Neal Stephenson - Anathem

Dialog:A discourse, usually in formal style, between theors. “To be in Dialog” is to participate in such a discussion extemporaneously. The term may also apply to a written record of a historical Dialog; such documents are the cornerstone of the mathic literary tradition and are studied, re-enacted, and memorized by fids. In the classic format, a Dialog involves two principals and some number of onlookers who participate sporadically. Another common format is the Triangular, featuring a savant, an ordinary person who seeks knowledge, and an imbecile. There are countless other classifications, including the suvinian, the Periklynian, and the peregrin.

Diax’s Rake:A pithy phrase, uttered by Diax on the steps of the Temple of Orithena when he was driving out the fortune-tellers with a gardener’s rake. Its general import is that one should never believe a thing only because one wishes that it were true. After this event, most Physiologers accepted the Rake and, in Diax’s terminology, thus became Theors. The remainder became known as Enthusiasts.

Diax:An early physiologer at the Temple of Orithena, credited with driving out the Enthusiasts, founding theorics, and placing it on a solid, rigorous intellectual footing.

Directed Acyclic Graph:An arrangement of nodes connected by one-way links (think boxes connected by arrows) so arranged that it is not possible to follow the links around in a circle.

Discipline:See Cartasian Discipline.

Dowment:In its most general usage, any wealth accumulated and held by a Lineage in the mathic world. Almost always used to refer to a building and its contents.

Doyn:At Concents that observe the mealtime tradition of the Messal, a senior avout who has the privilege of sitting at the table and being waited on by a servitor.

Drummon:A large wheeled vehicle used extramuros to transport heavy freight on roads.

Ecba:A volcanic island in the Sea of Seas, home of the Temple of Orithena until the catastrophic eruption of −2621.

Edhar:A Saunt belonging to the Evenedrician order who in 297 established a new order and later founded a concent, where he lived until he died; both the order and the concent ended up being named after him. The full name of the latter is “The Concent of Saunt Edhar” but in common usage this is often shortened to “Saunt Edhar” or simply “Edhar.”

Eleven:The list of plants forbidden intramuros, typically because of their undesirable pharmacological properties. The Discipline states that any specimen noticed growing in the math is to be uprooted and burned without delay, and that the event is to be noted in the Chronicle.

Eliger:The aut by which a fid chooses, and is chosen by, a specific chapter in his or her math, and thereby ceases to be a fid. Typically celebrated within a few years of the age of twenty.

Enthusiast:Disparaging term for those early Physiologers at Orithena who were driven out by Diax because of their unwillingness or inability to think rigorously.

Erasmas:A fraa at Saunt Baritoe’s in the Fourteenth Century A.R. who, along with Uthentine, founded the branch of metatheorics called Complex Protism. Also, his namesake, a fraa at Saunt Edhar’s in the Thirty-seventh Century who narrates Anathem .

Ethras:A relatively prosperous and powerful city-state in the ancient world that, during its Golden Age (circa −2600 to −2300) was home to many theors, including Thelenes and Protas. The site of many important Dialogs studied, re-enacted, and memorized by fids.

Etrevanean:See Liaison, Etrevanean.

Evenedric:A protege of Halikaarn, credited with carrying Halikaarn’s work forward into the time of the Reconstitution and helping to found the Semantic Faculties.

Evenedricians:An early offshoot of the Halikaarnians.

Everything Killer:A weapons system of unusual praxic sophistication, thought to have been used to devastating effect in the Terrible Events. The belief is widely held, but unproved, that the complicity of theors in the development of this praxis led to universal agreement that they should henceforth be segregated from non-theorical society, a policy that when effected became synonymous with the Reconstitution.

Evoke:To call out an avout in the aut of Voco.

Extra:Slightly disparaging term used by avout to refer to Sæcular people.

Extramuros:The world outside the walls of the math; the Sæcular world.

Faanians:An early offshoot of the Procians.

Fendant:See Warden Fendant.

Feral:A literate and theorically minded person who dwells in the Sæculum, cut off from contact with the mathic world. Typically an ex-avout who has renounced his or her vows or been Thrown Back, though the term is also technically applicable to autodidacts who have never been avout.

Fetch:A wheeled vehicle used extramuros, typically by artisans, to transport small amounts of freight, tools, etc. Typically larger and less comfortable than a mobe.

Fid:A young avout; an avout who has not yet joined an Order. See Eliger.

Fluccish:The dominant global language of the Sæcular world. Derived from an ancient “barbarian” (i.e., non-Orth) language, its vocabulary overlaps with that of Orth when dealing with abstractions, technical, medical, or legal terms. When extramuros culture is largely illiterate or aliterate (which is most of the time), it is written in short-lived, ad hoc writing systems such as Kinagrams or Logotype, but it can also be transcribed using the same alphabet as is employed for Orth.

Fraa:A male avout.

Gardan’s Steelyard:(1) A rule of thumb stating that when one is comparing two hypotheses, preference should be given to the one that is simpler. Also referred to as Saunt Gardan’s Steelyard or simply the Steelyard.

Gheeth:An informal term, verging on an ethnic slur, for a particular ethnic group in the Sæcular world.

Graduation:A procedure by which an avout belonging to a Unarian, Decenarian, or Centenarian math may move up to (respectively) the adjoining Decenarian, Centenarian, or Millenarian math, traditionally by passing through a labyrinth that bridges the two maths in question.

Grandfraa:An informal term of respect by which an avout might address a very senior fraa, especially, but not necessarily, one who has celebrated the aut of Regred.

Grandsuur:An informal term of respect by which an avout might address a very senior suur, especially, but not necessarily, one who has celebrated the aut of Regred.

HTW:See Hylaean Theoric World.

Halikaarn:A Saunt from the last decades of the Praxic Age who clashed with his contemporary, Proc. Sometimes called Saunt Halikaarn the Great. Broadly speaking, Halikaarn is seen as the standard-bearer of the school of theorics promulgated thousands of years earlier by Protas and Thelenes and carried forward after his death by his disciple Evenedric and the Semantic Faculties.

Halikaarnian:Of, or relating to, Saunt Halikaarn or any of the Orders that claim descent from the Semantic Faculties. Frequently seen as natural opponents of Procians and Faanians.

Harbinger:One of a series of three calamities that engulfed most of Arbre during the last decades of the Praxic Age and later came to be seen as precursors or warnings of the Terrible Events. The precise nature of the Harbingers is difficult to sort out because of destruction of records (many of which were stored on syntactic devices that later ceased functioning) but it is generally agreed that the First Harbinger was a worldwide outbreak of violent revolutions, the Second was a world war, and the Third was a genocide.