Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Merriam-Webster Failed Me and "Hierophanies"

The word you've entered isn't in the dictionary. Click on a spelling suggestion below or try again using the search bar above. Suggestions for hierophany: 1. hierophant 2. hierophants

In case you're as ignorant as I was and Merriam-Webster still is:

Hierophanies: the manifestations of the sacred expressed in symbols, myths, supernatural beings, etc.

Oh, M-W, I shun you.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I hate that! I was reading a poem by Seamus Heaney called "Personal Helicon" about revelations he received from nature, and my dictionary told me that a "helicon" was a "large brass tuba". I got a great laugh, but had to find another dictionary...

Angela said...

if only nature would give me a large brass tuba...

Anonymous said...

the sad thing is, I tried REALLY hard to make "large brass tuba" work as part of the poem, but it just didn't happen...

and what were you reading that caused you to look up "hierophanies"?

Angela said...

ha! i would have done the same thing with the tuba. totally!
"the shattered lantern". i liked the first 3/4 a lot (the last 1/4) was junky), but it really irritates me when a writer is writing a book on theology/philosophy for the general public, and then doesn't bother to explain specialty-specific language. grrrr.
but, it's worth reading anyway.

Sebastien Millon said...

You know, that dictionary has failed me too. I forget the specific words, but it told me they didn't exist... I was very displeased.

Angela said...

sebastien,
we were talking dictionaries at the writing conference i went to in banff (i know. it must sound riviting) and i guess there's a book out about the guy who collected most of the words for the oxford dictionary. i wish i could remember what it was called, but it sounded fascinating. all sorts of crazy, unlikely people contributed to that dictionary. i gotta get me one.