Adopt a Word

[ksmith]

By way of connerybeagle's dogmom:

Each year, hundreds of words are dropped from the English language.

Your job, should you choose to accept it--save one. Just hit the adopt-a-word link, and go from there.

My word is "sigilism," a precise definition for which I cannot find. I would guess it's the practice of making or using sigils (one definition: symbols connected to a set of ideas by which spirits or deities may be summoned to awareness and controlled. They are used in divinatory practices. The term is derived from the Latin "sigilum" meaning "seal). It's also simply a seal or signet.

Comments

[barbarienne.livejournal.com]

The total entry in the OED online:

1865 Englishman's Mag. Feb. 114 The following appear to be the principal crimes against which the edicts of the Inquisition were fulminated..: immorality in the confessional, sigilism (or revealing the secrets of the confessional).

Methinks you need to become a priest!

[e-moon60.livejournal.com]

Mine is sagittipotent, having great ability in archery.

As you know, my friend David is sagittipotent--he not only shoots well, but he makes crossbows. That might, however, be termed arbalestipotent instead, for all I know. Still, it shoots a stick with feathers on one end and a point on the other, so I'm calling it archery for the duration.

[e-moon60.livejournal.com]

Considering the importance of keeping secrets in Kris's fiction...sigilism might acquire an expanded meaning.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

I did find the word strangely appropriate.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm pretty sure one of my kids' English teachers is using sigilism as you suggest.

Adrianne