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

86

I think that, to most people, to 86 someone means to eject them or refuse them service. I've heard this term and seen it employed many a time at dive bars.

According to Merriam-Webster and also the OED, it's original origins were likely from Cockney rhyming slang where 86 rhymes with nix.

In the early 20th century, the term was used by cafes and bars to denote when they were out of something and was part of a whole system of numeric codes.

In recent years, the slang "86" has taken on political overtones. During Donald Trump’s presidency, the phrase "86 45" emerged as a form of protest—most notably when Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer appeared on Meet the Press wearing a pin that read "8645." The slogan persisted into Joe Biden’s presidency with "86 46," and now, in 2025, it has resurfaced again as "86 47."

In May 2025, former FBI chief James Comey was questioned by the Secret Service after sharing an image on social media that showed seashells arranged to spell out "86 47." Comey later deleted the post after people, including President Trump himself, alleged that it was some sort of call for violence.


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References:

  1. The Guardian: Comey says ‘8647’ post that caused Trump firestorm was totally innocent
  2. NYT: Secret Service Is Asking Comey About a Photo of Seashells Spelling ‘86 47’
  3. Definition: eighty-six
  4. Wikipedia: 86 (term)
  5. Detroit Free Press: What is '8645'? Whitmer's pin an anti-Trump message using restaurant industry slang

Tags: slang , vocabulary , politics

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abrogate

I won't abrogate my duties as a journalist...

I heard the above while listening to the news and had to look up the word abrogate. By context clues, it's obvious that one meaning of this word is to abandon one's responsibilities.

The more common use is in a legal context and here it means to abolish a law.

And there's also a medical use, where it is used in the context of suppressing an immune response (...strategies to abrogate antibody production...).


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References:

  1. Definition: abrogate

Tags: vocabulary , abrogate

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AGI

AGI stands for "Artificial General Intelligence." Unlike AI, AGI is meant to connote a system that exhibits human-like intelligence and is not trained for specific tasks.

Related: ASI (Artificial Super Intelligence), ANI (Artificial Narrow Intelligence), p(doom)


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References:

  1. Wikipedia: Artificial General Intelligence
  2. YouTube: Wozniak: Could a Computer Make a Cup of Coffee? - Steve Wozniak talks pontificates about a computer being smart enough to make a cup of coffee in a random person's home; something that would take a lot of "general" intelligence.

Tags: ai , computer-science

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agnotology

Somewhat recently my brother introduced me to this word. Agnotology is the study of how ignorance is deliberately produced, particularly through the publication of inaccurate or misleading information.

This is precisely the type of word I love learning about. As of October 2025, I’ve been thinking a lot about how social media, news journalism, and even scientific publishing shape what we know -- and what we don’t.

Agnotology was coined in 1992 by Iain Boal at the request of Robert Proctor. Proctor writes about this in the postscript of his Agnotology: A Missing Term to Describe the Cultural Production of Ignorance (and Its Study)[1]:

Some time into this project I learned that there already was a word that has been used to designate the study of ignorance, albeit with a quite different slant from how we shall be using the term. Apart from being obscure and somewhat inharmonious, agnoiology has often been taken to mean "the doctrine of things of which we are necessarily ignorant" in some profound metaphysical sense. My hope for devising a new term was to suggest the opposite, namely, the historicity and artifactuality of non-knowing and the non-known-and the potential fruitfulness of studying such things. In 1992, I posed this challenge to the linguist Iain Boal, and it was he who came up with the term agnotology, in the spring of that year.

Proctor, a Professor of the History of Science at Stanford, is best known for uncovering how the tobacco industry manipulated scientific research to keep the public ignorant of its harms [8] -- a quintessential example of manufactured doubt.

I suspect he intended agnotology to be applied to the scientific realm, but I think it works nicely when thinking about this topic generally. When the Trump administration repeatedly cites false data, that's an agnogenic practice -- the deliberate creation of ignorance.

Similarly alarming, credulously contrarian Bari Weiss (founder of "The Free Press") was recently named CBS News' new editor-in-chief [3], reporting directly to CEO David Ellison (Larry Ellison’s son). Larry, meanwhile, is part of the group overseeing U.S. operations of TikTok [4] -- a platform where an astonishing percentage of young people now get their news. [5] Add to that RFK Jr.'s steady promotion of half-baked "research" [6] to push his agenda, and it feels as though we’re barreling toward a Ray Bradbury–esque dystopia -- one where ignorance isn’t accidental, but curated. (And we didn't even touch the accelerating ease of deepfake generation. [7])

I think that agnotology dovetails with another Lexicon entry: Bespoke Reality. One concept explains how ignorance is manufactured, the other how it becomes personalized. Together they describe the feedback loop of our time -- ignorance produced at scale, then force-fed to everyone in their individual feed.


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References:

  1. Agnotology: A Missing Term to Describe the Cultural Production of Ignorance (and Its Study)
  2. Wikipedia: Agnotology
  3. Independent: John Oliver skewers Paramount for hiring ‘irresponsible’ Bari Weiss to run CBS News
  4. Reuters: Lachlan Murdoch, Michael Dell, Ellison involved in TikTok deal, Trump says
  5. Pew Research Center: TikTok users’ experiences with news on the platform
  6. Scientific American: RFK, Jr., Says Tylenol Use for Circumcision Causes Autism. Here’s Why That Claim Is Flawed
  7. Vox: OpenAI’s Sora 2 is an unholy abomination
  8. Tobacco Control: "Everyone knew but no one had proof": tobacco industry use of medical history expertise in US courts, 1990-2002

Tags: vocabulary , politics , jargon

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alacrity

Alacrity means to respond or act with zeal and promptness.

It comes to English from the Latin alacritās, meaning liveliness or eagerness.

An example:

The team responded to the urgent call with alacrity, eager to prove their capability.

Another example, from a New Republic article from July 2025:

The Democratic Party also needs some of its members and best-known figures to start seeding the earth with the future they envision if they return to power. This begins with paving the way for “CTRL+Z 2028”—a promise to undo the damage done to the civil service with the same alacrity and doggedness with which Trump and his flunky Elon Musk destroyed it.


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References:

  1. Definition: alacrity
  2. New Republic: The Democrats Finally Have a Plan to Attack Trump. Sort of.
  3. Etymology: alacrity

Tags: vocabulary , tipofmytongue

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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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alla turca time

While alla turca generically just means "in the Turkish style," alla turca time (or alaturka saat) specifically refers to the way that time was reckoned in the Ottoman Empire.

In the alla turca time Sun always sets at the 0’th hour and rises at the 12th hour. The hours of the alla turca time have variable length. During winters the length of 1 (alla turca) night hour is longer than the length of 1 (alla turca) day hour. During summers the opposite is true.

-- from alla turca time (blog post)

Clocks around the empire were manually set/reset by the muvakkit, or timekeeper. It's hard to even imagine using this sort of time keeping in our modern era.

I haven't been able to find a whole lot about this online, but I've noted what I have found. My father introduced me to this term; it was something he recalled from his childhood.

Heather Cox Richardson's "Letters from An American" series had a good essay covering the event when US railroads adopted a standard time on 18 November 1883. There are some interesting parallels -- some opponents to the standard time because telling time by the sun was "God's time."


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References:

  1. Reading Clocks, Alla Turca - A review of the book _Reading Clocks, Alla Turca_ by Avner Wishnitzer
  2. alla turca time - Blog post on alla turca time
  3. It's Sirius O'Clock: Astronomical Timekeeping in Ancient Egypt - Dr. Sarah Symons lecture on ancient timekeeping.
  4. Reading Clocks, Alla Turca: Time and Society in the Late Ottoman Empire - Excerpt from the book _Reading Clocks, Alla Turca: Time and Society in the Late Ottoman Empire_ by Avner Wishnitzer.
  5. Letters from an American: November 17, 2024 - Heather's essay about November 18, 1883 when US railroads conformed to a "standard" time.

Tags: time , ottoman , clock

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anathema

An anathema is something or someone that is abhorrent or extremely disliked.

I came across this word while reading an essay, "'Weird' Should Not Be An Insult."

Using “weird” as an insult ought to be anathema to Democrats.

Leading up to the 2024 presidential election, Democrats took to calling Republicans (especially Donald Trump and his VP candidate JD Vance) weird. (And the Republican retort seems to be: "I'm not weird, you are.")

While writing this, it's too early to know whether or not this tact will pay off.

The word anathema has its origins in the Greek word anatithenai, meaning "to dedicate." In the "Old Testament" of "The Bible," the word anathema is sometimes used in this way. Interestingly, the meaning of the word shifted to mean something accursed or repulsive and translated into Hebrew as herem. We see this meaning in the "New Testament" of "The Bible."

The ecclesiastical meaning of the word still exists today (it's the second definition in Merriam-Webster's dictionary). A more prominent use in English, though, is something that is vehemently disliked.


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References:

  1. Definition: anathema
  2. "Weird" Should Not Be An Insult
  3. 'Anathema' has had opposite meanings since its Greek birth

Tags: vocabulary

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"...and she stepped on the ball."

My favorite line in the movie "Trading Places" is a reference to a joke in another movie called "Aunti Mame." In that movie, a rich and condescending woman tells a story about a ping pong game in which she "stepped on the ball."

In "Trading Places," this exchange takes place as Louis Winthorpe III, now disgraced, jobless and homeless, enters his tennis club in in hopes of getting help from his rich friends. As Louis enters the scene, we hear the end of a story being told by one of these friends to the rest of the gang, "...and she stepped on the ball." Louis, of course, discovers that his friends and even his fiancée want nothing to do with him.


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References:

  1. What do Kimmy Schmidt, Trading Places, & Auntie Mame have in common - Reel Memorable blog entry
  2. IMDB: Trading Places

Tags: quote , movie , inside joke

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"...an effective plot must be 'unexpected but inevitable'..."

I came across this quote in the television series Mythic Quest. In that show, it was attributed to Aristotle, but I haven't been able to confirm this.


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References:

  1. IMDB: Mythic Quest

Tags: television , writing , plot , quotes , story

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