Neal Stephenson - Anathem

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

Mobe:A wheeled passenger vehicle used extramuros.

Muncoster, Saunt:(1) A theor of the late Praxic Age, responsible for crucial advances in what is called, on Earth, general relativity. (2) One of the Big Three concents.

Mynster:At many concents, the large centrally located building that houses the clock and that serves as the venue for auts and other gatherings of the entire population.

Mystagogue:One who is fond of mysterious thinking and obfuscatory cant. In the Old Mathic Age, an all too powerful faction during the centuries leading to the Rebirth. Since then, a pejorative term.

Newmatter:A form of matter whose atomic nuclei were artificially synthesized and which therefore has physical properties not found in naturally occurring elements or their compounds.

One Hundred and Sixty-four:A list of plants allowed to be cultivated within maths by the version of the Discipline current at the time in which Anathem is set. Expanded from shorter lists found in earlier versions of the Discipline dating all the way back to Saunt Cartas. The plants on the list are deemed adequate to supply all nutritional requirements of the avout as well as filling other needs including medicinal, shade, erosion control, etc. Compare Eleven.

One-off:Informal term for a Unarian (see).

Orithena:A temple founded in ancient times by Adrakhones on the Isle of Ecba, later populated by physiologers who migrated there from all over the ancient world. Destroyed by a volcanic eruption in −2621, excavated, beginning in 3000, by avout who founded a new math around the perimeter of the dig.

Orth:The classical language used by all classes of people in the Bazian Empire and, during the Old Mathic Age, used intramuros in both Cartasian maths and Bazian Orthodox monasteries. The language of science and learned discourse in the Praxic Age. In a revived and modernized form, the language used at almost all times by the avout. May also denote the alphabet used to write it.

Pa:An informal term of respect by which a fid might address a more senior fraa.

Panjandrum:Fraa Orolo’s pejorative term for a high-ranking official of the Sæcular Power.

Penance:Tedious or unpleasant chore assigned as punishment by the Warden Regulant to avout who have violated the Discipline.

Peregrin:(1) In ancient usage, the epoch beginning with the destruction of the Temple of Orithena in −2621 and ending several decades later with the flourishing of the Golden Age of Ethras. (2) A theor who survived Orithena and wandered about the ancient world, sometimes alone and sometimes in the company of other such. (3) A Dialog supposedly dating to this epoch. Many were later written down and incorporated into the literature of the mathic world. (4) In modern usage, an avout who, under certain exceptional circumstances, leaves the confines of the math and travels through the Sæcular world while trying to observe the spirit, if not the letter, of the Discipline.

Perelithian Liaison:See Liaison, Perelithian.

Periklyne:An open area in the ancient city-state of Ethras, home to the market, where Golden Age theors were wont to congregate and engage one another in Dialog.

Physiologer:In the span of time between Cnoüs and Diax, a thinker who followed the Hylaean Way, i.e., who favored Hylaea’s interpretation of her father’s vision. The forerunners of theors and the founders of the Temple of Orithena. Compare Deolater.

Plane:Used as a verb, utterly to destroy an opponent’s position in the course of a Dialog.

Plenary:In a Convox, an event in which all attendees come together in the same room at the same time for some purpose.

Polycosm:Two or more universes (cosmi), especially when considered as a system that includes the possibility of interactions between cosmi.

Præsidium:In Mathic architecture, the tallest structure in a concent, typically the clock tower.

Praxic Age:Period of Arbre’s history beginning in the century after the Rebirth (therefore, approximately −500) and ending with the Terrible Events and the Reconstitution (the year 0). So called because the inhabitants of the old mathic system, who had dispersed into the Sæcular world after the Rebirth, put their theorics to work exploring the globe and creating technology.

Praxic:An applied scientist, an engineer.

Praxis:Technology.

Primate:The highest-ranking hierarch in a math or concent.

Proc:A late Praxic Age metatheorician, the standard-bearer in his age of the theorical lineage traceable to the Sphenics, and the progenitor of all orders that trace their descent to the Syntactic (as opposed to Semantic) Faculties of the early post-Reconstitution maths. Contrast with Halikaarn.

Procian:Of, or relating to, Saunt Proc or any of the Orders that claim descent from the Syntactic Faculties. Frequently seen as natural opponents of Halikaarnians.

Protan:Of or relating to the ancient Ethran philosopher Protas.

Protas:A student of Thelenes during the Golden Age of Ethras, later the most important theor in Arbran history. Building on the foundation laid by Hylaea and later strengthened by the Orithenans, developed the notion that the objects and ideas that humans perceive and think about are imperfect manifestations of pure, ideal forms that exist in another plane of existence.

Protism, Complex:A relatively recent (Fourteenth Century A.R.) interpretation of traditional (“Simple”) Protism, positing more than two (possibly infinitely many) causal domains linked in a Directed Acyclic Graph or DAG, known, in the most general case, as the Wick. Information about cnoöns is assumed to flow through the DAG from “more Hylaean” to “less Hylaean” cosmi.

Protism, Simple:A retroactive coinage used by Uthentine and Erasmas to contrast the traditional conception of Protism, which consisted of one Hylaean Theoric World having a causal relationship to the cosmos in which Arbre is embedded, to their new scheme, which they dubbed Complex Protism. See Protism, Complex.

Protism:The philosophy of Protas. More specifically, the notion that theors perceive pure ideas from another realm of existence known as the Hylaean Theoric World.

Provener:The most commonly observed aut of the mathic world, typically celebrated every day at noon, and linked to the winding of a clock.

Rake:See Diax’s Rake.

Rambalf:A concent. One of the Three Inviolates.

Rebirth:The historical event dividing the Old Mathic Age from the Praxic Age, usually dated at around −500, during which the gates of the maths were thrown open and the avout dispersed into the Sæcular world. Characterized by a sudden flowering of culture, theorical advancement, and exploration.

Reconstitution:The state of affairs that came into being following the Terrible Events, whereby almost all learned and literate persons were concentrated together in maths and concents.

Regred:The aut by which a senior avout withdraws from active service and goes into retirement.