A.Word.A.Day -- mystagogue

A.Word.A.Day

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Nov 12, 2007

This week's theme
Words to describe people

This week's words
mystagogue
patrician
recalcitrant
platitudinarian
macroscian

Previous week’s theme
Adjectives

A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

Sometimes when I'm waiting in a line at a supermarket or at the post office, I wonder about the people around me. The one in motorcycle gear with chains jangling from his pocket, I wonder if he is really a scaredy-cat at home.

The stooping man at the head of the line... what he might be doing after he's done here -- going back to work or returning home to tend to his pet caterpillars?
How about the woman who seems to be in a hurry: would she be picking up her kids from school after this or going around netting initiates for her multi-level-marketing cult?

Who knows. But it's fun to guess, and to think words that would fit the best if you had to choose a word for them. This week we'll feature five words to describe people.

mystagogue

(MIS-tuh-gog)

noun: One who teaches mystical doctrines or one who inititates others into a mystery cult.

[From Latin mystagogus, from Greek mystagogos, from mystes (an initiate) + agogos (leader).]

"Part mystagogue, part monster, Gauguin bragged about his savageries, his insults and his lusts. Yet he saw himself as holy."
Paul Richard; Gauguin's Fantasy Island; The Washington Post; Nov 29, 1996.

X-Bonus

Genius is eternal patience. -Michelangelo Buonarroti, sculptor, painter, architect, and poet (1475-1564)

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