- Clausula rebus sic stantibus
Literally "clause assuming this standing thus" (i.e. as they are). Legal doctrine allowing for a contract
or a treaty to become inapplicable because of a fundamental change of circumstances. Serves as an escape
clause for pacta sunt servanda. Related to force majeure and the English frustration of contract.
Generally accepted in interantional law, however in civil law usually rejected (as in France). However,
it's applied, sensu stricto (i.e. directly incorporated into the legal system through direct provisions) in Poland
and Italy. In the UK legal system, the sensu largo approach is used (i.e. the doctrine is shaped through
jurisprudence).
- secundum legem
according to law
- praeter legem
an item that is not regulated by law and therefore is not illegal (contra legem)
- Ceteris Paribus
τσέτερις πάριμπους, other things been equal
- Post hoc ergo propter hoc
an informal fallacy that states: 'Since event Y followed event X, event Y must have been caused by event X.'
- lato sensu
Εν ευρεία εννοία
- skeuomorph
An object or feature which imitates the design of a similar artifact made from another material.
- Ars longa, vita brevis
- Verbum sapienti satis est
Latin phrase that's the orign of the 'a word to the wise (is sufficient)'
- distributary
a branch of a river that does not return to the main stream after leaving it (as in a delta) — παρακλάδι
- tributary
a river or stream flowing into a larger river or lake — παραπόταμος
- adobe
uh-doh-bee
- sun-dried brick made of clay and straw, in common use in countries having little rainfall (αργιλόπλινθος).
- a building constructed of adobe.
- publican
- a person who owns or manages a pub
- (in ancient Rome and biblical times) a collector of taxes
- pastiche
pah-steech
- a literary, musical, or artistic piece consisting wholly or chiefly of motifs or techniques borrowed from one or more sources
- an incongruous combination of materials, forms, motifs, etc., taken from different sources; hodgepodge: this system is a pastiche.
- motif
moh-teef
a recurring subject, theme, idea, etc., especially in a literary, artistic, or musical work.
- opposite of "as the crow flies"
"By road", "by car", "by bike", etc. are all acceptable. A nicely balanced and easily understood alternative
(albeit a bit elaborate) is "as the road winds"
- tirade, diatribe, vehement
tahy-reyd — a prolonged outburst of bitter, outspoken denunciation, a vehement [vee-uh-muh nt] speech. A diatribe [dahy-uh-trahyb].
- amalgam
uh-mal-guh m — an alloy of mercury with other metal(s)
- salacious
adjective (of writing, pictures, or talk) treating sexual matters in an indecent way and typically conveying undue interest in or enjoyment of the subject.
synonyms: pornographic, obscene, indecent, crude, lewd, vulgar, dirty, filthy.
- esemplastic
\es-em-PLAS-tik, -uh m-\
adjective
1. having the ability to shape diverse elements or concepts into a unified whole:
the esemplastic power of a great mind to simplify the difficult.
- howbeit
\hou-BEE-it\
conjunction: nevertheless
- albeit
\awl-BEE-it\
conjunction: even though, even if
- palliate
\PAL-ee-eyt\
verb
- to relieve or lessen without curing; mitigate; alleviate.
- to try to mitigate or conceal the gravity of (an offense) by excuses, apologies, etc.; extenuate.
He was a strong man with an austere command of himself, and when he had to face death he divested himself of all that could palliate the suffering, and stood up to it with a stark resolution which was more Roman than Christian.
- saturnine
1. sluggish in temperament; gloomy; taciturn.
2. suffering from lead poisoning, as a person.
- nice way of responding to praise
- thank you for being so generous with your praise (makes "thank you very much for your kind words" sound trite and cliche by comparison).
- taciturn
inclined to silence; reserved in speech; reluctant to join in conversation.
- Jeremiad
Or maybe [he] has actually come to believe his own Jeremiads abou Tehran's supposed suicidal "mad mullahs."
- triad
Israel knows that Iran has no intention of launching a nuclear attack on the Jewish state, which is a major world nuclear power with an invulnerable triad of land, sea and air-launched nuclear weapons.
- to have a tiger by the tail
to find oneself in a situation that has turned out to be much more difficult to control than one had expected
The United States has the Iranian tiger by the tail. Washington doesn't know whether to hold on or let the big beast go.
- public convenience
When Titus found fault with him for contriving a tax upon public conveniences, he held a piece of money from the first payment to his son's nose, asking whether its odour was offensive to him. When Titus said "No," he replied, "Yet it comes from urine."
- Suetonius, 12 Caesars, "Vespasian"
- unnerve
to deprive of courage, strength, determination, or confidence; upset.
The development has unnerved America's autocratic allies in the region, which see Iran as their main regional rival.
- rapprochement
The deal comes amid a period of rapprochement between the US and its long-time Middle Eastern foe Iran.
- likeness
- a representation, picture, or image, especially a portrait: to draw a good likeness of Churchill
- the state or fact of being liked: I can't get over your likeness to my friend
- the semblance or appearance of something:to assume the likeness of a swan
According to Chapman, whose likeness accompanying his column shows him smiling the
smile of the self-satisfied bourgeois, this is all so much balderdash, [...]
- balderdash
senseless, stupid, or exaggerated talk or writing; nonsense
- nexus
We should be careful about what we recognize as contributing factors to social problems at the macro level, especially where those influences affect the macro-level society only by way of willful human behavior. Everything might be rightly construed as a potential influence on human behavior, and anything taken to excess might inspire dangerous or irresponsible behavior; but it's very dangerous to treat human beings as fungible stimulus-response machines, and locate the nexus of responsibility for outcomes in the complex of external behavioral influences rather than in human agency itself. People should be held accountable for the actual, quantifiable harm they do to others, with consideration of what external influences contributed to their actions having only a role to play in deciding how to respond to people who actually are harming others.