mystification

English

Etymology

From French mystification.

Noun

mystification (countable and uncountable, plural mystifications)

1. The act of mystifying or the condition of being mystified.
   • 1948 May and June, O. S. Nock, “Scottish Night Mails of the L.M.S.R.—3”, in Railway Magazine, page 157:

     But soon one notices, first in ones and twos, and then in larger groups, men who are very much alive at this hour in the morning, the sorters for the Caledonian, and Edinburgh sections of the "Down Special"; mail is piled high on the platforms, and the postal men glance occasionally towards the platform intermediate signals. By this time the calling-on arm is pulled off, and a few minutes later in comes the train, unannounced by the loud-speakers, to the mystification of many travellers.

   • 1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light:Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, page 12:

     For a structuralist like Edmund Leach, the structure is the meaning. Genesis, for example, is about incest taboos; all the rest is noise and mystification.

2. A mystifying thing.

Synonyms

• bafflement
• bewilderment
• obfuscation

Translations

act of being mystified

• Finnish: kummastuminen (fi), hämmentyminen (fi), mystifikaatio
• French: ^{(please verify)} mystification (fr) f
• Georgian: ^{(please verify)} მისტიფიკაცია (misṭipiḳacia)
• German: Verblüffung (de) f
• Japanese: ^{(please verify)} 神秘化 (shinpika)
• Macedonian: ^{(please verify)} мистификација f (mistifikacija)
• Portuguese: ^{(please verify)} mistificação f
• Romanian: ^{(please verify)} mistificație (ro) f, ^{(please verify)} mistificare (ro) f
• Russian: ^{(please verify)} мистифика́ция (ru) f (mistifikácija)
• Spanish: ^{(please verify)} mistificación (es) f

French

Etymology

From mystifier +‎ -ification.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mis.ti.fi.ka.sjɔ̃/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

mystification f (plural mystifications)

1. mystification

Further reading

• “mystification”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.