Monday, January 23, 2006

Slow On The Uptake

More proof (as if needed) of my geekiness: I love the OED. My campus has it set up where we get automatic access from our browsers. Clickity click click and whoosh I can tell you all that the first entry for ‘numinous’ is:

1647 N. WARD Simple Cobler Aggawam 66 The Will of a King is very numinous; it hath a kinde of vast universality in it. 1864 R. S. HAWKER Quest Sangraal 17 An Orient Cruse, Fulfill'd, and running o'er, with Numynous Light. 1941 G. G. SCHOLEM Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism 59 The key-word of the numinous, the Kedushah, the trishagion from Isaiah VI, 3, in which the ecstasy of the mystic culminates: holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts. 1951 J. L. ADAMS tr. P. Tillich Protestant Era p. xxxix, Protestants..often are unaware of the numinous power inherent in genuine symbols. 1993 Atlantic Oct. 113/1 Calle de la Luna shows a smiling crescent moon, Calle del Cristo a numinous Christ on the cross.

The power of the OED is very numinous; it hath a kinde of vast universality in it.

1 comment:

Phantom Scribbler said...

I am so! jealous!