Neal Stephenson - Anathem

Analemma:A shape like a slender, elongated figure eight, observed by astronomers who track the way the sun’s apparent movement across the sky varies from day to day over the course of a year.

Anathem:(1) In Proto-Orth, a poetic or musical invocation of Our Mother Hylaea, used in the aut of Provener, or (2) an aut by which an incorrigible fraa or suur is ejected from the mathic world.

Apert:The aut in which a math opens its gates for a period of ten days, during which time the avout are free to come and go extramuros, and Sæculars are free to come in, sightsee, and talk to the avout. Depending on the math, Apert is celebrated every one, ten, hundred, or thousand years.

Arbortect:One who genetically engineers new species of trees.

Arbre:The name of the planet on which Anathem is set.

Ark:Equivalent to a church, temple, synaogue, etc., on Earth.

Atlanian:See Liaison, Atlanian.

Aut:A rite observed in the mathic world. Some of the more important and commonly celebrated auts are Provener, Eliger, Regred, and Requiem. Rarely celebrated rites include Anathem, Voco, and Inbrase.

Avout:A person sworn to the Cartasian Discipline and therefore dwelling in the mathic, as opposed to Sæcular, world.

Baritoe, Saunt:(1) A noblewoman of the mid-Praxic Age, the hostess and the leader of the Sconics. (2) A concent of the same name, one of the Big Three.

Baz:Ancient city-state that later created an empire encompassing the known world.

Bazian Orthodox:The state religion of the Bazian Empire, which survived the Fall of Baz, erected, during the succeeding age, a mathic system parallel to and independent of that inaugurated by Cartas, and endured as one of Arbre’s largest faiths.

Big Three:The Concents of Saunt Muncoster, Saunt Tredegarh, and Saunt Baritoe, all relatively old, wealthy, distinguished, and close together.

Blithe:A weed that was genetically altered to produce the brain chemical known as Allswell. Forbidden to the avout.

Bly, Saunt:A theor of the Concent of Saunt Edhar who was Thrown Back and lived out the remainder of his days as a Feral on a butte, later known as Bly’s Butte. According to legend, he was worshipped as a god by the local slines, who eventually killed him and ate his liver.

Book, The:A tome filled with subtly incoherent material, which misbehaving avout are forced to study as a form of penance. Divided into chapters, the difficulty of which grows exponentially.

Bulshytt:Speech (typically but not necessarily commercial or political) that employs euphemism, convenient vagueness, numbing repetition, and other such rhetorical subterfuges to create the impression that something has been said.

Calca:An explanation, definition, or lesson that is instrumental in developing some larger theme, but that has been moved aside from the main body of the dialog and encapsulated in a footnote or appendix.

Cartabla:A portable location-finding and map-display gadget, like a GPS unit on Earth.

Cartas, Saunt:An educated Bazian noblewoman who, after the Fall of Baz, founded the first math and created the Discipline that was followed all throughout the Old Mathic Age and, with certain renovations, in the mathic world following the Reconstitution.

Cartasian Discipline:The set of rules prescribed by Saunt Cartas, who is credited with having brought the mathic world into being following the Fall of Baz. An avout is a person who has taken an oath to observe the Discipline.

Causal Domain:A collection of things mutually linked in a web of cause-and-effect relationships.

Centenarian:An avout sworn not to emerge from the math or to have contact with the outside world until the next Centennial Apert. Informally, “Hundreder.”

Chapter:Local organizational unit of an Order of avout. Orders generally span the entire mathic world, and may have local Chapters in any number of different maths and concents. Commonly, as for example at Edhar, a math will comprise two or more distinct Chapters, belonging to different Orders.

Chronicle:Log of all events, great and small, taking place within a math or concent. Assiduously maintained and archived by hierarchs.

Chronochasm:In Mathic architecture, the space in the interior of a clock tower housing the workings of the clock and related equipment such as dials, bells, etc.

Cnoön:According to Protan metatheorics, the pure, eternal, changeless entities, such as geometric shapes, theorems, numbers, etc., that belong to another plane of existence (the Hylaean Theoric World) and that are somehow perceived or discovered (as opposed to fabricated) by working theors.

Cnoüs:Ancient historical figure famous for having a vision in which he claimed to see into another, higher world. The vision was interpreted in two different and incompatible ways by his daughters Hylaea and Deät.

Collect:Used as a verb, to accept a newcomer into a math from extramuros during Apert. Typically the newcomer is within a few years of his or her tenth birthday. Used as a noun to denote such a newcomer.

Concent:A relatively large community of avout in which two or more maths exist side by side. In general, Centenarian and Millenarian orders are only to be found in concents, as practical considerations make it difficult for them to exist as freestanding maths.

Convox:A large convocation of avout from maths and concents all over the world. Normally celebrated only at Millennial Apert or following a sack, but also convened in highly exceptional circumstances at the request of the Sæcular Power.

Cosmi:Plural of cosmos. A coinage necessary for discoursing of polycosmic theorics.

Cosmographer:In Earth terms, an astronomer/astrophysicist/ cosmologist.

Counter-Bazian:Religion rooted in the same scriptures, and honoring the same prophets, as Bazian Orthodoxy, but explicitly rejecting the authority, and certain teachings, of the Bazian Orthodox faith.

DAG:See Directed Acyclic Graph.

Datonomy:An approach to philosophy rooted in the work of the Sconics and based on rigorous study of data, or, literally, givens, meaning what is given to our minds by our sensory apparatus.

Deät:One of the two daughers of Cnoüs, the other being Hylaea. She interpreted her father’s vision as meaning that he had glimpsed a heavenly spiritual kingdom populated by angelic beings and ruled by a supreme creator.

Decenarian:An avout sworn not to emerge from the math or to have contact with the outside world until the next Decennial Apert. Informally, “Tenner.”

Deolater:One who favors Deat’s interpretation of her father Cnous’s vision and therefore believes in a Heaven with a God in it. Compare Physiologer.

Dialog, Peregrin:A Dialog in which two participants of roughly equal knowledge and intelligence develop an idea by talking to each other, typically while out walking around.

Dialog, Periklynian:A competitive Dialog in which each participant seeks to destroy the other’s position (see Plane).

Dialog, Suvinian:A Dialog in which a mentor instructs a fid, usually by asking the fid questions, as opposed to speaking discursively.