Actual Freedom – Definitions

Definitions

Salvation/Salvational; Scare-Quotes; Schismatic; Scientism; Scientolism

Scrivener; Sempervirent; Sempiternal; Senectitude; Sequitur

Shakedown; Shame; Sicko/ Asshole/ Prick

Simulacre/ Simulacrum; Single-handed(ly); Situate


Salvation; Salvational:

salvation (n.): 1. in religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism, deliverance from the cycle of rebirth and suffering; 2. the agent or means which brings about such deliverance; (adj.):*salvational*. [Middle English savacioun, from Old French sauvacion, from Late Latin salvātiō, salvātiōn-, from salvātus, past participle of salvāre, ‘to save’, from Latin salvus, ‘safe’]. [emphasis added]. ~ (American Heritage Dictionary).


Scare-Quotes:

• ‘scare-quotes: quotation marks placed round a word or phrase to draw attention to an unusual or arguably inaccurate use’. ~ (Oxford Dictionary).

• scare quotes (shudder quotes, or sneer quotes) are quotation marks placed around a word or phrase to signal that a term is being used in a non-standard, ironic, or otherwise special sense; scare quotes may express that the author is using someone else’s term, similar to preceding a phrase with the expression “so-called”; they may imply scepticism or disagreement, belief that the words are misused, or that the writer intends a meaning opposite to the words enclosed in quotes; (...); beginning in the 1990s, the use of scare quotes suddenly became very widespread; postmodernist authors in particular have theorised about bracketing punctuation, including scare quotes, and have found reasons for their frequent use in their writings; writers use scare quotes for a variety of reasons; they can imply doubt or ambiguity in words or ideas within the marks, or even outright contempt. They can indicate that a writer is purposely misusing a word or phrase or that the writer is unpersuaded by the text in quotes, and they can help the writer deny responsibility for the quote; in general, they express distance between writer and quote (...); the term scare quotes may be confusing because of the word scare; an author may use scare quotes not to convey alarm, but to signal a semantic quibble; scare quotes may suggest or create a problematisation⁽*⁾ with the words set in quotes; some experts encourage writers to avoid scare quotes because they can distance the writer and confuse the reader (...); political commentator Jonathan Chait wrote in The New Republic that, “The scare quote is the perfect device for making an insinuation without proving it, or even necessarily making clear what you’re insinuating”.
~ [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diple_(textual_symbol)].

⁽*⁾problematisation (n.): making into or regarding as a problem requiring a solution; [e.g.]: “Personally, I would have preferred to wrap ‘protect’ and ‘confidence’ in the punctuation of problematisation”. ~ (Oxford English Dictionary).


Schismatic:

• schismatic (adj.): of, relating to, or engaging in schism⁽*⁾ (viz.: 1. an interruption in friendly relations; 2. a state of disagreement and disharmony; 3. the condition of being divided, as in opinion, course of action, sphere of activity, planning, preparation, provision, practice, etc.); (n.): one who promotes or engages in schism; a schismatic; (viz.: 1. a person who causes schism or belongs to a schismatic faction; 2. a person who promotes or embraces schism); (adv.): schismatically (viz.: dissidently, dissentingly, dissentiently, dissonantly; fissiparously, discordantly). ~ (American Heritage Dictionary).

⁽*⁾schism (n.): 1. an interruption in friendly relations; (synonyms): rift, disaffection, estrangement, alienation, breach, break, fissure, rent, rupture, split; 2. a state of disagreement and disharmony; (synonyms): clash, conflict, confrontation, contention, difference, difficulty, disaccord, discord, discordance, dissension, dissent, dissentience, dissidence, dissonance, faction, friction, inharmony, strife, variance, war, warfare; 3. the condition of being divided, as in opinion; (synonyms): disunion, disunity, divergence, divergency, division. ~ (The American Heritage Roget’s Thesaurus).


Scientism:

• scientism: excessive belief in the power of scientific knowledge and techniques, or in the applicability of the methods of physical science to other fields, esp. human behaviour and the social sciences; freq. depreciative. (Oxford Dictionary).

• scientism (n.): 1. the collection of attitudes and practices considered typical of scientists; 2. the belief that the investigative methods of the physical sciences are applicable or justifiable in all fields of inquiry; (adj.): scientistic. ~ (American Heritage Dictionary).


Scientolism:

• ‘scientolism (n.): false science; superficial or inaccurate knowledge. (Rev. Samuel Fallows, Bp). [from scient + diminutive -ol + -ism; after sciolism].’ ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia).

• scientolism (n.): excessive or immoderate regard for superficial or false science; [e.g.]: “They overlook the constant facts of our poultry-yards, our orchards, and our stables, and shut themselves up in the narrow confines of a withering scientolism”. (page 222, “The Catholic World”; Vol. 31, May, 1880). [formed after the type of sciolism]. ~ (page 413, Progressive Supplemental English Dictionary, 1886, Bishop Samuel Fallows).


Scrivener:

• scrivener (n.): someone employed to make written copies of documents and manuscripts; copyist, scribe. ~ (Princeton’s WordNet 3.0).

• scrivener (n.): a professional copyist; a scribe. [Middle English scriveiner, from scrivein, from Old French escrivein, from Vulgar Latin *scrība, scrībān-, from Latin scrība, ‘scribe’, from Latin, ‘keeper of accounts’, ‘secretary’, from scrībere, ‘to write’]. ~ (American Heritage Dictionary).

• scrivener (n.): a person who writes out deeds, letters, etc; copyist; a notary. [C14: from scrivein, ‘clerk’, from Old French escrivain, ultimately from Latin scrība, ‘scribe’]. ~ (Collins EnglishDiction ary).

• a scrivener (or scribe) was a person who could read and write or who wrote letters to court and legal documents. Scriveners were people who made their living by writing or copying written material. This usually indicated secretarial and administrative duties such as dictation and keeping business, judicial, and historical records for kings, nobles, temples, and cities. Scriveners later developed into public servants, accountants, lawyers and petition writers, and in England and Wales, scrivener notaries. (...).

Scrivener’s Error

The doctrine of a “scrivener’s error” is the legal principle that a map-drafting or typographical error in a written contract may be corrected by oral evidence if the evidence is clear, convincing, and precise. If such correction (called scrivener’s amendment) affects property rights then it must be approved by those affected by it. It is a mistake made while copying or transmitting legal documents, as distinguished from a judgment error, which is an error made in the exercise of judgment or discretion, or a technical error, which is an error in interpreting a law, regulation, or principle. There is a considerable body of case law concerning the proper treatment of a scrivener’s error. For example, where the parties to a contract make an oral agreement that, when reduced to a writing, is mistranscribed, the aggrieved party is entitled to reformation so that the writing corresponds to the oral agreement. [the word comes from Middle English scriveiner, an alteration of obsolete scrivein, from Anglo-French escrivein, ultimately from Vulgar Latin *scriban-, scriba, itself an alteration of Latin scriba, ‘scribe’]. ~ (2023 Wikipedia Encyclopaedia).


Sempervirent:

[Dictionary Definitions]:

• sempervirent (adj.): always fresh; evergreen. ~ (Webster’s 1913 Dictionary).

• sempervirent (adj.): always green or fresh; evergreen. [Latinsemper, ‘always’ +viren(t-)s,ppr. of virere, ‘be green or verdant’: seevirid]. ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia).

• sempervirid (adj.): same as sempervirent. ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia).

• virid (adj.;rare): green; verdant. (Edward Fairfax, 1580-1635, translator of Torquato Tasso’s “Jerusalem Delivered”, xii. 94.; Nares). [from Latin viridis,‘green’, from virere, ‘be green’; cf. verd, vert, verdant, etc., from the same source]. ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia).

• viridescent (adj.): slightly green; greenish. [from Late Latin viridescen(t-)s, ppr. of viridescere, ‘be green’, Latin viridis, ‘green’: see virid; cf. virescent]. ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia).

• viridescence (n.): the state or property of being viridescent or greenish. [from viridescen(t) + -ce]. ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia).

• viridian (n.): same as Veronese Green (which see, under green¹; viz.: a pigment consisting of hydrated chromium sesquioxid; it is a clear bluish-green of great permanancy; also called viridian). [from Latin viridis, ‘green’ + -an]. ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia).

• viridness (n.): greenness; viridity. ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia).

• viridity (n.): 1. greenness; verdure; the state of having the colour of fresh vegetation; [e.g.]: “This deification of their trees amongst other things, besides their age and perennialviridity, says Diodorus, might spring from the manifold use which they afforded, and which haply had been taught them by the gods”. (John Evelyn, “Sylva, or A Discourse of Forest-Trees”, 1662, iv. § 13. 2); in zoolology, specifically, the greenness acquired by certain mollusks after feeding on viridigenous organisms; greening, as of the oyster. [from Latin viridita(t-)s, ‘greenness’, ‘verdure’, ‘viridis’, ‘green’; see virid, verd⁽*⁾]. ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia).

⁽*⁾verd† (n.): 1. green; green colour; greenness; [e.g.]: “Then is there an old kinde of Rithme called Vish layes, deriued (as I haue redde) of this wordeVerdwhiche betokeneth Greene, and Laye which betokeneth a Song, as if you would say greene Songes”. (George Gascoigne, died 1577, “Certayne Notes of Instruction in English Verse”, 1575, § 14); 2. the green trees and underwood of a forest: same as vert. [also, in definition two, vert; from Old French verd, vert, French vert = Spanish, Portuguese, Italian verde, ‘green’, ‘greenness’, ‘verdure’, from Latin viride, ‘green’, ‘greenness’, ‘verdure’, plural viridia, ‘green plants, herbs, or trees’, neuter of viridis (hence Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, verde = Old French verd, vert), ‘green’, from virere, ‘be green’, ‘be fresh or vigorous’, ‘bloom’; derived from the Latin viridis are also ultimately Englishvert¹ (in part identical with verd), verdant, verderer, verdure, verdugo, virid, farthingale (earlier verdynggale, from Middle French verdugale, alteration of Old Spanish verdugado, derivative of verdugo, ‘tree shoot’, ‘rod’, derivative of verde, ‘green’, from Latin viridis), etc., and the first element of verdigris, verditer, verjuice,etc.]. ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia).


Senectitude:

• senectitude (n.): old age; elderliness. [Medieval Latin senectitūdō, from Latin senectūs, from senex, ‘old’, ‘an elder’]. ~ (American Heritage Dictionary).

• senectitude (n.; literary): old age. ~ (Collins English Dictionary).

• senectitude (n.): the last stage of life; old age. [1790-1800; from Latin senect(ūs), ‘old age’ (senec-, extracted as singular from senex; genitive senis), ‘old man’ + -tūs, abstract nounal suffix]. ~ (Webster’s College Dictionary).

• senectitude (n.): old age; (synonyms): age, agedness, elderliness, senescence, year (used in plural). ~ (American Heritage Roget’s Thesaurus).

• senectitude (n.; rare): old age; [e.g.]: “Of senectitude, weary of its toils”. (Hugh Miller, “The Cruise of the Betsey”, 1862, chap x., p. 185). [from Medieval Latin senectitudo, for Latin senectus (senectut-), ‘old age’, from senex (sen-), ‘old’, ‘an old man’; compar senior, older; from senium, ‘old age’) = Sanskrit sana = Greek ἕνος, ‘old’; from the same Latin adjective are ultimately English senile, senior, signor, seignior, etc., sir, sire, sirrah, etc., and the same element exists in seneschal]. ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia).

• senectitude (n.): old age. ~ (Webster’s 1913 Dictionary).

• senectitude (n.): the final stage of the normal life span. [etymology: borrowed from Medieval Latin senectitūdin-, senectitūdō, re-formation, with Latin -tūdin-, -tūdō, ‘-tude’, of Latin senectūt-, senectūs, ‘old age’, from senec-, variant stem of sen-, senex, ‘old’, ‘aged’ + -tūt-, ‘-tūs’, suffix of abstract nouns—more at senior²; first known use: 1796, in the meaning defined above]. ~ (Merriam-Webster Dictionary).

• senectitude (n.): old age; (synonyms): elderliness, oldness; agedness, senescence; oldhood; vetustity (rare); ancientness; hoariness; eld; (idiomatic): twilight years, sunset years; golden years; (US, slang): geezerdom; codgerhood; fogeydom. [etymology: from Latin senectus, ‘aged’, ‘old age’, from senex, ‘old’; cf. senescent; viz.: from Latin senescens, present participle of senescere, ‘to grow old’, from senere, ‘to be old’, from senex, ‘old’]. ~ (Wiktionary English Dictionary).

• senectitudinous (adj.): characterised by senectitude or eld (i.e., old age; olden times; antiquity); [e.g.]: “Read if you’re feeling introspective, nostalgic for your youth, or gently decaying and wanting someone similarly senectitudinous (albeit fictional) to relate to”. (Book review of “The Sense Of An Ending”, Julian Barnes, 2011, by Joseph Venable); “Right now I feel positively senectitudinous; I feel like I have put on about ten years in the last twenty-three months”. (HonketyHank; Feb-19-2022). [from senectitude, ‘eld’, ‘antiquity’ + -inous, probably via multitudinous, plenitudinous]. ~ (Online Neoteric Dictionary).

__________

Random Literary Samples.

• “The play opens as Lear, the King of Britain, now aged and willing to enjoy a nice and peaceful *senectitude,* decides to step down and share his kingdom evenly among his three daughters depending on the love they profess for him. The two elder daughters manage to make up beautiful hypocritical speeches (...). In her turn, Cordelia does not accept to parade her pure feelings of affection for her dear father (...) the king hastily decides to divide his entire kingdom to his two elder daughters, while Cordelia, hitherto the King’s favourite daughter, is disinherited and banished from the royal mansion”. [emphasis added]. ~ (from “Loss of Identity in King Lear and the Theatre of The Absurd”, by Sara Moldoveanu; July 1, 2014, Journal of Research in Gender Studies).

• “Three-and-twenty years form a large portion of the short life of man—one-third, as nearly as can be expressed in unbroken numbers, of the entire term fixed by the psalmist, and full one-half, if we strike off the twilight periods of childhood and immature youth, and of *senectitude* weary of its toils”. [emphasis added]. ~ (page 185, Chapter Ten, “The Cruise of the Betsey”, by Hugh Miller, LL.D; 1862, Gould and Lincoln, Boston).

• “For his part, George Lyttleton (a retired Eton master of seventy-two years) assumes the role of rusticated codger, full of Victorian prejudice. ‘In ten years’ time’, he predicts, ‘I shall be left high and dry by modern literature, and in writing to me you will feel you have joined the spiritualists and are communicating with a ghost’. Counters Rupert Hart-Davis (his former student, a distinguished man of letters): ‘Your fear of *senectitude* and hardening of the literary arteries seems to me morbid’”. [emphasis added]. ~ (from “The Lyttleton Hart-Davis Letters”, ed. Roger Hudson; 2001, The Akadine Press).

• “The jejune fail to appreciate how *senectitude* does not necessarily mean decrepitude”. [emphasis added]. ~ (from an anonymous internet comments section; 2006).


Sempiternal:

• sempiternal (adj.): enduring forever; eternal; (n.): sempiternity. [Middle English, from Old French sempiternel, from Late Latin sempiternālis, from Latin sempiternus, from semper, ‘always’ + aeternus, ‘eternal’]. ~ (American Heritage Dictionary).

• sempiternal (adj.; literary): everlasting; eternal; (adv.): sempiternally; (n.): sempiternity. [C15: from Old French sempiternel, from Late Latin sempiternālis, from Latin sempiternus, from semper, ‘always’ + aeternus, ‘eternal’]. ~ (Collins English Dictionary).

• sempiternal (adj.): everlasting; eternal. [1400-50; from Late Latin sempiternālis, from Latin sempitern(us), ‘everlasting’, from semp(er), ‘always’]. ~ (Webster’s College Dictionary).

• sempiternal (adj.): having no known beginning and presumably no end; [e.g.]: “the sempiternal truth”; (synonyms): dateless, endless; [e.g.]: “the dateless rise and fall of the tides”; “the endless nature of time”; infinite (having no limits or boundaries in time or space or extent or magnitude); [e.g.]: “the infinite ingenuity of humankind”; “a matter of infinite wealth”. ~ (Princeton’s WordNet 3.0).

• sempiternal (adj.): without beginning or end; (synonyms): eternal, infinite. ~ (The American Heritage Roget’s Thesaurus).

• sempiternal (adj.): eternal; everlasting; endless; having no end; [e.g.]: “As thou art cyte of God, & sempiternal throne, | Here now, blessyd lady, my wofulle mone”. (Political Poems, etc.; ed. Furnivall, p. 82); “The Sempiternall, Immortall, Omnipotent, Inuisible, and the most consummate and absolute Deitie”. (Thomas Heywood, “Hierarchie of the Blessed Angels”, p. 90); “All truth is from the sempiternal source | Of light divine”. (William Cowper, 1731-1800, “The Task”, 1785, ii. 499). [from Middle English sempiternal, Old French (and French) sempiternel, Medieval Latin sempiternalis (in adverb sempiternaliter); as sempitern + -al]. ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia).

• sempitern† (adj.): everlasting; [e.g.]: “To fle fro synne and derk fire sempiterne”. (Rutilius Taurus Aemilianus Palladius, “Palladius on Husbondrie”, 1420; E. E. T. S., p. 186); “That is the god whose mageste Alle othre thinges schal governe, | And his beinge is sempiterne”. (John Gower, 1330-1408, “Confessio Amantis” (The Lover’s Confession), vii). [from Middle English sempiternal, from Old French sempiterne = Spanish, Portuguese, Italian sempiterno, from Latin sempiternus, ‘everlasting’, from sempi-, for semper, ‘always’ + -ternus, as in æviternus, æternus, ‘etern’, ‘eternal’]. ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia).

• sempiternous† (adj.): sempiternal; [e.g.]: “A sempiternous crone and old hag was picking up and gathering some sticks in the said forest”. (Sir Thomas Urquhart, tr. of Francois Rabelais, “Gargantua and Pantagruel”, book ii. 15). [from Latin sempiternus, ‘everlasting’; see sempitern]. ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia).

• sempiternity (n.): duration without end; endless duration; perpetuity; [e.g.]: “The future eternity or sempiternity of the world”. (Sir Matthew Hale, 1609-1676, “The Primitive Origination of Mankind”, p. 94). [from Late Latin sempiternita(t-)s, Latin sempiternus, ‘everlasting’: see sempitern]. ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia).

• sempiternise† (tr.v.): to perpetuate; [e.g.]: “Nature, nevertheless, did not after that manner provide for the sempiternising of the human race, but, on the contrary, created man naked, tender, and frail”. (Sir Thomas Urquhart, tr. of Francois Rabelais, “Gargantua and Pantagruel”, book iii. 8). [from sempitern + -ise]. ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia).


Sequitur:

‘sequitur: an inference or conclusion which follows logically from the premises (cf. non sequitur). (Oxford Dictionary).


Shakedown:

shakedown (n.): the act of taking something (such as money) from someone by using threats or deception; [e.g.]: "He was the victim of a shakedown by a street gang". ~ (The Britannica Dictionary).


Shame:

shame: the feeling of humiliation or distress arising from the consciousness of something dishonourable or ridiculous in one’s own or another’s behaviour or circumstances, or from a situation offensive to one’s own or another’s sense of propriety or decency. ~ (Oxford Dictionary).


Sicko:

sicko [= sickie]: N. Amer. slang a mentally ill or perverted person. (Oxford Dictionary).

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Asshole:

• ‘asshole: a person you do not like; an unpleasant or stupid person’. ~ (Cambridge Dictionary).

• ‘asshole (usually vulgar): a stupid, incompetent, or detestable person’. ~ (Merriam-Webster Dictionary).

• ‘asshole: a thoroughly contemptible, detestable person’. ~ (American Heritage® Dictionary).

• ‘asshole: insulting term of address for people who are stupid or irritating or ridiculous’. ~ (WordNet 2.1).

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Prick:

• ‘prick: an unpleasant or despicable person’. ~ (Macquarie Dictionary).

• ‘prick (vulgar slang): a man regarded as stupid, unpleasant, or contemptible’. ~ (Oxford Dictionary).

• ‘prick (insulting term of address for people who are stupid or irritating or ridiculous): unpleasant person, disagreeable person (a person who is not pleasant or agreeable)’. ~ (WordNet 2.1).

• ‘prick (vulgar slang): a person regarded as highly unpleasant, especially a male’. (~ American Heritage® Dictionary).

• ‘prick (vulgar slang): a man considered to be contemptible or mean’. ~ (Wordsmyth Dictionary).

• ‘prick: a highly offensive term for a man regarded as inadequate or unpleasant’. ~ (Encarta Dictionary).

• ‘prick: a spiteful or contemptible man often having some authority’. ~ (Merriam-Webster Dictionary).


Simulacre/ Simulacrum:

• simulacre (n.): anything (figure, image) made in likeness of some other thing; [e.g.]: “Betwene Symulacres and Ydoles is a gret difference. For Symulacres ben Ymages made aftre lyknesse of Men or of Women, or of the Sonne or of the Mone, or of ony Best, or of ony kyndely thing”. (Sir John Mandeville, “Mandeville’s Travels”, 1357-1371, p. 164); “Phidias the Atheniense, whom all wryters do commende, made of yuory the simulachre or image of Jupiter, honoured by the gentiles, on the hyghe hills of Olympus”. (Sir Thomas Elyot, “The Governour”, 1531, Book I, Chapter 8, page 29). [also simulachre; from Middle English symulacre, symylacre, from Old French simulaere, also simulaire, French simulacre = Provinçal simulacra = Spanish, Portuguese, Italian simulacro, from Latin simulacrum, ‘a likeness’, ‘image’, ‘form’, ‘appearance’, ‘phantom’; see simulacrum]. ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia).

• simulacrum (n.): something closely resembling another; (synonyms): carbon copy, copy, duplicate, facsimile, image, likeness, reduplication, replica, replication, reproduction; (archaic): simulacre (law): counterpart. ~ (American Heritage Roget’s Thesaurus).


Single-handed(ly):

• ‘single-handedly: in a single-handed manner.

• ‘single-handed: (used or done) with one hand only. ~ (Oxford Dictionary).


Situate

situate (v.; situated, situating; adj.; tr.v.): 1. to put in or on a particular site or place; locate; establish; (adj.): 2. (archaic; used esp. in legal contexts): located; placed; situated. [1515-25; from Late Latin situātus, ‘situated’, from Latin situ-, singular of situs, ‘site’ + -ātus ‘-ate¹’]. ~ (Webster’s College Dictionary).


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Here is an actual freedom from the Human Condition, surpassing Spiritual Enlightenment and any other Altered State Of Consciousness, and challenging all philosophy, psychiatry, metaphysics (including quantum physics with its mystic cosmogony), anthropology, sociology ... and any religion along with its paranormal theology. Discarding all of the beliefs that have held humankind in thralldom for aeons, the way has now been discovered that cuts through the ‘Tried and True’ and enables anyone to be, for the first time, a fully free and autonomous individual living in utter peace and tranquillity, beholden to no-one.

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