enigma
English
editAlternative forms
editEtymology
editFrom Latin aenigma (“riddle”), being derived itself from the Ancient Greek verbal noun αἴνιγμα (aínigma, “dark saying, speaking in riddles”).
Pronunciation
editNoun
editenigma (countable and uncountable, plural enigmas or enigmata)[1]
- Something or someone puzzling, mysterious or inexplicable.
- 1894, Abram H. Dailey, Mollie Fancher, the Brooklyn Enigma, page 66:
- I was, and still am, an enigma to myself.
- 1995, Wolfgang Smith, The Quantum Enigma: Finding the Hidden Key, page 92:
- At the heart of all things there is to be found a certain coincidentia oppositorum; and herein, as I have said, lies the key to our problem: the enigma of indeterminism. The astounding fact is that freedom and necessity can coexist;
- 2007, Ramon Elmerito Gatchalian, A Supernatural Threat, page 9:
- Tucked inconspicuously away behind the shoal of darkness that hung in those gloomy corners, the silhouetted enigma was ogling him in halcyon silence.
- 2007, Fernando Arrojo Ramos, Enigmas:
- But as he came to know this work during his last months, he also came to a profound understanding of the many enigmas that create a deeply satisfying life.
- 2009, Vinton McCabe, The Healing Enigma: Demystifying Homeopathy:
- The enigma that is central to homeopathic medicine has to do with the relationship between dilution and potency.
- 2021, Cynthia Lucy Stephens, The Borges Enigma: Mirrors, Doubles, and Intimate Puzzles, page 6:
- The 'Real' Borges is difficult to pin down; in a word, he is an enigma.
- A riddle, or a difficult problem.
- 1598, William Shakespeare, Loves Labour's Lost:
- Some enigma, some riddle: come, thy l'envoy, begin.
- 1879, Henry C. Linstead, The marvellous house; or, The bishop's enigma, page 91:
- This little story before us is an amplification of that clever enigma, and though essentially a story for children, as its title-page tells us, would beguile many a one much older of a half-hour in the evening.
- 1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 202:
- Watching a coast as it slips by the ship is like thinking about an enigma.
- 2005, Jenny Ledeen, Prophecy in the Christian Era, page 165:
- Logic sorts the information in an enigma, logic determines that something is odd about this information, and logic draws inferences from an enigma's words; but logic cannot produce ideas.
- 2010, Enrico Rodrigo, The Physics of Stargates, page 323:
- The other solution to the central enigma of wormhold physics is to simply discard Thales' doctrine.
- 2013, Tilak Nagodawithana, Gerald Reed, Enzymes in Food Processing, page 222:
- The function of polyphenol oxidase in plants is an enigma because, although it is localized in the plastid, most of the phenolic compounds are in the vacuole, a cellular location not juxtaposed to the plastid.
- Riddles and puzzles, collectively.
- 2000, Harish Trivedi, Richard Allen, Literature and Nation, page 147:
- From the beginning, readers of The Enigma of Arrival are likely to feel surrounded by enigma and puzzle.
- 2005, Jenny Ledeen, Prophecy in the Christian Era, page 165:
- These examples show that two processes are tested in enigma - logic and intuition. It is intuition that discovers the specific idea that may be called the “ wisdom ” of a given riddle, whereas logic is confounded by enigma and can only produce inadequate interpretations.
- 2010, Ward Just, Exiles in the Garden, page 162:
- It was her secret, which she shared with no one except Alec Malone. Her husband would not have understood. Invisible wounds were not in his inventory of useful patents. He had even less interest in enigma.
- Mysteriousness; obscurity; lack of clarity.
- 1995, Ian Ward ·, Law and Literature: Possibilities and Perspectives, page 203:
- In those halcyon days I believed that the source of enigma was stupidity .
- 1998 ·, Richard L. Hunter, Studies in Heliodorus, page 80:
- The circumstances under which the band is obtained and the strange story that it tells are wrapped in enigma that challenges the hermeneutic powers of the reader .
- 2010, Keala Jewell, Art of Enigma, page 194:
- […] a politics of hybridity that led the brothers to that overarching trait of their art: the accumulation of styles, subjects, materials, textualities, all framed in enigma .
- 2011, Ido Yavetz, From Obscurity to Enigma, page 184:
- All this will put us in a position to better understand how Heaviside emerged from obscurity only to remain shrouded in enigma.
- 2018, Brigid Rooney, Suburban Space, the Novel and Australian Modernity, page 93:
- In Johnno, expatriatism is destabilized both explicitly and implicitly, and its correlated 'long remove' governed less by spatial than by temporal distance, by enigma and loss.
- A style of literature characterized by obscurity and hints of transcendental meaning.
- 1971, Paul West, Caliban's filibuster, page 233:
- But in a sense it is probably close to this book— a series of juxtaposed splinters of meaning, which perhaps once in ten million times will come out as a piece of interpretable prose, with the black pieces intervening, and possibly one could look at this as a one-in-ten million exercise in enigma perhaps meaning something.
- 1974, Peter Dronke, Fabula: Explorations Into the Uses of Myth in Medieval Platonism, page 45:
- Isidore, on the other hand, while beginning with the traditional classification, proceeds to distinguish between allegory and enigma in a way that reveals a more unusual perception: There is this difference, however, between allegory and enigma, that the force of allegory is twofold, and figuratively indicates a second meaning behind the first, while in enigma it is only the meaning that is dark, and adumbrated by means of images.
- 2006, Eleanor Cook, Enigmas and Riddles in Literature, page 53:
- About the time of Shakespeare's first plays, two important rhetorical treatises appeared in England, George Puttenham's Art of English Poesie (1589) and the enlarged edition of Henry Peacham's 1577 Garden of Eloquence (1593). Both take an interest in enigma. Puttenham, like Peacham, gives the essentials for the trope of enigma, but with flamboyant flourishes: "allegorie [is] but a duplicitie of meaning or dissimulation under covert and darke intendments. . . [even in the] common proverbe or Adage called Paremia," and so on through all the species, in similar dramatic fashion.
- 2017, Curtis A. Gruenler, Piers Plowman and the Poetics of Enigma:
- The interpretive effort elicited by enigma approaches an instant of transcendent understanding that has the force of revelation, yet without ever fully or permanently reaching it.
- Alternative form of Enigma
- 2002, David Syrett, The Battle of the Atlantic and Signals Intelligence, page 59:
- This U-boat consistently used Norddeich or Kootwijk frequencies for her shadowing reports, all of which were in enigma.
- 2011, Dan Ryan, Enigma: The Caldwell Series, page 287:
- Because of the danger of intercept, transmissions by a submarine are minimized and are coded by enigma.
- 2017, Catherine Coulter, Enigma, page 79:
- Everybody knows enigma was the code the Germans used back in World War Two. There was a movie about the Brit guy who broke it.
- A protein with three LIM domains (a conserved cysteine- and histidine-rich structure of two adjacent zinc fingers) at the C terminus that regulates protein phosphorylation.
- 2007, Matti Weckström, Pasi Tavi, Cardiac Mechanotransduction, page 84:
- Members of this LIM protein family expressed in muscle include muscle LIM protein (MLP), enigma, actinin-associated LIM protein (ALP), cypher, four and a half LIM-only protein FHL/SLIM, and heart LIM protein (HLP).
- 2007, Shiro Iuchi, Natalie Kuldell, Zinc Finger Proteins: From Atomic Contact to Cellular Function, page 101:
- Yeast two-hybrid screening revealed that enigma binds to the insulin receptor (InsR) internalization motif.
- 2012, Anthony J. Pawson, Protein Modules in Signal Transduction, page 86:
- Enigma is a predominantly cytoplasmic protein that contains one PDZ domain at its N terminus and three LIM domains at its C terminus.
- The Talaud kingfisher, Todiramphus enigma.
- 1997, Jon Riley, Biological Surveys and Conservation Priorities on the Sangihe and Talaud Islands, Indonesia:
- As noted by Fry (1980), if both forms were shown to be resident and breeding on Talaud, enigma must be accorded specific status.
- 1998, Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club - Volumes 118-119, page 116:
- No conclusive proof of breeding by enigma was obtained, but during late September and October 1995, birds were paired and holding territory in central Karakelang.
- 2001, Ernst Mayr, Jared Diamond, The Birds of Northern Melanesia, page 386:
- The Talaud population enigma may be a race of H. chloris ( Eck 1978 ) or a distinct species ( White & Bruce 1986 ).
- Any of species of Oedaleonotus enigma of grasshoppers.
- 1972, United States. Forest Service, Forest Insect Conditions in the United States, page 13:
- The principal species involved were the migratory grasshopper, Melanoplus sanguinipes (Fab.); the Packard grasshopper, Melanoplus packardii Scudd.; the clearwinged grasshopper, Camnula pellucida (Scudd.); and the Enigma Oedaleonotus enigma Scudd.
- Any of species of Heliothis enigma of rare moths.
- 1970, Mississippi State University, Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station, Technical Bulletin, numbers 179-191, page 9:
- Unlike any other species except virescens , the base of the male valve in enigma is slightly expanded and is entirely covered by hair insertions; unlike virescens, the base of the valve is not expanded into a large corema.
Derived terms
editTranslations
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References
editAnagrams
editAsturian
editEtymology
editFrom Latin aenigma (“riddle”), from Ancient Greek αἴνιγμα (aínigma, “dark saying, riddle”).
Noun
editenigma m (plural enigmes)
Related terms
editBasque
editEtymology
editBorrowed from Spanish enigma, from Latin aenigma (“riddle”), from Ancient Greek αἴνιγμα (aínigma, “dark saying, riddle”).
Noun
editenigma inan
Catalan
editEtymology
editBorrowed from Latin aenigma (“riddle”), from Ancient Greek αἴνιγμα (aínigma, “dark saying, riddle”).
Pronunciation
editNoun
editenigma m (plural enigmes)
Derived terms
editFurther reading
edit- “enigma” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
Esperanto
editEtymology
editPronunciation
editAudio: (file)
Adjective
editenigma (accusative singular enigman, plural enigmaj, accusative plural enigmajn)
Finnish
editEtymology
editLearned borrowing from Latin aenigma, from Ancient Greek αἴνιγμα (aínigma).
Pronunciation
editNoun
editenigma
Declension
editInflection of enigma (Kotus type 9/kala, no gradation) | |||
---|---|---|---|
nominative | enigma | enigmat | |
genitive | enigman | enigmojen | |
partitive | enigmaa | enigmoja | |
illative | enigmaan | enigmoihin | |
singular | plural | ||
nominative | enigma | enigmat | |
accusative | nom. | enigma | enigmat |
gen. | enigman | ||
genitive | enigman | enigmojen enigmain rare | |
partitive | enigmaa | enigmoja | |
inessive | enigmassa | enigmoissa | |
elative | enigmasta | enigmoista | |
illative | enigmaan | enigmoihin | |
adessive | enigmalla | enigmoilla | |
ablative | enigmalta | enigmoilta | |
allative | enigmalle | enigmoille | |
essive | enigmana | enigmoina | |
translative | enigmaksi | enigmoiksi | |
abessive | enigmatta | enigmoitta | |
instructive | — | enigmoin | |
comitative | See the possessive forms below. |
Galician
editEtymology
editFrom Latin aenigma (“riddle”), from Ancient Greek αἴνιγμα (aínigma, “dark saying, riddle”).
Noun
editenigma m (plural enigmas)
Related terms
editItalian
editEtymology
editBorrowed from Latin ænigma, from Ancient Greek αἴνιγμα (aínigma).[1]
Pronunciation
editNoun
editenigma m (plural enigmi)
Related terms
editReferences
edit- ^ Pianigiani, Ottorino (1907) “enigma”, in Vocabolario etimologico della lingua italiana (in Italian), Rome: Albrighi & Segati
Anagrams
editLatin
editPronunciation
edit- (Classical Latin) IPA(key): /eːˈniɡ.ma/, [eːˈnɪɡmä]
- (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): /eˈniɡ.ma/, [eˈniɡmä]
Noun
editēnigma n (genitive ēnigmatis); third declension
- Alternative form of aenigma
Declension
editThird-declension noun (neuter, imparisyllabic non-i-stem).
Case | Singular | Plural |
---|---|---|
Nominative | ēnigma | ēnigmata |
Genitive | ēnigmatis | ēnigmatum |
Dative | ēnigmatī | ēnigmatibus |
Accusative | ēnigma | ēnigmata |
Ablative | ēnigmate | ēnigmatibus |
Vocative | ēnigma | ēnigmata |
Polish
editEtymology
editPronunciation
editNoun
editenigma f
Declension
editRelated terms
editFurther reading
editPortuguese
editEtymology
editBorrowed from Latin aenigma (“riddle”), from Ancient Greek αἴνιγμα (aínigma, “dark saying, riddle”).
Pronunciation
edit
- Hyphenation: e‧nig‧ma
Noun
editenigma m (plural enigmas)
Related terms
editRomanian
editPronunciation
editNoun
editenigma f
Spanish
editEtymology
editFrom Latin aenigma (“riddle”), from Ancient Greek αἴνιγμα (aínigma, “dark saying, riddle”).
Pronunciation
editNoun
editenigma m (plural enigmas)
Related terms
editFurther reading
edit- “enigma”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014
Anagrams
edit- English terms derived from Latin
- English terms derived from Ancient Greek
- English 3-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- Rhymes:English/ɪɡmə
- Rhymes:English/ɪɡmə/3 syllables
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English uncountable nouns
- English countable nouns
- English nouns with irregular plurals
- English terms with quotations
- Asturian terms derived from Latin
- Asturian terms derived from Ancient Greek
- Asturian lemmas
- Asturian nouns
- Asturian masculine nouns
- Basque terms borrowed from Spanish
- Basque terms derived from Spanish
- Basque terms derived from Latin
- Basque terms derived from Ancient Greek
- Basque lemmas
- Basque nouns
- Basque inanimate nouns
- Catalan terms borrowed from Latin
- Catalan terms derived from Latin
- Catalan terms derived from Ancient Greek
- Catalan terms with IPA pronunciation
- Catalan lemmas
- Catalan nouns
- Catalan countable nouns
- Catalan masculine nouns ending in -a
- Catalan masculine nouns
- Esperanto terms suffixed with -a
- Esperanto terms with audio links
- Esperanto lemmas
- Esperanto adjectives
- Finnish terms borrowed from Latin
- Finnish learned borrowings from Latin
- Finnish terms derived from Latin
- Finnish terms derived from Ancient Greek
- Finnish 3-syllable words
- Finnish terms with IPA pronunciation
- Rhymes:Finnish/eniɡmɑ
- Rhymes:Finnish/eniɡmɑ/3 syllables
- Finnish lemmas
- Finnish nouns
- Finnish kala-type nominals
- Galician terms derived from Latin
- Galician terms derived from Ancient Greek
- Galician lemmas
- Galician nouns
- Galician countable nouns
- Galician nouns with irregular gender
- Galician masculine nouns
- Italian terms borrowed from Latin
- Italian terms derived from Latin
- Italian terms derived from Ancient Greek
- Italian 3-syllable words
- Italian terms with IPA pronunciation
- Rhymes:Italian/iɡma
- Rhymes:Italian/iɡma/3 syllables
- Italian lemmas
- Italian nouns
- Italian countable nouns
- Italian nouns with irregular gender
- Italian masculine nouns
- Latin 3-syllable words
- Latin terms with IPA pronunciation
- Latin lemmas
- Latin nouns
- Latin third declension nouns
- Latin neuter nouns in the third declension
- Latin neuter nouns
- Polish terms derived from Latin
- Polish terms derived from Ancient Greek
- Polish terms borrowed from French
- Polish terms derived from French
- Polish 3-syllable words
- Polish terms with IPA pronunciation
- Polish terms with audio links
- Rhymes:Polish/iɡma
- Rhymes:Polish/iɡma/3 syllables
- Polish lemmas
- Polish nouns
- Polish feminine nouns
- Polish literary terms
- Portuguese terms borrowed from Latin
- Portuguese terms derived from Latin
- Portuguese terms derived from Ancient Greek
- Portuguese 5-syllable words
- Portuguese 4-syllable words
- Portuguese terms with IPA pronunciation
- Portuguese lemmas
- Portuguese nouns
- Portuguese countable nouns
- Portuguese nouns with irregular gender
- Portuguese masculine nouns
- Romanian terms with IPA pronunciation
- Romanian non-lemma forms
- Romanian noun forms
- Spanish terms derived from Latin
- Spanish terms derived from Ancient Greek
- Spanish 3-syllable words
- Spanish terms with IPA pronunciation
- Rhymes:Spanish/iɡma
- Rhymes:Spanish/iɡma/3 syllables
- Spanish lemmas
- Spanish nouns
- Spanish countable nouns
- Spanish nouns with irregular gender
- Spanish masculine nouns