Vocabulary

Definitions of new words and concepts I learned with them.

Definition: Mineral Salt

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Mineral Salts

Is salt you get from mines rather than from other sources that is better for the Earth not only because you by-pass mining environmental impacts, but because you reduce the amount of salts getting into the fresh water supply.

See the TEDTalk podcast linked before for more info.

 

https://twitter.com/digitalcitizen/status/1187201763927056385

Definition: Parentified Child

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Parentified Child

A child who is obliged to (or has to for practical reasons) become the Parent of their Parent/s. In cases of obligation, that may be for sponsorship of their immigrant Parents if the child were born in a particular country while their Parents had not yet gained citizenship.

 

https://twitter.com/digitalcitizen/status/1187550234144071680

Definition: Narrow and General AI (artificial intelligence)

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Narrow AI (artificial intelligence)

Artificial intelligence that is generally good at only one task or one task at a time. Compare to General AI that is good at many and multiple tasks at once, like the AI you see in science-fiction that is quite far away from the AI we have today, as awesome as it may seem (or fearsome to some people).

  • BBC article in Twitter link below

 

https://twitter.com/digitalcitizen/status/1188580144497221638

Definition: Dépaysement (French)

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Dépaysement

[ pronounced dePAZEmon ]

French for a feeling of giddiness you feel in an unfamiliar place, even if a bit unsettling where your excitement for being there overcomes it.

  • From the TEDTalk below (at about 11:25), by Tiffany Watt Smith, which includes a bunch of emotions where there are no words in English, but which you may well have experienced, but never had one single word to describe them! Or which you may go out and try to see if you can conjure up the feeling from hints in its definition for where and/or under what conditions one might experience it.

 

You’d need a strong sense of curiosity about this one, cause the natural feeling towards many unfamiliar places is fear or hesitation or trepidation of some sort.

Definition: Awumbuk (Baining People of Papua New Guinea)

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Awumbuk

[ pronounced aWUMbuk ]

From the Baining People of Papua New Guinea, a feeling of lethargy that descends when a house guest finally leaves.

  • From the TEDTalk below (at about 10:45), by Tiffany Watt Smith, which includes a bunch of emotions where there are no words in English, but which you may well have experienced, but never had one single word to describe them! Or which you may go out and try to see if you can conjure up the feeling from hints in its definition for where and/or under what conditions one might experience it.

 

From the belief that guests shed a heaviness into the air of your home so they can travel more easily, leaving that heaviness with you! So those Baining people leave a bottle of water out to absorb this heaviness and ease the burden.

It might take the right house guest to make this happen for you, but you have probably felt this before, and can again if you pay attention to your feelings after having house guests in the future. Water bottle outside is optional. 🙂