• bathetic: descending from the elevated to the depths of the commonplace
• decorum: (Latin) seemly, beautiful, graceful, suitable, fine, noble (compare the Greek kalos)
• dulce: (Latin) sweet
• experimentum crucis: (Latin) a crucial experiment, an experiment that puts the theory to the test
• geocentric: centered upon this planet, the Earth
• H. C. F.: highest common factor (what we refer to in colloquial American as the "lowest common denominator")
• Humani nihil a me alienum puto: (Latin) I consider nothing human to be alien to me
• inter alia: among other things
• magnanimity: generosity (literally, "great-souled")
• obiter dicta: incidental remarks, made without authority (e.g., by a non-expert)
• ordinate: balanced, rightly-proportioned, well-adjusted to its proper end
• ordo amoris: rightly ordered love, a love characterized by balance and right proportion
• paralogism: logical fallacy, a piece of incorrect reasoning
• petitio: a begging of the question, assuming the very issue in dispute
• pons asinorum: literally "bridge of asses", traditionally used to refer to the fifth proposition of the first book of Euclid's geometry: the first thing beginners in a subject have difficulty "getting over"
• posterity: future generations (of humanity)
• rapprochement: (French) reconciliation, the reaching of harmony, unanimity
• secundum litteram: strictly or literally speaking
• sensibility: emotion, the faculty of feeling, sensitivity
• sentiments: feelings, emotional thoughts
• sic volo, sic jubeo: this I want, this I decree
• sui generis: unique in its kind, without parallel
• tellurian biology: the biology of life on this planet (Earth)
• upper forms: higher grades (in school), 11th and 12th grades
• venal: unscrupulous, corrupt, mercenary
• ule: (Greek) matter, raw material (literally "wood")

Copyright © Robert C. Koons. All Rights Reserved.

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