DefinitionsMAD; Magicality; Mala Fide; Malcontent; Malpractice / MispracticeManifester; Mataeology; Materteral/Materine; Matter-of-Course; MayhapMeanspirited; Megalomania; Menage; Mentalism; MercurialMephitic; Meretricious; Messiah; Mess of Pottage; Methinks
MAD: Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD): a situation where the nuclear arsenals of opposed nation states or alliances are
approximately equivalent in capacity and invulnerability so that (a.) neither could inflict sufficient damage on the other to immobilise it and
prevent a retaliatory attack and (b.) unacceptably high levels of destruction would inevitably result for both parties to the conflict if one were
to launch an attack given that mechanisms for automatic retaliation are built-in to defence systems; apart from the ever-present risk of nuclear
war happening by accident, a further weakness of strategic thinking based on MAD is that it encouraged a continuous escalation of the arms race.
~ (Collins Dictionary of
Sociology). magicality (n.): the condition or quality of being magical; [e.g.]: “A final play, ‘Magicality’, about a fit-up touring company
in the 1940s and 1950s, received a reading at a 2012 Dalkey festival but had not been produced or published by 2014”. (“Hugh Leonard”,
by Patrick Maume; published Dec 2014, Dictionary of Irish Biography). [from magical + -ity].
~ (Online Neoteric Dictionary). [https://www.dib.ie/biography/leonard-hugh-a9703]. mala fide (adv. & adj.): with or in bad faith. [Latin malā fidē;
from malā, feminine ablative of malus, ‘bad’ + fidē
, ablative of fidēs, ‘faith’]. ~ (American Heritage Dictionary).
malcontent: discontented, dissatisfied; inclined to rebellion or mutiny; restless and
disaffected; a malcontent person; a state of discontentment (synonyms: grumbler, complainer, moaner, fault-finder, carper, agitator, troublemaker,
mischief-maker, rebel, dissentient; inf. grouser, griper, nit-picker, bellyacher, beefer, stirrer. (Oxford
Dictionary). Malpractice (n.): [...]; 3. the act or an instance of improper practice; (n.): malpractitioner. ~ (American Heritage Dictionary). Mispractice (n.): wrong practice; misdeed; misconduct. ~ (Century Dictionary and
Cyclopaedia). manifester (n.): a person or thing which manifests something. ~ (Collins English Dictionary).
• mateology (n.): a vain, unprofitable discourse or inquiry. ~ (Webster’s 1913 Dictionary). • mateology (n.; rare): a vain discourse or inquiry; also spelled matæology; [e.g.]: “The sapience of our forefathers and the defectiveness of our dictionaries are simultaneously illustrated by the bead-roll of mataology [a list of different kinds of divination] embodied in the extract here following”. (Fitzedward Hall, “Modern English”, 1873, p. 37. [from Greek ματαιολογια, ‘vain’, ‘random talk’, ματαιολόγσς, ‘talking at random’, from μάταιος, ‘vain’, ‘idle’, ‘foolish’ (from μάτη, ‘folly’), + -λογία, from λέγειν, ‘speak’; see -ology]. ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia). • mataeology (n.): a discourse which is fruitless or in vain; (adj.): mataeological; (n.): mataeologian. ~ (Ologies & Isms Dictionary). • mataeology (n.): a vain, useless, or unprofitable discourse; foolish words, nonsense; [e.g.]: “The sapience of our forefathers and the defectiveness of our dictionaries are simultaneously illustrated by the bead-roll of mataeology embodied in the extract here following”. (“Modern English”, by Fitzedward Hall, 1873); (sources): “A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles”, by James Murray, 1887-1933; “A Supplementary English Glossary”, O. Davies, T. Lewis, 1881; “The American Encyclopaedic Dictionary”, by Robert Hunter, 1895; “Dictionary of Early English”, by Joseph Shipley, 1955). [1656; from Greek mataiologia, ‘idle or foolish talk’, from mataios, ‘vain’ + -logia, ‘discourse’; first documented use: 1656; Blount Glossographia; viz.: mateologie (mataeologia): vain enquiry, or over curious search into high matters an mysteries]. ~ (Lexicophilia Reverse Dictionary). • mataeological (adj.): vain; nonsensical. [1716 obs]. ~ (Lexicophilia Reverse Dictionary). • mataeologian (n.): one who discourses vainly, one who indulges in nonsense. [1653 obs]. ~ (Lexicophilia Reverse Dictionary). • mataeologue (n.): an unprofitable talker, one who indulges in nonsense. [1716 obs]. ~ (Lexicophilia Reverse Dictionary). • mataeotechny (n.): an unprofitable science. [1576 obs]. ~ (Lexicophilia Reverse Dictionary). • mateotechny† (n.; rare): any unprofitable science; [e.g.]: “A condigne guerdon (doubtless) and very fit
to countervail such a peevish practice, and unnecessary Matæotechny”. (Levinus Lemnius, 1505-1568, “The Touchstone of Complexions”,
1581, ‘The Epistle to The Reader’, p. 6⁽*⁾). [from Greek μάταιος,
‘vain’, ‘idle’ + τέχνη, ‘art’]. ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia). • materteral (adj.): pertaining to, or in the manner of, an aunt; [e.g.]: “It may be that stipulations about parts and wholes are, in some way that undermines my materteral analogies, unlike stipulations about aunts and legacies”. (page 9, “Material Beings”, Peter Van Inwagen; 1990, Cornell University Press); “Only some insistent pleading (materteral rather than avuncular) had changed their mind”. (page 150, “Archipelago”, Saif Rahman; 2004, Twenty First Century Publishers Ltd); “It pleased her to see Aunt Maude waiting tables. Smiling to herself, Alice reflected that Maude was materteral... like a kindly aunt”. (page 123, “Cathedral Ledge”, R. D. Chrisman; 2006, AuthorHouse); “A materteral lady told me that people come here from the city in search of peace”. (page T9, “Japan’s New Luxury Sleeper Train; Suite Surrender on The Rails”, Bee Rowlatt; October 5, 2013, The Daily Telegraph); (synonym): materterine; (coordinate terms): avuncular: uncle; maternal: mother; paternal: father; (references): The Oxford English Dictionary has materteral and materterine, both derived from the Latin mātertera (‘maternal aunt’), and described as ‘humorously pedantic’, for ‘characteristic of an aunt’. There are two quotations: “With maternal and materteral anxiety” (1823) and “A kindly materterine message” (1874). [etymology: from Latin mātertera, ‘maternal aunt’ + -al]. ~ (Wiktionary English Dictionary). • materteral (adj.; also materterine): characteristic of, or in the manner of, an aunt; [e.g.]: “Most of us smiled on with avuncular or materteral approval”. (David Evett; Shrew Productions; Shakesper; Oct 3, 1994); “With maternal and materteral anxiety”. (William Taylor; “Monthly Review”; 1823; quoted in the OED). [from classical Latin matertera, ‘maternal aunt’, from mater, ‘mother’; pron. muh-tuhr-tuhr-uhl; this word is the feminine counterpart of the word avuncular (‘characteristic of, or in the manner of, an uncle’); the word materteral has its origin in maternal aunt, but now it could be applied to aunts on both sides, just as the word aunt originally meant paternal aunt, from Latin amita, ‘father’s sister’, from amare, ‘to love’, but now applies to aunts of all kinds]. ~ (A Word A Day Archives; May 20, 2004).\ • materteral is first recorded in the Oxford English Dictionary from a journal of 1823. The OED’s citation is so brief it doesn’t give much of a flavour of the original but you can see why the editors truncated it:
They don’t write stuff like that any more,
thank heavens. It was in a spirit of pedantic humour that materteral was conceived (if I may be permitted to use
that word in the company of ladies who have “passed the grand climacteric”) and it continued in that vein in a
book of 1867, “Spindrift”, in Munsey’s Magazine in 1901 and in “The Aunt’s Cook Book of 1922”. A couple
of modern works have used it seriously but it is otherwise unknown. ~ (Michael
Quinion, “World Wide Words”; Newsletter 723; 12 February 2011). matter-of-course (n.): expected or depended upon as a natural or rational outcome. ~ (Princeton’s WordNet 3.0).
mayhap (adv.; archaic or poetic): possibly but not certainly; (synonyms): perhaps, probably, maybe,
possibly, by chance, for all you know; (archaic): perchance, peradventure, haply; [e.g.]: “Are we, mayhap, overlooking one small
detail?” ~ (Collins English Thesaurus). • meanspirited (adj.): lacking in magnanimity; [e.g.]: “He is a meanspirited man
unwilling to forgive”; (synonyms): ungenerous; stingy, (unwilling to spend); [e.g.]: “It seems ungenerous
to end this review of a splendid work of scholarship on a critical note”. (Times Litt. Sup.); “She practices
economy without being stingy or spendthrifty”⁽*⁾;
“It is an ungenerous response to the appeal for funds”; 2. having or showing an ignoble lack of honour or
morality; [e.g.]: “It is the love of the people... which gives you your army and your navy, and infuses into both
that liberal obedience without which your army would be a base rabble and your navy nothing but rotten timber”.
(Edmund Burke); “Something essentially vulgar and meanspirited in politics”; (synonyms): mean,
base; [e.g.]: “She was taking a mean advantage”; “He was chok’d with ambition of the meaner
sort”. (Shakespeare); ignoble (completely lacking nobility in character or quality or purpose); [e.g.]: “There
is something cowardly and ignoble in his attitude”; “I think it a less evil that some criminals should
escape than that the government should play an ignoble part”. (Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jnr.). ~ (Princeton’s WordNet 3.0). ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ • meanspirited (adj.): petty; small-minded; ungenerous; (adv.): meanspiritedly; (n.): meanspiritedness. [1685-95; from mean, variant of imene, Old English gemǣne, ‘common’, ‘inferior’ + spirited, from Old French esperit, from Latin spīritus, ‘breath’, ‘spirit’; related to spīrāre, ‘to breathe’]. ~ (Webster’s College Dictionary). • mean-spirited (adj.): having
a mean spirit; spiritless; grovelling; [e.g.]: “He [Richard Graham, 1st Viscount Preston, 1648-1695, a Jacobite
conspirator for the restoration of James II to the throne • mean-spirited (adj.): having or characterised by a malicious or petty spirit; (adv.): mean-spiritedly. ~ (American Heritage Dictionary). • mean-spirited (adj.): characterised by malice or pettiness. ~ (Collins English Dictionary). • mean-spirited (idiom): exceptionally cruel, spiteful, or malicious; [e.g.]: “This isn’t some sort of affectionate teasing—it’s just mean-spirited bullying—as they pick on my height and weight, and it really hurts my feelings”; “He ended up with a broken leg because of their mean-spirited prank”. ~ (Farlex Dictionary of Idioms). • meanspiritedly (adv.): in a
meanspirited manner. ~ (Princeton’s WordNet 3.0). Megalomania (n.): 1. a psychopathological condition characterised by delusional fantasies of wealth, power, or omnipotence;
2. an obsession with grandiose or extravagant things or actions; (adj.): megalomanic, megalomaniacal; (n.): megalomaniac. ~ (American Heritage Dictionary). ménage (n.): people living together as a unit; a household; the management of a household.
~ (American Heritage Dictionary). mentalism (n.): the doctrine that mind is the fundamental reality and that objects of knowledge exist only as
aspects of the subject’s consciousness; cf. idealism; (adj.): mentalistic; (adv.): *mentalistically*; (n.): mentalist.
[emphasis added]. ~ (Collins English Dictionary). • mercurial (adj.): following no predictable pattern; (synonyms): capricious, changeable, erratic, fantastic, fantastical, fickle, freakish, inconsistent, inconstant, temperamental, ticklish, uncertain, unpredictable, unstable, unsteady, variable, volatile, whimsical.~ (American Heritage Roget’s Thesaurus). • mercurial (adj.): 1. liable to sudden unpredictable change; [e.g.]: “mercurial twists of temperament”; (synonyms): erratic, quicksilver, fickle; [e.g.]: “erratic behaviour”; “a quicksilver character, cool and wilful at one moment, utterly fragile the next”; “fickle weather”; changeful, changeable (such that alteration is possible; having a marked tendency to change); [e.g.]: “changeable behaviour”; “changeable moods”; “changeable prices”; 2. relating to or having characteristics (eloquence, shrewdness, swiftness, thievishness) attributed to the god Mercury; [e.g.]: “more than Mercurial thievishness”. ~ (Princeton’s WordNet 3.0). • mercurial (adj.): 1. changeable; fickle; flighty; erratic; [e.g.]: “a mercurial nature”; 2. animated; lively; sprightly. 3. (capitalised) of or pertaining to the god Mercury; 4. (capitalised) of or pertaining to the planet Mercury; (adv.): mercurially. [1350-1400; Middle English from Latin]. ~ (Webster’s College Dictionary). • mercurial (adj.): 1. volatile; lively; [e.g.]: “a mercurial temperament”; 2. (sometimes capitalised) of, like, or relating to the god or the planet Mercury; (adv.): mercurially; (n.): mercurialness, mercuriality. [C14: from Latin mercuriālis]. ~ (Collins English Dictionary). • mercurial (adj.): 1. often Mercurial; (a.) of or relating to the god Mercury; (b.) of or relating to the planet Mercury; 2. having the characteristics of eloquence, shrewdness, swiftness, and thievishness attributed to the god Mercury; 3. quick and changeable in temperament; volatile; [e.g.]: “a mercurial nature”; (adv.): mercurially. [Middle English, of the planet Mercury, from Latin mercuriālis, of the god or planet Mercury, from Mercurius, Mercury]. ~ (American Heritage Dictionary). • mercurial (adj.): capricious, volatile, unpredictable, erratic, variable, unstable, fickle, temperamental, impulsive, irrepressible, changeable, quicksilver, flighty; inconstant; [e.g.]: “Her mercurial temperament”; (antonyms): stable, constant, steady, consistent, reliable, predictable, dependable, unchanging. ~ (Collins English Thesaurus). • mercurial (adj.):1. relating
to mercury; 2. having the characteristic of rapid, changing moods. ~ (Farlex
Partner Medical Dictionary). • mercurial (adj. and n.): 1. (adj.): 1. (capitalised) pertaining to the god Mercury; having the form or qualities attributed to Mercury; [e.g.]: “His foot Mercurial, his Martial thigh”. (Shakespeare, “Cymbeline”, I. 2.30); “To see thee yong, yet mange so thine armes, | Have a mercurial mince and martiall hands”. (Stirling, “A Paraenesis to Prince Henry”); 2. like Mercury in character; having the moral or mental qualities ascribed to the god Mercury, or supposed by astrologists to belong to those under his star, the planet Mercury; light-hearted; gay; active; sprightly; fighty; fickle; changeable; volatile; [e.g.]: “He is... of a disposition, perhaps rather too mercurial for the chamber of a nervous invalid”. (Thomas De Quincey, “Secret Societies”, 1847, ii); 3. pertaining to Mercury as god of trade; hence, pertaining to trade or money-making; as, mercurial pursuits; [e.g.]: “His [Monson’s] mind being more martial than mercurial, ... he applied himself to sea-service”. (Anthony à Wood, 1632-1695, “Athenae Oxonienses”, I); “Properties pertaining to the practice of the law, as well as to the mercurial profession”. (Paul Whitehead, “Gymnasiad”, L, note); 4. pertaining to Mercury as herald; hence, giving intelligence; pointing out; directing; [e.g.]: “As the traveller is directed by a mercurial statue”. (William Chillingworth, 1602-1644, “Religion of Protestants”); 5. pertaining or relating to mercury or quicksilver; (a) containing or consisting of quicksilver or mercury; as, mercurial preparations or medicines; (b). characterised by the use of mercury; as, mercurial treatment; (c.) caused by the use of mercury; as, mercurial treatment; II. (n.): 1. a person possessing any of the attributes of the god Mercury; one of mercurial temperament; a sprightly person; also, one given to trickery; a cheat or thief; [e.g.]: “Come, brave mercurials, sublim’d in cheating, | My dear companions, fellow-soldiers | I’ th’ watchful exercise of thievery”. (Thomas Tomkis, “Albbumazar”, 1615, i. 1); 2. a preparation of mercury used as a drug; [e.g.]: “The
question with the modern physician is not, as with the ancient, ... Shall mercurials be administered?”
(Herbert Spencer, 1820-1903, “The Study of Sociology”, p. 21). [= French mercuriel
= Spanish, Portuguese mereurial = Italian mercuriale,
from Latin Mercurialis, of or pertaining to the god Mercury or to the planet Mercury,
from Mercarias, Mercury; see Mercury]. ~ (Century
Dictionary and Cyclopaedia). • mephitic (adj.): 1. offensive to the smell; 2. noxious; pestilential; (adv.): mephitically. [1615-25; from Late Latin]. ~ (Webster’s College Dictionary). • mephitic (adj.): of noxious stench from atmospheric pollution; (synonyms): miasmic; ill-smelling, malodourous, stinky, unpleasant-smelling (having an unpleasant smell). ~ (Princeton’s WordNet 3.0). • mephitic (adj.): foul, foul-smelling, stinking, fetid, putrid, malodorous, noisome, pestilential, baneful, miasmic, olid, miasmal, miasmatic, baleful, evil-smelling or ill-smelling, noxious, poisonous; [e.g.]: “the mephitic stench permeated the room”. ~ (Collins English Thesaurus). • mephitic (adj.): 1. having an unpleasant odour; (synonyms): fetid, foul, foul-smelling, malodorous, noisome, reeky, stinking; (informal): smelly; 2. capable of injuring or killing by poison; (synonyms): mephitical, poison, poisonous, toxic, toxicant, venomous, virulent. ~ (American Heritage Roget’s Thesaurus). • mephitic or mephitical
(adj.): 1. poisonous; foul; 2. foul-smelling; putrid; (adv.): mephitically. [C17: from Late Latin mephīticus, ‘pestilential’]. ~ (Collins English
Dictionary). meretricious (adj.): 1. (a.) attracting attention in a vulgar manner; [e.g.]: “meretricious ornamentation”; (b.) plausible but
false or insincere; specious; [e.g.]: “made a meretricious argument”; 2. of or relating to prostitutes or prostitution; [e.g.]: “meretricious
relationships”; (adv.): meretriciously; (n.): meretriciousness. [Latin meretrīcius, ‘of
prostitutes’, from meretrīx, meretrīc-, ‘prostitute’, from
merēre, ‘to earn money’]. ~ (American Heritage
Dictionary). meretricious (adj.): 1. (a.) attracting attention in a vulgar manner; (b.) plausible but false or insincere; specious; [e.g.]:
“made a meretricious argument”; 2. of or relating to prostitutes or prostitution; (adj.): meretriciously.
~ (American Heritage Dictionary). Messiah: [(O)Fr. Messie f. pop.L Messias f. Gk Messias f. Aram. mesiha, Heb. mashiah anointed, f. mashah anoint. Mod. form Messiah created by the Geneva translators of 1560 as looking more Hebraic than Messias]: the promised deliverer of the Jewish nation prophesied in the Hebrew Scriptures; Jesus regarded as the saviour of humankind. ~ (Oxford Dictionary).
• mess of pottage: something valueless or trivial or of inferior value – used especially of something accepted instead of
a rightful thing of far greater value. [Middle English ‘mes of potage’; from allusion to Esau’s selling of his birthright (in Genesis
25:29-34) to his twin brother Jacob for a mess of pottage]. (Merriam-Webster Dictionary). • A mess of pottage is something immediately attractive but of little value taken foolishly and carelessly in exchange for
something more distant and perhaps less tangible but immensely more valuable. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mess_of_pottage). Methinks: lit. ‘to me it seems’, from Old English mē thyncth; mē, ‘to me’ + thyncth, ‘it seems’.
The Third Alternative (Peace On Earth In This Life Time As This Flesh And Blood Body) 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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