Fysigunkus
fysigunkus: "one who lacks curiosity" (Grandiloquent Dictionary Online)
If you were curious enough, I'm sure you can find this word in a giant dictionary - otherwise, you'll just have to take my word for it. When I found this word, I wanted to find a fysigunkus and make an example of them, but interestingly enough, it's actually very difficult to find a fysigunkus. Sure, if you pestered people with information like what a goliard is, where Galilee is, who Emmy Noether was , and when the preexilic era was, they might not be too interested. This is because most people attach interest with human factors.
For example, in a high school textbook (which I got very familiar on my previous job), the most important part of the lesson is not the rule or definition being taught but, instead, the little spiel about the mathematician who discovered it, the architect who used it, or the scientist who found it essential to his work. Even then, it's not interesting for people to learn that Chopin is considered one of the greatest pianist ever, though he only performed approximately 100 times. But, it's extremely fascinating that Chopin fell in love with feminist writer George Sand (whose real name was Amandine Aurore Lucie Dupin Dudevant). And, a description of Percy Shelley's poetry and his idealism might not be interesting, but the fact that he often couldn't live up to his idealistic moral of monogamy is absolutely captivating. Of course, his biographies almost always mention that his wife was Mary Woolstencroft Shelley (Frankenstein writer). Why stop there? Most biographies go ahead and link him to Mary Shelley's mother, the great feminist Mary Woolstencroft. There you have it, the degrees of separation between great literary figures.
So, oddly, the love of meddlesome gossip brought extinction upon fysigunki (the dictionary didn't have the plural form, maybe they think there can be atmost 1 fysigunkus). Until next time, I'll leave you with a few answers: a wandering student/artist/musician who usually worked as a minstrel or jester; somewhere in Africa near Jordan; female mathematician (really narrows things down); period in Jewish history before the Babylonian Exile.
If you were curious enough, I'm sure you can find this word in a giant dictionary - otherwise, you'll just have to take my word for it. When I found this word, I wanted to find a fysigunkus and make an example of them, but interestingly enough, it's actually very difficult to find a fysigunkus. Sure, if you pestered people with information like what a goliard is, where Galilee is, who Emmy Noether was , and when the preexilic era was, they might not be too interested. This is because most people attach interest with human factors.
For example, in a high school textbook (which I got very familiar on my previous job), the most important part of the lesson is not the rule or definition being taught but, instead, the little spiel about the mathematician who discovered it, the architect who used it, or the scientist who found it essential to his work. Even then, it's not interesting for people to learn that Chopin is considered one of the greatest pianist ever, though he only performed approximately 100 times. But, it's extremely fascinating that Chopin fell in love with feminist writer George Sand (whose real name was Amandine Aurore Lucie Dupin Dudevant). And, a description of Percy Shelley's poetry and his idealism might not be interesting, but the fact that he often couldn't live up to his idealistic moral of monogamy is absolutely captivating. Of course, his biographies almost always mention that his wife was Mary Woolstencroft Shelley (Frankenstein writer). Why stop there? Most biographies go ahead and link him to Mary Shelley's mother, the great feminist Mary Woolstencroft. There you have it, the degrees of separation between great literary figures.
So, oddly, the love of meddlesome gossip brought extinction upon fysigunki (the dictionary didn't have the plural form, maybe they think there can be atmost 1 fysigunkus). Until next time, I'll leave you with a few answers: a wandering student/artist/musician who usually worked as a minstrel or jester; somewhere in Africa near Jordan; female mathematician (really narrows things down); period in Jewish history before the Babylonian Exile.
posted by Kay at 12:09 PM
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