The Word Index

Garbology – noun – Garbology is the study of trash and modern waste, focusing on its origins and serving as a major source of information on nature and human society.

Governmentality – noun – The art of government; or the organized practices, mentalities, rationalities, and techniques through which subjects are governed by a positive means rather than a disciplinarian—as first introduced by French philosopher Michel Foucault.

Sensorium – noun – The sensory apparatus as a whole through which someone or something experiences the environment around them—feeling, seeing, smelling, hearing, sensing, etc—and use of physical and remote faculties of the mind, phenomenal and psychological perception, cognition, intelligence, and intuition. The seat of sensation.

Bi·o·de·grad·a·ble – adjective – A once-living substance or object that becomes capable of being decomposed by bacteria or other living organisms — often to live again through growth or repurpose

in·ter·pass·iv·i·ty – noun – The delegation or outsourcing of enjoyment, consumption, action, or (inter)activity through passivity and inaction

haun·​tol·​o·​gy – noun – First introduced by French philosopher Jacques Derrida in his 1993 book Specters of Marx, Hauntology is a portmanteau of haunting and ontology. It usually refers to the return, celebration, or persistence of elements from the past, as in the manner of a ghost and in anticipation of a future that never occurred.

bio·​re·​gion·​al·​ism noun A kind of cultural and political localism with an ecological foundation, cited by environmentalist movements advocating political boundaries coincide with bioregions. via Google Ngram Similar to many indigenous cultures’ relationships to land, bioregionalism is first and foremost based on observation and recognition of what grows where, as well as an appreciation for the […]

en·t​o·​moph·agy noun The practice of eating insects, especially by people. via Google Ngram Many countries already are “entomophagous,” feeding on bugs such as beetles, mealworms, and grasshoppers as a culinary delight: 36 African countries, 23 in the Americas, 29 in Asia, and 11 in Europe National Geographic Peripheral Resources Why Not Eat Insects by Vincent […]

dis·​cor·​di·an·ism noun A paradigm of a parody religion or a metaphor for a governing philosophy; based on Eris, the Greco-Roman goddess of chaos and discord; born of the 1963 book Principia Discordia by Malaclypse the Younger (Greg Hill) with Omar Khayyam Ravenhurst (Kerry Wendell Thornley). via Google Ngram Drest had made a careful study of […]

fu·​tur·​olo·​gy noun A study that deals with future possibilities based on current trends. via Google Ngram Since we cannot know the future with complete certainty, and as futurology is not yet a science based on empirical proof, moral science will have to rely partly on artists, philosophers and other speculative minds who hold up a […]