Wiktionary

bicameral

See also: bicaméral

English

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WOTD – 13 July 2011

Etymology

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From bi- +‎ Latin camera (“chamber”) +‎ -al.

Pronunciation

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  • (UK) IPA(key): /bʌɪˈkaməɹəl/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Hyphenation: bi‧cam‧er‧al

Adjective

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bicameral (not comparable)

  1. Being or having a system with two, often unequal, chambers or compartments; of, signifying, relating to, or being the product of such a two-chambered system.
    the bicameral anatomy of the brain
    • 1891, John William Burgess, Political Science and Comparative Constitutional Law, volume 2, page 108:
      By preventing legislative usurpation in the beginning, the bicameral legislature avoids executive usurpation in the end.
    • 1911, “Saxony”, in Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition:
      The legislature (Standeversammlung) is bicameral — the constitution of the co-ordinate chambers being finally settled by a law of 1868 amending the enactment of 1831.
  2. (government) Of, having, or relating to two separate legislative chambers or houses.
    • 2009 February 9, Carl Hulse, “In Congress, Aides Start to Map Talks on Stimulus”, in New York Times‎[1]:
      Once the Senate votes, aides said, the first order of business in the bicameral talks will be to set an overall dollar figure […] .
  3. (typography) Of a script or typeface: having two cases, upper case and lower case.
    • 2001, Yves Savourel, XML Internationalization and Localization, page 80:
      Aspect values on bicameral fonts are based on the size of the lowercase characters.
    • 2004, Robert Bringhurst, The Elements of Typographic Style, version 3.0, page 255:
      Bicameral (upper- and lowercase) unserifed roman fonts were apparently first cut in Leipzig in the 1820s.
    • 2004, Parmenides, Peter Koch, et al., Carving the Elements: A Companion to the Fragments of Parmenides, page 91,
      For more than a thousand years, classical Greek has been habitually written in a bicameral, polytonic alphabet (one with caps and lower case and a set of diacritics marking tone and aspiration).
  4. (psychology) Relating to the functions of the two cerebral hemispheres in the history of human beings ‘hearing’ the speech of gods or idols, according to Julian Jaynes's theory of the bicameral mind.
    • 1976, 1990, Julian Jaynes, The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston:
      [The Linear B Tablets] were written directly in what I am calling the bicameral period. p.80;
      …to have an idea of the nature and range of the bicameral voices heard in the early civilizations. p.88;
      …how could [the brain] have been organized so that a bicameral mentality was possible? p.101;
      Like the queen in a termite nest or a beehive, the idols of a bicameral world are the carefully tended centers of social control, with auditory hallucinations instead of pheromones. p.144;
      …wherever and whenever civilization first began…there was a succession of kingdoms all with similar characteristics that, somewhat prematurely, I shall call bicameral. p.149;
      Bicameral gods [of conquering civilizations] are jealous gods. p.156, footnote;
      …I suggest that given man, language, and cities organized on a bicameral basis, there are only certain fixed patterns into which history can fit. p.159.
      How can we know that…idols ‘spoke’ in the bicameral sense? p.174.

Antonyms

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Coordinate terms

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Derived terms

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Translations

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References

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  • Jaynes, Julian. The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1976, 1990 (491 pgs). →ISBN (pbk.)
  • Kuijsten, Marcel (ed.). Gods, Voices and the Bicameral Mind: The Theories of Julian Jaynes, Julian Jaynes Society, 2016 (312 pgs). →ISBN

Catalan

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Etymology

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From bi- +‎ cameral; cf. French bicaméral, English bicameral.

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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bicameral m or f (masculine and feminine plural bicamerals)

  1. bicameral

Portuguese

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From bi- +‎ câmera +‎ -al; cf. French bicaméral, English bicameral.

Pronunciation

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  • (Portugal) IPA(key): /bi.kɐ.mɨˈɾal/ [bi.kɐ.mɨˈɾaɫ]
    • (Southern Portugal) IPA(key): /bi.kɐ.mɨˈɾa.li/

  • Hyphenation: bi‧ca‧me‧ral

Adjective

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bicameral m or f (plural bicamerais)

  1. (politics) bicameral (having two separate legislative chambers)

Derived terms

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Romanian

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Etymology

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Borrowed from French bicaméral.

Adjective

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bicameral m or n (feminine singular bicamerală, masculine plural bicamerali, feminine and neuter plural bicamerale)

  1. bicameral

Declension

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Declension of bicameral
singular plural
masculine neuter feminine masculine neuter feminine
nominative/
accusative 		indefinite bicameral bicamerală bicamerali bicamerale
definite bicameralul bicamerala bicameralii bicameralele
genitive/
dative 		indefinite bicameral bicamerale bicamerali bicamerale
definite bicameralului bicameralei bicameralilor bicameralelor

Spanish

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Etymology

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From bi- +‎ cameral, or borrowed from French bicaméral.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /bikameˈɾal/ [bi.ka.meˈɾal]
  • Rhymes: -al
  • Syllabification: bi‧ca‧me‧ral

Adjective

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bicameral m or f (masculine and feminine plural bicamerales)

  1. bicameral

Further reading

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