gwynhefar | Definitions

exegesis: (n) 1. Explanation, exposition; esp the interpretation of Scripture or a Scriptural passage.
2. An explanatory note, a gloss.
3. An expository discourse.

rhapsode: (n) In Ancient Greece, a reciter of epic poems, esp one of a school of persons whose occupation it was to recite the Homeric poems.

scholiast: (n) One who writes explanatory notes upon an author, esp an ancient commentator upon a classical writer

scholium (pl. scholia): (n) An explanatory note or comment, specifically an ancient exegetical (see exegesis above) note or comment upon a passage in a Greek or Latin author.

adduce: (v) To bring forwared (verbally) for consideration, to cite, to allege.

philology: (n) 1. Love of learning and literature; the study of literature, in a wide sense, including grammar, literary criticism and interpretation, the relation of literature and written records to history, etc.; literary or classical scholarship; polite learning.
2. The study of the structure and development of language; the science of language; linguistics. Now usually restricted to the study of the development of specific languages or language families, esp research into phonological and morphological history based on written documents.

sophism: (n) A specious but fallacious argument, either used deliberately in order to deceive or mislead, or employed as a means of displaying ingenuity in reasoning.

cosmogeny: (n) Origin or evolution of the universe.

theomachy: (n) 1. A striving or warring against God; opposition to the will of God.
2. A battle or strife among the gods, esp in reference to that narrated in Homer's Iliad.

ambit: (n) 1. A circuit, compass, or circumference.
2. The space surrounding a house, castle, town, etc.; the precincts, liberties, "verge".
3. The confines, bounds, limits of a district.
4. fig. Extent, compass, sphere, of actions, words, thoughts, etc.

polysemy: (n) The fact of having several meanings; the possession of multiple meanings.

nimbus: (n) 1. A bright or luminous cloud or cloud-like formation supposedly enveloping or surrounding a deity or supernatural being.
2. A halo surrounding the head of Jesus, a saint, etc.
3. Something reminiscent of a cloud or halo that surrounds or is associated with a person or thing.

conventicle: (n) 1. A meeting secular or religous.
2. An assembly, a meeting; esp a regular meeting of any society, corporation, body, or order of men.
3. A little assembly, a meeting of a private character.
4. A meeting or assembly of a clandestine, irregular, or illegal character, or considered to have a sinister purpose or tendency.
5. A religious meeting or assembly of a private, clandestine or illegal kind; a meeting for the exercise of religion otherwise than as sanctioned by law, esp a meeting of (Protestant) Nonconformists or Dissenters from the Church of England for religious worship, during a period when such meetings were prohibited by the law.

hermeneutics: (n) The art or science of interpretation, esp of Scripture, commonly distinguished from exegesis (see above) or practical exposition.