| Front | omphalos /AHM-fuh-lahss/ omphaloskepsis /om-fuh-lo-SKEP-sis/ |
|---|---|
| Back | noun 1. The navel. 2. A central part; a focal point. [Greek.] "Turning to my overworked, overwrought, and under-Catholicized (read Jewish) wife, I put a hand on her deflated belly, that omphalos of our little world." - Baumann, Paul, Saint Joseph, a.k.a. Leopold Bloom; on fatherhood and hopefulness), Commonweal, 16 Dec 1994. Seamus Heaney: "I talk about them driving past, but they cannot shake the omphalos, which is the center of belonging for the Irish person." - Charles Guenther, Nobel Prize Poet Discusses His Irish Muse, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 14 Oct 1998. omphaloskepsis /om-fuh-lo-SKEP-sis/ [From Greek omphalos (navel) + skepsis (act of looking, examination). Ultimately from the Indo-European root spek- (to observe) which is also the ancestor of suspect, spectrum, bishop (literally, overseer), despise, espionage, telescope, spectator, and spectacles.] "Readers whose main interest is literary how-to or criticism can look elsewhere, in places specifically dedicated to those matters. Doing too much of it here would smack of omphaloskepsis." Stanley Schmidt; About Science Fiction; Analog Science Fiction & Fact (New York); Jun 2001. noun Contemplation of one's navel. |
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