9. Caryatids & Atlantids Something you may have noticed in classical architecture. When sculptures of a female (caryatid) or male (atlantid) are used as supporting structures, usually as columns.
10. Reminiscence Bump The peculiar way people over the age of forty have a larger number of clear memories from their adolescence than other ages.
11. Sfumato An art technique where colours and lines in certain parts of a painting are blurred together. This produces a more realistic effect than solid colours and lines because it replicates how we actually see the world. Supposedly invented by Leonardo.
12. Kairos The Ancient Greeks had several words for time. One was chronos, which is quantitative time — there are twenty-four equal hours in a day. Another was kairos, which is qualitative time — it refers to how some moments are more important or seem longer than others.
13. Vernacular When a particular region has a specific, local style of architecture which developed over time and wasn't created by professional architects, engineers, or urban planners.
14. Palimpsest A manuscript which has been erased and written over. It can also refer to anything which had one form, was wholly or partially removed, and replaced with another. For example, Istanbul is a palimpsest of Byzantium and Constantinople.
15. Rückenfigur An art term from the German for "Back Figure". When there is a person in the foreground, with their back turned to us, observing the scene before them.
16. Patina The distinctive change in colour that happens to materials like copper, brass, and bronze over time. Consider the way copper oxidises and turns green, hence the colour — the patina — of the Statue of Liberty.
17. Dentils Those little details that look like teeth in Classical Architecture, always found beneath cornices.
18. Hapax Legomenon A word that occurs only once in a book, an author's entire work, or the entire written history of a language. Shakespeare used "honorificabilitudinitatibus" just once, and "epiousion" only appears in the Lord's Prayer in all Ancient Greek writings.
19. Eristic A rhetorical term for a way of talking where the aim is simply to win the argument, not to arrive at the truth or even prove your own view correct. Argument for argument's sake.
20. Ferronière A thin headband worn across the forehead with a jewel at the centre — popular in 15th and 16th century Italy, hence ladies in Renaissance art are always wearing them.
@culturaltutor This one is typical in Social Media and business discussions…
@culturaltutor From Eris, Greek goddess of discord, presumably.