Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Marked by aphorisms; aphoristic.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Containing or dealing in maxims; sententious.
- In grammar, used in maxims or general statements; applied to express a universal truth: as, a gnomic aorist.
- A contracted form of
gnomonic .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Sententious; uttering or containing maxims, or striking detached thoughts; aphoristic.
- adjective Greek poets, as Theognis and Solon, of the sixth century B. C., whose writings consist of short sententious precepts and reflections.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Of, or relating to
gnomes . - adjective of a saying or aphorism
Mysterious and oftenincomprehensible yetseemingly wise .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective relating to or containing gnomes
Etymologies
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Examples
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When reviewers and prize jurors tout a repetitive style as "the last word in gnomic control," or a jumble of unsustained metaphor as "lyrical" writing, it is obvious that they, too, are having difficulty understanding what they read.
A Reader's Manifesto 2001
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When reviewers and prize jurors tout a repetitive style as "the last word in gnomic control," or a jumble of unsustained metaphor as "lyrical" writing, it is obvious that they, too, are having difficulty understanding what they read.
A Reader's Manifesto 2001
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But since the subsistence is one, and He Who exercises the will is one, the object of the will, [1858] that is, the gnomic will [1859], is also one, His human will evidently following His divine will, and willing that which the divine will willed it to will.
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Here we have first religious meditations and legends of Saints, then proverbial, or as they are called "gnomic" verses, next allegorical descriptions by means of animals, and finally riddles.
History of English Humour, Vol. 1 (of 2) With an Introduction upon Ancient Humour Alfred Guy Kingan L'Estrange 1873
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(_g_) Lastly, like nearly all the dramatists of his day and of times much earlier, Shakespeare was fond of 'gnomic' passages, and introduces them probably not more freely than his readers like, but more freely than, I suppose, a good play-wright now would care to do.
Shakespearean Tragedy Lectures on Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth 1893
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Being a New York type, Artifex deploys an arsenal of ironic, gnomic, one-liners: "Life is an opportunity to make things happen," "What is more important than maintaining one's enthusiasm?"
Regina Weinreich: Revolutions of the Mind: Three Sisters and Mistakes Were Made Regina Weinreich 2011
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Being a New York type, Artifex deploys an arsenal of ironic, gnomic, one-liners: "Life is an opportunity to make things happen,""What is more important than maintaining one's enthusiasm?"
Regina Weinreich: Revolutions of the Mind: Three Sisters and Mistakes Were Made Regina Weinreich 2011
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Adapter and star Moe Angelos plays the young Sontag alongside a video projection of the older, more iconic Sontag also played by Angelos, who smokes and offers gnomic comments while observing the action.
Michael Giltz: Theater: Under The Radar and Coil Warm Up January Michael Giltz 2012
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It is true that Mr. Yaffe calls Mr. Dylan, at one point, a "gnomic adenoidal seer."
Poet, Prophet and Puzzle David Yezzi 2011
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The original Japanese editions have gnomic little phrases on their obi strips instead.
Upcoming 9/10/2009 2009
johnmperry commented on the word gnomic
Not the little old guys with pointy hats:
gnomic = characterized by the expression of popular wisdom in the condensed form of proverbs or aphorisms, also known as gnomes. The term was first used of the ‘Gnomic Poets’ of 6th�?century Greece, although there are older traditions of gnomic writing in Chinese, Egyptian, and other cultures; the Hebrew book of Proverbs is a well�?known collection. The term is often extended to later writings in which moral truths are presented in maxims or aphorisms.
June 21, 2008
johnmperry commented on the word gnomic
Somebody sent me this yesterday:
Thoughts of a Jewish Buddhist
Let your mind be as a floating cloud. Let your stillness be as the wooded glen. And sit up straight. You'll never meet the Buddha with posture like that.
There is no escaping karma. In a previous life, you never called, you never wrote, you never visited. And whose fault was that?
Wherever you go, there you are. Your luggage is another story.
To practice Zen and the art of Jewish motorcycle maintenance, do the following: get rid of the motorcycle. What were you thinking?
Be aware of your body. Be aware of your perceptions. Keep in mind that not every physical sensation is a symptom of a terminal illness.
If there is no self, whose arthritis is this?
Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out. Forget this and attaining Enlightenment will be the least of your problems.
The Tao has no expectations. The Tao demands nothing of others. The Tao does not speak. The Tao does not blame. The Tao does not take sides. The Tao is not Jewish.
Drink tea and nourish life. With the first sip, joy. With the second, satisfaction. With the third, Danish.
The Buddha taught that one should practice loving kindness to all sentient beings. Still, would it kill you to find a nice sentient being who happens to be Jewish?
Be patient and achieve all things. Be impatient and achieve all things faster.
To Find the Buddha, look within. Deep inside you are ten thousand flowers. Each flower blossoms ten thousand times. Each blossom has ten thousand petals. You might want to see a specialist.
Be here now. Be someplace else later. Is that so complicated?
Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkes.
Zen Judaism: For You, A Little Enlightenment
by David M. Bader
June 21, 2008