Entry: Actaeon Complex (n.)
In context: A neologism which Wallace was kind enough to define:
"The twirler induced in heterosexual males what U.H.I.D. later told her was termed the Actaeon Complex, which is a kind of deep phylogenic fear of transhuman beauty."
Definition: actaeon (n.): (A type of) a cuckold; the husband of an unfaithful wife.
Other: One wonders if DFW was studying his A- words, as we'll see.
SNOOT score: 1
Page: 290
Source: Oxford English Dictionary
Definitive Jest is a vocabulary-building and SNOOT-approved word-of-the-day blog centered around David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest.
Huh, Merriam-Webster defines Actaeon as "a hunter turned into a stag and killed by his own hounds for having seen Artemis bathing." Which makes more sense here, too...
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