Hermetic

[Joe Allonby]

My tupperware is obscure and hard to understand.

On Wed, Apr 8, 2009 at 2:11 AM, Dave Monroe <against.the.dave at gmail.com> wrote:
> A.Word.A.Day
> with Anu Garg
>
> hermetic
>
> PRONUNCIATION:
> (huhr-MET-ik)
>
> MEANING:
> adjective:
> 1. Airtight.
> 2. Not affected by outside influence.
> 3. Relating to the occult sciences, especially alchemy; magical.
> 4. Obscure or hard to understand.
>
>
> ETYMOLOGY:
> From the belief that Hermes Trismegistus invented a seal to keep a
> vessel airtight in alchemy. Who was Hermes Trismegistus? It was the
> name of a legendary figure that Greek neo-Platonists thought was a
> blend of the Greek god Hermes and the Egyptian god Thoth. Trismegistos
> is Greek for thrice-greatest, from tris (thrice) + megistos
> (greatest), ultimately from the Indo-European root meg- (great) that's
> also the source of words such as magnificent, maharajah, mahatma,
> master, mayor, maestro, magnate, magistrate, maximum, and magnify.
>
> Another word coined after Hermes is hermeneutic meaning interpretive
> or explanatory.
>
>
> USAGE:
> "So far, however, the net increase in accessibility and therefore
> accountability is welcome and popular compared to the hermetic secrecy
> and executive authoritarianism of the Bush administration."
>
> Obama Makes An Early Impression; The Irish Times (Dublin); Mar 27, 2009.
>
>
> A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
> Ah! what a divine religion might be found out if charity were really
> made the principle of it instead of faith. -Percy Bysshe Shelley, poet
> (1792-1822)
>
> http://wordsmith.org/words/hermetic.html
>