numinous
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\n \n Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 10, 2024 is:\n \n
\n \n\n numinous • \\NOO-muh-nus\\ • adjective
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Numinous is a formal, often literary, word that typically describes things that have a mysterious or spiritual quality. It can also describe something holy or something that appeals to one's aesthetic sense.
\n\n// We were overcome by the numinous atmosphere of the catacombs.
\n\n// The artist's sculptures dominate the space, their numinous presence welcoming museum-goers to a foreign world.
\n\n\n \n \n\n Examples:
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\u201cThe breakthrough for me was the idea of embedding the hymnlike harmonies of Charles Ives\u2019s sublime \u2018The Unanswered Question\u2019 within my music. Ives gives this hushed hymn to a string orchestra, playing pianississimo throughout. A lone trumpet, seeming to come from another planet, asks \u2018the question\u2019 repeatedly\u2014five notes without a text but full of numinous meaning.\u201d \u2014 John Adams, The New Yorker, 4 Dec. 2023
\n \n \n\n Did you know?
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When people of the 1600s were ruminating on an adjective to reflect their awe of the mystical and supernatural elements of their experiences, they gave the nod to numinous, and quite aptly so. Numinous comes from the Latin word numen, which can mean both \u201ca nod of the head\u201d and \u201cdivine will,\u201d the latter sense suggesting a figurative divine nod indicating approval or command. (English users were already using the noun numen, a direct borrowing from Latin, to refer to a spiritual force or influence associated with a particular place or phenomenon.) Numinous is not a common or everyday word, which seems fitting for one used to describe what is far from quotidian, and instead part of the realm of the spiritual, the holy, or the transcendent.
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