Vocabulary - four words - trenchant, revenant, flacon, apotropaic
trenchant
(adjective) Vigorous or incisive in expression or style.
(adjective) Vigorous or incisive in expression or style.
Synonyms: sharp - keen - incisive - cutting - poignant - biting
Example:
Example:
"Perhaps the most practically trenchant and applicable analysis offered among those found on literally every page in the book is the brief treatment of “the pornography of compassion.” The insight offered here, if applied to one’s use of the media of communication, could alone provide the lion’s share of the moral ascesis needed for persevering in the good nowadays, dealing as it does with what is most peculiar to precisely contemporary moral dilemmas."
(noun) One who returns; especially, one who returns after a long period of absence or after death; a ghost; a specter; specifically, in mod. spiritualism, an apparition; a materialization.
(noun) A supernatural being that returns from the dead; a zombie or ghost.
'Revenant' comes from the French 'revenir,' to return, and is related to 'revenue.'
Example:
"But in 'Exit Ghost,' Zuckerman feels like a 'revenant' while walking the streets of present-day Manhattan, and he's not the only shade around."
--The Rake’s Progress Giving Up The Ghost by David Gates
flacon
(noun) An old form of bottle having a screw-top: as, a flacon of perfume, or of salts.
'Flacon' comes from the Latin 'flasconem,' bottle, and is related to 'flask.'
Example:
"He may have picked up the ball, but Chanel ran with it: In 1921, she came out with Chanel No. 5, which is still considered the most successful fragrance of all time and is sold to this day in an unadorned square flacon."
--The King Is Dead, The Atlantic, by Lynn Yaeger
apotropaic
'Revenant' comes from the French 'revenir,' to return, and is related to 'revenue.'
Example:
"But in 'Exit Ghost,' Zuckerman feels like a 'revenant' while walking the streets of present-day Manhattan, and he's not the only shade around."
--The Rake’s Progress Giving Up The Ghost by David Gates
flacon
(noun) An old form of bottle having a screw-top: as, a flacon of perfume, or of salts.
'Flacon' comes from the Latin 'flasconem,' bottle, and is related to 'flask.'
Example:
"He may have picked up the ball, but Chanel ran with it: In 1921, she came out with Chanel No. 5, which is still considered the most successful fragrance of all time and is sold to this day in an unadorned square flacon."
--The King Is Dead, The Atlantic, by Lynn Yaeger
apotropaic
(adjective) Possessing the property of an apotropaion; having the reputed power of averting evil influences.
'Apotropaic' comes from the Greek 'apotrepein,' to ward off.
Example:
"The Greek citizen was surrounded by a host of the eminent dead who kept him in touch with the past and offered him ideals of life. Another attitude toward the dead is indicated by the great apotropaic spring festival, the Anthesteria of Athens, the object of which was to rid the city of the ghosts that then wandered about."
--Introduction to the History of Religions Handbooks on the History of Religions, Volume IV, by Crawford Howell Toy, Late professor in Harvard University
'Apotropaic' comes from the Greek 'apotrepein,' to ward off.
Example:
"The Greek citizen was surrounded by a host of the eminent dead who kept him in touch with the past and offered him ideals of life. Another attitude toward the dead is indicated by the great apotropaic spring festival, the Anthesteria of Athens, the object of which was to rid the city of the ghosts that then wandered about."
--Introduction to the History of Religions Handbooks on the History of Religions, Volume IV, by Crawford Howell Toy, Late professor in Harvard University