This week’s theme
Words from previous years

This week’s words
mondegreen
resistentialism
spoonerism
petrichor
omphaloskepsis


This week’s comments
AWADmail 871

Next week’s theme
Words that have entered the language during the last 25 years

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(om-fuh-lo-SKEP-sis)

MEANING:

noun:
1. Contemplation of one’s navel.
2. Complacent self-indulgent introspection.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Greek omphalos (navel) + skepsis (act of looking, examination). Ultimately from the Indo-European root spek- (to observe), which also gave us suspect, spectrum, bishop (literally, overseer), despise, espionage, telescope, spectator, and spectacles. Earliest documented use: 1925.

USAGE:

“[The club’s] demise has acted as a trigger for one of those periodic outbreaks of omphaloskepsis about the present and future of clubland.”
Jim Carroll; Ibiza’s Clubs May Be Following the Money -- But There’s No Substitute for Great Music; Irish Times (Dublin); Sep 23, 2016.

See more usage examples of omphaloskepsis in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: