|
|
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 1
stranger
|
OP
stranger
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 1 |
I encountered the word kalopsia (the state in which things appear more beautiful than they really are) on a website of arcane words (http://www.islandnet.com/~egbird/dict/dict.htm). I have looked for it in other dictionaries, but can't find it. Does anyone have any idea what a contextual usage of this word would be? Adjective or adverb forms? does one suffer from kalopsia, falls into kalopsia, or feels kalopsia. can one be kaloptic?
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 8
stranger
|
|
stranger
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 8 |
What an interesting word! I imagine one might experience kalopsia when falling in love, and perhaps also during the period just following meditation. Everything often seems much brighter in color and more clearly defined after meditating for some time. And we all know how infatuation affects our senses, so that kalopsia is rampant in all perceptions of the beloved one.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: May 2008
Posts: 1
stranger
|
|
stranger
Joined: May 2008
Posts: 1 |
Indeed, "kaplosia" is a noun. Today it is used to refer to artists who think they work is "art" when reality it isn't. At an art show one could say about a particular artist upon looking at their work that they suffer from kalopsia.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290 |
OneLook yields four hits ( link). I found it in the brick and mortar Mrs Byrne's dictionary, but who knows where she found it. Maybe Ron O. knows ... I checked b&m LSJ, which only yielded the rare καλωπος ( kalōpos) 'having beautiful eyes'.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
entry in wwftd predates my doing actual etymological research, but here goes: /kuh LAHP see uh/ [fr. Gk kalos, beautiful < kallos, beauty + opsis, sight] related to kalopoios, making beautiful
(all Greek roots verified by Liddell, Scott)
I fear that usage is limited to medical use; i.e., it's yet another delusion. and writers such as Alexander Theroux.
-tsuwm
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290 |
usage is limited to medical use
Do you have a reference in a medical dictionary?
all Greek roots verified by Liddell, Scott
I recognized the roots, I was just saying that the word is not classical in origin.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
>Do you have a reference in a medical dictionary?
it's supposedly in Dorland (1947), although I don't have access.
I did find this recent usage, from The Times, Apr 24, 2006
China can bring on serious bouts of kalopsia in otherwise intelligent observers, but this visit [sc. Hu's] was significant because it was mundane.
which, incidentally, generated the following response:
Finally Barry Hyman sends a demand from Hertfordshire: "Now just stop it! After 40 years of reading The Times (with only a small break during your strike) I've become used, bowing to your intellectual superiority, to having my Chambers Dictionary alongside for the occasional odd word you use that I do not know. But 'kalopsia', for heaven's sake (leading article, Monday)? Even Chambers didn't have that. Googling brings up a site called 'Worthless word for today' which tells me that it means 'the delusion that things are more beautiful than they really are'.
Enough already, unless there is a word for 'the determination to humiliate one's dedicated readers'." There is, Mr Hyman, and we use it daily in the office, chuckling all the while. Anyway, I wager that from now on you'll be using kalopsia yourself - although you've made us reach for our dictionaries again, just to make sure.
{man, I got a mention in The Times, and they got it wrong!}
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290 |
I got a mention in The Times, and they got it wrong!
Congratulations. Your fifteen minutes starts now; enjoy!
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
yeahbut, that was two years ago.  - joe bfstplk
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290 |
two years ago
What's a tenth of a score amongst lexicographers? ...
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
|
|
|
|
Forums16
Topics13,913
Posts229,810
Members9,187
| |
Most Online3,341
Dec 9th, 2011
|
|
|
0 members (),
373
guests, and
1
robot. |
|
Key:
Admin,
Global Mod,
Mod
|
|
|
|
