Dictionary Of The Unmentionable
Learn new words like: “Inquisition Tennis”, “Maturity Muteness”, “Taboo surfing”, “Suicide spouse” or “Megalomaniadespotism”.
Learn new words like: “Inquisition Tennis”, “Maturity Muteness”, “Taboo surfing”, “Suicide spouse” or “Megalomaniadespotism”.
Epilopening
Epilopening explained: An introduction to a book written after the completion of the book. An epilopening is a sign that the author didn't know what the book was about before the book was completed.
Our language is constantly evolving, which means that we are continuously developing new words, phrases and expressions. In this way, we are enriching the language, but usually, only in areas, we feel confident talking about. The purpose of this book is to help you, the reader, develop a vocabulary within areas that most people are not confident talking about. If you want to progress, develop and learn, it will not help you talking about technology, the weather or politics. Personal growth and empowerment are directly connected to your ability to address your own insecurities, doubts and vulnerabilities.
Our general reaction to taboos. Credits Carsten Graff
The words we use not only indicate what we want to talk about but also tells us something about the level of consciousness among the people using them. This becomes visible when understanding that most people in the western world know terms like: “Nicotine patch”, “Child porn”, “Viagra”, “Party animal” and “Anus vibrator”. If you are an unconventional person who wants to address much more important, complex and meaningful areas of life you will need a different kind of vocabulary. The purpose of this dictionary is to expand your vocabulary and make it possible for you to address, until now, unmentionable areas of life like: “Inquisition Tennis”, “Maturity Muteness”, “Taboo surfing”, “Suicide spouse” or “Megalomaniadespotism”.
Our language is underequipped
In the English language you can find millions of terms that apply to the realms of health, science, art, technology and legislation, but only a precious few that can describe how you relate to people who are near and dear. Let us look at an example:
If you want to describe how two computers are connected you will need to refer to Bluetooth, network buses, instant messaging, link aggregation, port numbers, mail and transmission control protocol, datagram and thousands of other equally complex areas. If you want to describe how two people are connected you can mainly choose among words like: “Friends”, “Lovers” or “Spouses”. In other words: We live in a culture where our language is highly developed, exuberant, vibrant and full of variance when it comes to describing things that have little or no value, and unusually poor and primitive if you want to describe something that is of great importance. The purpose of this dictionary is to try to compensate for the linguistic shortcomings of modern language.
Before we start, I will need to mention two terms that you might already know.
Placebo A well-known concept that denotes that one can consume something without substance whereupon getting better.
Nocebo As placebo, but instead of getting better, you get worse.
Placebo and nocebo turn out to be excellent terms to build from when explaining the shortcomings of modern language. Here are some newly constructed words and phrases that will help you understand why.
Placebo Language Language with which one can primarily describe things that have no real value, but which create an illusion of talking about something important. Examples of placebo languages: English, German, Chinese, Latin, Volapük or less common languages like Y Fro Gymraeg.
Placebo Culture A culture in which only placebo languages are spoken. Examples: Western-, Eastern-, Southern and Northern cultures.
Placebo Human A person who speaks at least one placebo language fluently and is fully integrated into a placebo culture.
Gibberish disabled A person who feels a natural urge to have meaningful conversations and who therefore feels out of place in a placebo culture.
Nocebo cancer The type of cancer that is the natural consequence of reading threatening carcinogenic warnings on cigarette packets. An estimated 2 million people are killed by nocebo cancer every year.
Seasonal nocebo cancer The kind of cancer you get in the summer when you, out of fear of getting cancer, protect yourself with carcinogenic sunscreen.
Nocebo food poisoning The kind of nausea and sickness that is the natural consequence of trying to figure out what kind of food to eat in order to stay healthy.