A Lexicon of Neologisms.  Mikhail Epstein (Emory University)

 


 

Life. Health. Death

 

sanitas insania (Lat sanitas, health + Lat insania, mania) - obsession with health and wellness.

 

Sanitas insania is an oxymoronic phrase. To be obsessed with health is unhealthy.

 

Hugh suffers from sanitas insania. He is unable to love anybody or anything except his own body.

 

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smort  n (sport + mort, mortal) –  self-ruinous sport activism;

overstress and exhaustion in physical exercises  leading to health disorders and untimely death.

 

smorty adj –  obsessed with physical exercises and wellness to the detriment of health.

 

smortsman, smortswoman n - a smorty person.

 

Look at this smorty guy joggling for the fourth hour in succession, running desperately to meet his early death.

 

I beg you:  dont let your love of sports turn you into a smortsman.

 

 

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thanatagogy  n (Gr thanatos, death + Gr  agein, to lead; cf. pedagogy, demagogy, mystagogy)   – initiation into death, preparation for dying.

 

Thanatology  is theoretical study of death; by contrast,   thanatogogy is a practical discipline, a pedagogy of dying.

 

The Egyptian "Book of the Dead" is the most ancient manual in thanatagogy.

 

For Plato, philosophy is the basis of thanatagogy. To study philosophy is nothing but to prepare oneself to die.

 

 

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thanatagog or thanatagogue  n (Gr thanatos, death + Gr  agein, to lead; cf. pedagog, demagog, mystagog) – a person who leads  into  death,  prepares old or terminally ill people for dying.

 

He is a thanatagog by vocation and occupation. He works at a hospice.

 

 


                           PreDictionary. A Lexicon of Neologisms