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Also apophthegm. A terse, pithy saying, akin to a proverb, maxim, or aphorism. aposiopesis A rhetorical device in which speech is broken off abruptly and the sentence is left unfinished. apostrophe A figure of speech in which a speaker breaks off from addressing the audience (e.g., in a play) and directs speech to a third party such as an opposing litigant or some other individual, sometimes ...
The mediaeval scala naturae as a staircase, implying the possibility of progress: [1] Ramon Llull's Ladder of Ascent and Descent of the Mind, 1305. A hierarchy (from Greek: ἱεραρχία, hierarkhia, 'rule of a high priest', from hierarkhes, 'president of sacred rites') is an arrangement of items (objects, names, values, categories, etc.) that are represented as being "above", "below", or ...
A thesaurus (pl.: thesauri or thesauruses), sometimes called a synonym dictionary or dictionary of synonyms, is a reference work which arranges words by their meanings (or in simpler terms, a book where one can find different words with similar meanings to other words), [1] [2] sometimes as a hierarchy of broader and narrower terms, sometimes simply as lists of synonyms and antonyms.
Hypergamy (colloquially referred to as "dating up" or "marrying up" [1]) is a term used in social science for the act or practice of a person dating or marrying a spouse of higher social status or sexual capital than themselves. The antonym "hypogamy" [a] refers to the inverse: marrying a person of lower social class or status (colloquially ...
Thus, the higher the being is in the chain, the more attributes it has, including all the attributes of the beings below it. [10] The minerals are, in the medieval mind, a possible exception to the immutability of the material beings in the chain, as alchemy promised to turn lower elements like lead into those higher up the chain, like silver ...
A high king is a king who holds a position of seniority over a group of other kings, without the title of emperor. Similar titles include great king and king of kings. The high kings of history usually ruled over lands of cultural unity; thus high kings differentiate from emperors who control culturally different lands, and feudal monarchs ...
Nepotism is the act of granting an advantage, privilege, or position to relatives or friends in an occupation or field – for instance business, politics, academia, entertainment, religion or health care. In concept it is similar to cronyism.
A position that is deemed the most important to a given individual is called central, others are peripheral. If a sequence of positions is required to obtain a given position, it can be defined as a career, and a change of position in this context is a promotion or demotion. Some social positions may make it easier for a given person to obtain ...