Entry: apotropaic (adj.)
In context: "'I suddenly understand the gesundheit-impulse, the salt over the shoulder and apotropaic barn-signs."
Definition: Having or reputed to have the power of averting evil influence or ill luck.
Other:Neat word!
Etymology: < Greek ἀποτρόπαιος averting evil ( < ἀποτρέπειν to turn away, avert) + -ic suffix
1904 W. M. Ramsay in Hastings Dict. Bible V. 115/1 The‥employment of a bull's head on‥sarcophagi‥evidently‥had at first an apotropaic purpose.
SNOOT score: 3
Page:243
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.
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