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

"Now I am become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds"

An English translation of a line from The Bhagavad Gita, written in Sanskrit. A more accurate translation is "Time I am, destroyer of the worlds..."

I first encountered this expression in the late 90s on the CAKE BBS. It appears many times in popular culture:

  • Oppenheimer in Oppenheimer
  • Bolivar in s01e07 of Xmen '97
  • Captain Ramius' diary in Hunt for Red October
  • Caleb Smith in Ex Machina

And probably many more.


(link to this entry)

References:

  1. IMDB: Ex Machina
  2. Bhagavad Gita
  3. IMDB: Oppenheimer
  4. IMDB: X-Men '97
  5. IMDB: The Hunt for Red October

Tags: hindu , shiva , krishna

Date Added: Unknown

orthosomnia

Orthosomnia is an obsession with getting "perfect" sleep. The word was coined in a 2017 article in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine titled Orthosomnia: Are Some Patients Taking the Quantified Self Too Far?

We termed this condition “orthosomnia,” with “ortho” meaning straight or correct, and “somnia” meaning sleep, because patients are preoccupied or concerned with improving or perfecting their wearable sleep data. We chose this term because the perfectionist quest to achieve perfect sleep is similar to the unhealthy preoccupation with healthy eating, termed orthorexia.

I first encountered this term while listening to an episode of The Guardian's Science Weekly podcast called Is sleep perfectionism making us more exhausted?


(link to this entry)

References:

  1. Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine; Volume 13, Issue 02
  2. Science Weekly: Is sleep perfectionism making us more exhausted?
  3. Wikipedia: Orthosomnia

Tags: vocabulary , podcast

Date Added:
Date Modified:

Overton window

The Overton window is the range of topics that are considered acceptable or "mainstream" at a point in time. The term is used in political discourse and it implies that politicians can only advocate for policies within this window without risking their careers.

The window can shift: ideas that were once fringe (i.e. like women’s suffrage) can move into the window as social norms evolve. Conversely, ideas that were once mainstream can fall out of favor and become politically toxic.

The term is named after Joseph Overton, a vice president of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy (1992-2003). To help with his fund-raising duties he designed a brochure describing what eventually became known as the Overton window. His view was that think tanks should be pushing policies that fall outside the window and help to shift the window.

When listening to policy wonks debate politics, this term seems to come up quite a bit.


(link to this entry)

References:

  1. Wikipedia: Overton window
  2. Wikipedia: Joseph Overton
  3. Mackinac Center Blog: What is the Overton Window?
  4. Tweet: @elonmusk 20 Mar 2025 - That fresh breeze you feel is the wide open Overton Window

Tags: vocabulary , politics , podcast , eponymous

Date Added:
Date Modified:

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).


(link to this entry)

References:

  1. Wikipedia: Pale Blue Dot

Tags: space , carl_sagan , earth

Date Added:

p(doom)

p(doom) stands for "probability of doom" and is a term used when talking about AGI.


(link to this entry)

References:

  1. Wikipedia: p(doom)
  2. NYT: Silicon Valley Confronts a Grim New A.I. Metric
  3. Fast Company: P(doom) is AI’s latest apocalypse metric. Here’s how to calculate your score

Tags: ai , computer-science

Date Added:

phononics

Phononics is the study of the behavior and control of mechanical vibrations and acoustic waves in materials.

The word is derived from phonon (a quantum of vibrational energy in a crystal lattice, analogous to a photon in light). It seems to be a relatively new neologism, as it doesn't have an entry in conventional dictionaries.

I first came upon this word in a Science magazine article titled Does the mantis shrimp pack a phononic shield?. The study provides experimental proof that the mantis shrimp’s club acts like a biological shock absorber, using phononic filtering to prevent damage.


(link to this entry)

References:

  1. Does the mantis shrimp pack a phononic shield? - Science, 387, 659–666, 2025.

Tags: science , vocabulary

Date Added:

pogrom

A pogrom is an organized (i.e. mob) attack of a particular ethnic group. Historically the word has been used to describe ethnic cleansing of Jews, but it can apply to any instance of violent, organized persecution against a specific group.

The word originates from the Russian word "погром," which means "to wreak havoc." It was first used in reference to the violent attacks on Jewish communities in the Russian Empire.

In 2024, as the Israel–Hamas war wages on, the word appeared in the news when on Sunday, 23 June, a protest turned violent in Los Angeles.

Demonstrators were protesting a real estate fair at a synagogue. The Pro-Palestinian protesters have been criticized as antisemitic as violence broke out and CNN's Van Jones called it a pogrom. And this rhetoric seems to be spreading.

The reason for the protest appears to be because the real estate event was promoting the sale of land located in the illegally-occupied Palestinian territories and restricting those sales to Jews. It's unfortunate that this hasn't been the headline in the news. How is this type of event even be allowed to happen??


(link to this entry)

References:

  1. LA Times: Protest violence outside L.A. synagogue spurs widespread condemnation. Bass vows quick action
  2. NYT: Biden and Democratic Leaders Condemn Protest Outside L.A. Synagogue as Antisemitic
  3. Wikipedia: Pogrom
  4. Definition: pogrom
  5. CAIR: CAIR-LA Condemns Events Promoting Real Estate Sale of Occupied Palestinian Land
  6. Van Jones - homepage
  7. Mediaite: CNN’s Van Jones Calls Protest Outside Synagogue That Turned Violent a ‘Pogrom’ - including clip

Tags: war , israel-hamas war

Date Added:

pulses

The dried seeds of legumes (beans, peas, chickpeas, lentils, etc). This seems to be a word that is commonly used in the UK. In the US, I don't think I've ever heard it.

I looked this up after watching a YouTube show: Food Tours: Finding the Best Cheeseburger in Los Angeles. The two hosts (popularized on Food Wars) are from the US and UK. In the US, if I were eating chickpeas and lentils I'd say that I was eating "chickpeas and lentils," while in the UK it seems like it might be common to say that one is "eating pulses."


(link to this entry)

References:

  1. YouTube: Food Tours: Finding the Best Cheeseburger in Los Angeles
  2. Definition: pulses - (third definition)

Tags: television , pulses , chickpeas , food

Date Added:
Date Modified:

quishing

Quishing is a portmanteau of QR and phishing. It is a form of phishing that uses QR codes to trick victims into visiting malicious websites.


(link to this entry)

References:

  1. Cloudflare: What is quishing?
  2. USPIS: Quishing

Tags: software , computer , technology , portmanteau , security

Date Added:

rhodopsin

I learned, from sort of an unlikely source -- the National Park Service, the reason why "night vision" is reset after exposure to light.  That our pupils dilate  is probably obvious, but what I didn't know was that the body produces a protein called rhodopsin which, through a series of chemical reactions, gives our rods the ability to "see" in dim light.  The protein decays in bright light (though much slower in longer wavelengths, i.e. red light).  When depleted, it takes ~30m to regenerate.


(link to this entry)

References:

  1. Dark Adaptation of the Human Eye and the Value of Red Flashlights - National Park Service blog article
  2. Wikipedia: Rhodopsin

Tags: science , vision , vocabulary , eye , biology

Date Added: Unknown
Date Modified: