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

inkhorn term

An inkhorn term is one that is pretentious or overly ornate (often words from Latin or Greek).

An "inkhorn" was how ink was carried by scholars and clerks in the 1500s. The metaphor suggests that such words come from the scholar’s desk rather than natural speech.

Ironically, some words which historically were derided as inkhorn terms are now rather mundane and commonplace... including the word mundane.

Example:

Sally loved to flaunt her giant vocabulary, peppering every conversation with inkhorn terms that left her friends reaching for a dictionary.


(link to this entry)

References:

  1. Wikipedia: Inkhorn Term
  2. World Wide Words Blog: Inkhorn Terms

Tags: vocabulary , jargon

Date Added:

interregnum

  1. A period when normal government is suspended, especially between successive reigns or regimes.
  2. An interval or pause between two periods of office or other things.

As in:

...the interregnum between the discovery of radioactivity and its detailed understanding.

or:

You are a weak monarch in a dangerous interregnum.

The latter comes from a line of dialog from the character Gerri in the television series "Succession"


(link to this entry)

References:

  1. Definition: interregnum
  2. succession-season-4-episode-6-recap - episode recap from thewrap.com

Tags: television , vocabulary

Date Added: Unknown
Date Modified:

jawbone

"Jawboning" is a political technique in which statements are made by persons of authority in order how to influence public perception or behavior without making formal policy changes.


(link to this entry)

References:

  1. Definition: jawbone
  2. U.S. jobs report: These numbers have economists jawboning - news article using the word "jawboning"

Tags: vocabulary , politics

Date Added:

Jevons Paradox

Jevons Paradox is the economic principle stating that as technological improvements increase the efficiency of resource use, overall consumption of that resource may increase rather than decrease.

Originally observed by 19th-century economist William Stanley Jevons in relation to coal consumption during the Industrial Revolution, the paradox highlights how greater efficiency lowers costs, which can drive higher demand.

Jevons Paradox was in the news a lot early in 2025 after the unveiling of AI models developed by a Chinese start-up called DeepSeek. In a report titled "DeepSeek-V3 Technical Report" published in December, DeepSeek showed that they were able to create this AI model much more efficiently (and cheaper) than their counterparts (i.e. OpenAI's ChatGPT, Meta's Llama, etc).

AI research benefits from more efficient neural networks, yet Jevons Paradox suggests that these efficiency gains will lead to even greater overall computational demand, as more complex models are developed and deployed at scale.

While all of this was in the news, Microsoft's Satya Nadella posted on X: Jevons paradox strikes again! As AI gets more efficient and accessible, we will see its use skyrocket, turning it into a commodity we just can't get enough of.


(link to this entry)

References:

  1. Wikipedia: Jevons Paradox
  2. Planet Money: Why the AI world is suddenly obsessed with a 160-year-old economics paradox
  3. Reuters: Europe's AI bulls pin hopes on 'Jevons Paradox' after DeepSeek rout
  4. Tweet: @satyanadella 26 Jan 2025
  5. DeepSeek
  6. DeepSeek-V3 Technical Report

Tags: ai , eponymous

Date Added:

Leahy Law

From Wikipedia:

The Leahy Laws or Leahy amendments are U.S. human rights laws that ostensibly prohibit the U.S. Department of State and Department of Defense from providing military assistance to foreign security force units that violate human rights with impunity.

In 2024, as the Israel–Hamas war wages on, the Leahy Law has been in the news a lot.


(link to this entry)

References:

  1. Wikipedia: Leahy Law
  2. Washington Post: I created the Leahy law. It should be applied to Israel - An op-ed by Patrick Leahy, author of the Leahy Law.

Tags: international , legal , leahy , eponymous

Date Added:
Date Modified:

leitmotif

A leitmotif is a recurring theme, idea, or motif that runs through a work, often associated with a particular character, concept, or situation. The term originates from German Leitmotiv, meaning "leading motif" and was used to describe Wagner's characteristic association of a melody to a character.

I was introduced to this term while watching Music by John Williams. In the documentary, George Lucas describes how he wanted John to create a theme for each of the characters in Star Wars.


(link to this entry)

References:

  1. Definition: leitmotif
  2. Music by John Williams - Documentary on Disney+
  3. Wikipedia: Leitmotif
  4. IMDB: Music by John Williams

Tags: vocabulary , music

Date Added:

Lindy's Law

In simple terms, the longer something is around, the better it gets (or the longer it's likely to continue to be around).

I first heard a reference to this in a Breaking Points episode in which the hosts were debating the merits of lab grown meat.

The origin of this term comes from a 1964 article published in The New Republic by Albert Goldman. In this article, Goldman described comedians that used to meet up at Lindy's Deli in NYC discussing comedy shows. An observation was made that the longer a show has been running, the longer it is expected to continue to run. This was formalized in something Goldman called "Lindy's Law." Note: this is also commonly referred to as the "Lindy Effect."


(link to this entry)

References:

  1. Podcast: Breaking Points - Krystal And Saagar DEBATE Lab Grown Meat BAN - 07 May 2024
  2. Wikipedia: Lindy Effect
  3. Wikipedia: Antifragile (book) - in this book, Nassim Nicholas Taleb tweaked Lindy's Law some and coined the "Lindy Effect."
  4. The New Republic: Lindy’s Law - published in 1964
  5. Physica A: Lindy's Law (abstract) - Volume 486, 15 Nov 2017, Iddo Eliazar, Pages 797-805

Tags: lindy effect , podcast , eponymous , social

Date Added:
Date Modified:

litotes

Do you have the habit of expressing a positive statement by negating its opposite (or vice-versa)? For example, saying something is "Not bad" when you mean that it's good?

This is called a litotes (pronounced LIE-tuh-teez). The word comes from the Greek lítotēs, meaning simplicity. Litotes can be used to soften something, i.e. saying "I'm not bad at this" seems less boastful than saying "I'm pretty good at this." It can also be used for humorous effect, for example saying "I don't hate it!" instead of saying that you like something.


(link to this entry)

References:

  1. Wikipedia: Litotes
  2. Definition: litotes

Tags: vocabulary , grammar , tipofmytongue

Date Added:

metonymy

A metonymy is a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is substituted with another closely associated with it. For example, in the sentence "Hey, who are all the suits?" the word suit is a metonymy for "business people."

The word comes from the Greek metōnymía, meaning "a change of name."

I heard the word in an episode of PBS' Otherwords.


(link to this entry)

References:

  1. YouTube: Otherwords - The Ancient Origins of Body Words
  2. Wikipedia: Metonymy
  3. grammarly.com blog entry - Metonymy: How to Use This Literary Device

Tags: vocabulary , grammar , tipofmytongue

Date Added:
Date Modified:

"Mice lie and monkeys exaggerate."

Mice lie and monkeys exaggerate.

-- David B. Weiner, Ph.D. Professor, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine Chair, Gene Therapy and Vaccine Program, CAMB Co-Leader Tumor Virology Program, Abramson Cancer Program University of Pennsylvania, Perelman School of Medicine

Dr. Weiner coined this aphorism while musing on the use of NHP (nonhuman primates) in HIV vaccines studies at a conference in 2008. In essence, animal models aren't necessarily predictive of how drugs will work in humans.

The phrase is often used in research papers and by science journalists. I can't recall where I first heard it, but I thought of it recently when a friend shared a blurb about how rapamycin is purported to have anti-aging benefits in humans. Though there is no evidence for this in humans, there have been studies with the drug on mice that have found that they live ~12% longer.


(link to this entry)

References:

  1. Transient rapamycin treatment can increase lifespan and healthspan in middle-aged mice
  2. Of Mice and Mike—An Underappreciated Ebola Virus Disease Model May Have Paved the Road for Future Filovirology
  3. Swine as biomedical animal model for T-cell research...
  4. Twitter: @justsaysinmice - tweets about scientific and news articles about medical results, IN MICE
  5. Bluesky: @inmice.bsky.social - posts about scientific and news articles about medical results, IN MICE
  6. AIDS vaccine researchers STEP up to the challenge

Tags: quote , idiom , aphorism

Date Added:
Date Modified: