Word of the Week 5/27/18: Skint

From Wiktionary:

"(Brit, slang) without money. Variant of skinned, past participle of skin (v.) 

From Cambridge Dictionary: 

"not having any money, especially temporarily"

From Collins Dictionary:

Word of the Week 5/20/18: Aether

From Wikipedia: 

"According to ancient and medieval science, aether, also spelled ether and also called quintessence, is the material that fills the region of the universe above the terrestrial sphere. The concept of aether was used in several theories to explain several natural phenomena, such as the traveling of light and gravity. In the late 19th century, physicists postulated that aether permeated all throughout space, providing a medium through which light could travel in a vacuum.

" The word αἰθήρ (aithēr) in Homeric Greek means 'pure, fresh air' or 'clear sky'. In Greek mythology, it was thought to be the pure essence that the gods breathed, filling the space where they lived, analogous to the air breathed by mortals. It is also personified as a deity, Aether, the son of Erebus and Nyx in traditional Greek mythology. Aether is related to αἴθω 'to incinerate', and intransitive 'to burn, to shine' (related is the name Aithiopes (Ethiopians; see Aethiopia), meaning 'people with a burnt (black) visage').

"The use of quintessence became popular within medieval alchemy. Quintessence stemmed from the medieval elemental system, which consisted of the four classical elements, and aether, or quintessence, in addition to two chemical elements representing metals: sulphur, "the stone which burns", which characterized the principle of combustibility, and mercury, which contained the idealized principle of metallic properties.

"This elemental system spread rapidly throughout all of Europe and became popular with alchemists, especially in medicinal alchemy. Medicinal alchemy then sought to isolate quintessence and incorporate it within medicine and elixirs. Due to quintessence's pure and heavenly quality, it was thought that through consumption one may rid oneself of any impurities or illnesses. In The book of Quintessence, a 15th-century English translation of a continental text, quintessence was used as a medicine for many of man's illnesses. A process given for the creation of quintessence is distillation of alcohol seven times. Over the years, the term quintessence has become synonymous with elixirs, medicinal alchemy, and the philosopher's stone itself."

Word of the Week 5/13/18: Koan

From Wiktionary: 

"A story about a Zen master and his student, sometimes like a riddle, other times like a fable, which has become an object of Zen study, and which, when meditated upon, may unlock mechanisms in the Zen student’s mind leading to satori*."

 *A sudden inexpressible feeling of inner understanding or enlightenment.

From Wikipedia:

"A story, dialogue, question, or statement, which is used in Zen practice to provoke the 'great doubt' and test a student's progress in Zen practice.

The popular western understanding sees kōan as referring to an unanswerable question or a meaningless statement. However, in Zen practice, a kōan is not meaningless, and not a riddle or a puzzle. Teachers do expect students to present an appropriate response when asked about a kōan."

 From Encyclopedia Britannica:

"Koan, Japanese Kōan, in Zen Buddhism of Japan, a succinct paradoxical statement or question used as a meditation discipline for novices, particularly in the Rinzai sect. The effort to 'solve' a koan is intended to exhaust the analytic intellect and the egoistic will, readying the mind to entertain an appropriate response on the intuitive level. Each such exercise constitutes both a communication of some aspect of Zen experience and a test of the novice’s competence."

A few well-known koans:

"Two hands clap and there is a sound, what is the sound of one hand?"

"Without thinking of good or evil, show me your original face before your mother and father were born."

"If you meet the Buddha, kill him."

Word of the Week 5/6/18: Cruentation

From Wikipedia: 

"Cruentation was one of the medieval methods of finding proof against a suspected murderer. The common belief was that the body of the victim would spontaneously bleed in the presence of the murderer.

Cruentation was part of the Germanic Laws, and it was used in Germany, Poland, Bohemia, Scotland, and in European colonies in North America. In Germany it was used as a method to find proof of guilt until the middle of the 18th century. Cruentation was mentioned in the Malleus Maleficarum. 

In cases where it was difficult for the jurors to determine whether someone accused of murder was guilty or innocent, the case could be solved by means of a trial by ordeal. The accused was brought before the corpse of the murder victim and was made to put his or her hands on it. If the wounds of the corpse then began to bleed, or if other unusual visual signs appeared, that was regarded as God's verdict (judicium Dei) announcing that the accused was guilty."