All the Light We Cannot See has so many fabulous vocabulary words in it, I have to share one more. I used an index card as my bookmark, noting all the “new to me” words and looking them up.
If you’re nerdy enough to love words and index cards, join the Wondrous Words Wednesday meme with Kathy at Bermuda Onion. Bloggers share new words they’ve learned or highlight favorites.
Here’s my word for this week: praxis. Do you know it? Before finding it in All the Light, I’d previously heard of it as the name of a test. (Quick Google search reveals… yes! It is a teaching exam for educators. Aha! Did you know I pulled a stint as a middle school teacher of kids with special needs? Whew, what a year.)
Anyway, here’s a quote from the novel:
He comes home from school, kneels on the kitchen floor, and forms airplane after airplane with unswerving, almost frightening devotion, evaluating different wingtips, tails, noses, mostly seeming to love the praxis of it, the transformation of something flat into something that can fly.
praxis \ˈprak-səs\ noun from Medieval Latin, from Greek, doing, action, from prassein to do, practice
1. Action or practice, as practice of an art, science or skill
2. Practical application of a theory
Apparently, a man named Tim Godfrey published an e-book about Internet Marketing called Profit Praxis. Pretty catchy title. Here’s a review on Profit Praxis from Tech Our Way.
Word Nerd Workout
This one is tough to use in a sentence. Here’s my try:
My daughter finally enjoys the praxis of playing her piano pieces and does so without nagging from me.
If you can’t think of a sentence, tell me about a praxis you enjoy (something you like to practice).
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The Greek title of the Biblical book of Acts is “Práxeis Apostólōn,” Acts of the Apostles. It is the origin of our word “practice” but not so much in the modern sense of learning to do something by repetition, as is in “practice piano” but simply to do something, as in, “practice medicine.” However, it is used in education to describe that part of education that involves actually doing whatever it is one is training for. It is “practical” instruction.
Ah ha! I was wondering what praxis meant. I’ve been hearing so much about All the Light, but haven’t read it yet.
A lovely word! No sentence from me right now, but I’ll think on it 🙂
Kathy stole my idea, I was going to write about my praxis of coloring in my new Zen coloring book.
How about: Cooking is not a praxis I enjoy, although I get better the more often I try.
A good word.
That is a tough word! I really can’t think of anything I like to practice but I’ll go with coloring (I’m not very good at it.)