to leave the solar system).


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References:

  1. Wikipedia: Pale Blue Dot

Tags: space , carl_sagan , earth

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albedo

Albedo is the measure of reflectivity of a surface, specifically Earth's ability to reflect solar radiation back into space. It is expressed as a percentage, with higher albedo indicating greater reflectivity.

I first came across this term while reading a SciTechDaily post about how scientists have a theory as to why global warming in 2023 exceeded predictions. The year 2023 was also had a record-low albedo.


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References:

  1. SciTechDaily: Scientists Discover Explanation for the Unusually Sudden Temperature Rise in 2023
  2. Science: Recent global temperature surge intensified by record-low planetary albedo
  3. Wikipedia: Albedo

Tags: science , vocabulary

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humanic

For a while now, I've been searching for a term that captures human-made creativity -- as opposed to something created by an LLM. Occasionally I see the word organic used in this context. [2] It works, but it feels a little off. Organic implies something that happens naturally, often without human involvement.

Here I'd like to proffer humanic: a word meaning pertaining to or originating from human agency or creativity, particularly in contrast to work produced by AI. An appropriate antonym in this context might be synthetic. So: humanic and synthetic. I like the symmetry.

The word humanic isn't actually new. Historically, it referred to the study of human nature.[3] But let's reclaim it to also denote cultural artifacts made by humans in a world where if feels like we're just moments away from being saturated with purely synthetic content. Maybe others will organically come upon this usage. I'll use this space to record any sightings.

The word humanic is not necessarily anti-AI, it is descriptive of origin, not ideology. We may need another word to convey sentiment and preference.

Example:

"Oh, I love the theater. It's so refreshing to see content that is entirely humanic."

Note: Anthropic might have also been a good choice, but this, ironically, is already the name of a popular LLM.[4]

Other contenders: anthrogenic, anthropogenic

Updates:

  • In Nov 2025 YouTuber/filmmaker Thomas Flight published a thought-provoking piece on art versus artifice [5]
  • In Nov 2025, a song made by AI topped Billboard's "Country Digital Song Sales" chart [1]

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References:

  1. The Independent: The most downloaded country song in the US right now was made by AI
  2. Stat Significant: How Much AI Will Audiences Accept in Music and Movies?
  3. Definition: Humanics
  4. Wikipedia: Anthropic
  5. YouTube: Thomas Flight - Why AI "Art" Feels So Wrong

Tags: vocabulary , neologism , ai , technology

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spaghettification

Spaghettification refers to the streching and compressing that occurs as an object passes within a black hole's event horizon. The process was first described by Stephen Hawking in the book "A Brief History of Time."


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References:

  1. A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes
  2. Wikipedia: Spaghettification
  3. Black hole kills star by 'spaghettification' as telescopes watch

Tags: science , space

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