Word Of The Day

Word of the Day for Tuesday August 16, 2005

numinous \NOO-min-uhs; NYOO-\, adjective:

1. Of or pertaining to a numen; supernatural.
2. Indicating or suggesting the presence of a god; divine; holy.
3. Inspiring awe and reverence; spiritual.

Smoking is a ritual, and it has all the numinous force of a ritual.
--Thomas W. Laqueur, The New Republic, September 18, 1995

All Quests are concerned with some numinous Object, the Waters of Life, the Grail, buried treasure, etc.
--W. H. Auden, "Secular Hobbitism" review of The Fellowship of the Ring, by J. R. R. Tolkien, New York Times

Our culture is not much concerned with the numinous, but in language we preserve many of the marks of a culture that is.
--Richard Mitchell, Less Than Words Can Say

My sense of the numinous is generally keenest upstate, in the fields and forest that surround my old schoolhouse.
--Winifred Gallagher, Working on God

Numinous is from Latin numen, literally a "nod of the head" (as in giving a command), hence "divine power."