Category Archives: words

healthy habits, words

oleaginous

Simon Chapman (Medical Observer, 5 November, 2013):

“Big Tobacco is not investing in e-cigarettes to wean itself off cigarette sales,” he says.

“Its recent oleaginous rhetoric about them saving lives is utter duplicity. As with other forms of smokeless tobacco, Big Tobacco wants smokers to use e-cigarettes as well as cigarettes, not instead of them.

“Urged on by myopic health professionals who seem to have lost any population health focus they might have had, this may become one of the biggest blunders of modern public health.”

oleaginous
adjective
  1. 1.
    rich in, covered with, or producing oil; oily.
    “fabrics would quickly become filthy in this oleaginous kingdom”
  2. 2.
    exaggeratedly and distastefully complimentary; obsequious.
    “candidates made oleaginous speeches praising government policies”
words

Weltschmerz

Weltschmerz (from the German, meaning world-pain or world-weariness, pronounced [ˈvɛltʃmɛɐ̯ts]) is a term coined by the German author Jean Paul Richter and denotes the kind of feeling experienced by someone who understands that physical reality can never satisfy the demands of the mind. This kind of world view was widespread among several romantic authors such as Lord Byron, Giacomo Leopardi, François-René de Chateaubriand, Alfred de Musset, Nikolaus Lenau, Hermann Hesse, and Heinrich Heine. It is also used to denote the feeling of sadness when thinking about the evils of the world.

The modern meaning of Weltschmerz in the German language is the psychological pain caused by sadness that can occur when realizing that someone’s own weaknesses are caused by the inappropriateness and cruelty of the world and (physical and social) circumstances. Weltschmerz in this meaning can cause depression, resignation and escapism, and can become a mental problem (compare to Hikikomori). The modern meaning should also be compared with the concept of anomie, or a kind of alienation, that Émile Durkheimwrote about in his sociological treatise Suicide.

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weltschmerz