Occasionally, I post new-to-me words discovered during my reading rambles. I do this for my edification. If you’ve stumbled across this post and you're a word-nerd, you might enjoy these as well. Following each word is a short definition (sometimes with a thought interjected parenthetically), trailed by the context in which the word was found.
tessitura (tɛsɪˈtjʊərə): the range within which most notes of a vocal part fall | “Though I sometimes scream: I no longer want to be I! but I stick to myself and inextricably there forms a tessitura of life. May whoever comes along with me come along: the journey is long, it is tough, but lived.” - Áqua Viva, Clarice Lispector
frisson (‘fri:sã): a sudden strong feeling of excitement or fear; a thrill “I’m drawn to fragmentary forms, to lists, diaries, notebooks, and letters. Even just reading the word “diary” elicits a frisson, a touch of promise.” Index cards, Moyra Davey
auratic (ô-răt'ĭk): 1. Characterized by or relating to an aura. 2. Of or relating to the distinctive quality or essence of a person, work of art, or object. | “But Benjamin was also, as Sontag points out, a melancholic collector who sought out beauty and authenticity, and who wrote lovingly of the earliest auratic photographs, the long, drawn out exposures that preceded the mass hucksterism and popularization of the medium.” - Index cards, Moyra Davey
punctum (ˈpʌŋ(k)təm): a small, distinct point | studium (ˈstjuːdɪəm): 1. To show interest. 2. Denoting the cultural, linguistic, and political interpretation of a photograph. | “It is tempting to call these punctum moments, small ruptures in the studium (Barthes’s term for the aspect of a photograph that gets taken for granted, doesn’t surprise) of Malcolm’s flawless, expository prose. For Barthes the punctum could not be willed, and while Malcolm’s interjections are clearly not accidents; they have a strong unconscious quality.” - Index cards, Moyra Davey