This week’s theme
Coined words

This week’s words
misogynoir
outgrabe
intertextuality
genteelism
googolplex

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(in-tuhr-teks-chuh-WA-luh-tee)

MEANING:

noun: Interpretation of a text in relation to other texts, rather than in isolation.

ETYMOLOGY:

Coined by the philosopher and novelist Julia Kristeva (b. 1941) in French as intertextualité, from inter- (between) + textuel (textual), from Latin texere (to weave). Ultimately from the Indo-European root teks- (to weave), which also gave us context, texture, tissue, tectonic, architect, technology, subtle, and subtile. Earliest documented use: 1970.

NOTES:

Intertextuality reminds us that every piece of writing is influenced by what came before it, consciously or not. Other texts provide the essential context for understanding any given text, making the literary world a vast, interconnected web of ideas and influences. No text is an island.

USAGE:

“The 11 short stories in this collection each weave together, playful in their intertextuality as they nod to other stories in the collection and beyond.”
Aimée Walsh; Across Unknowable Terrain; Irish Times (Dublin); Aug 26, 2023.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: