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May 21, 2000

This week's theme
Words about words

This week's words
haplology
verbicide
lexis
analects
metathesis
anadiplosis
anagoge

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anagoge

noun: A mystical interpretation of a word, passage, or text, especially scriptural exegesis that detects allusions to heaven or the afterlife.

From Latin anagoge, from Late Greek, spiritual uplift, from anagein (to lift up), from ana- + agein (to lead).

"The spark of wisdom kindled by the 'divine guide', that 'hidden spark which loves to conceal itself', turns into a large flame of cognition, thus concluding the journey of the soul which Plotinus termed anagoge, the ascension toward heaven, toward divinity."
Mary Ellen Waithe, Hypatia of Alexandria (book reviews), Hypatia, Sep 22, 1995.

X-Bonus