lethetic
English
editEtymology
editUltimately from Ancient Greek λήθω (lḗthō, “to forget”).
Adjective
editlethetic (comparative more lethetic, superlative most lethetic)
- Failing to mirror reality, purely escapist or nonsensical.
- 1984, Fantasy Review - Issues 64-74:
- These lethetic fictions cut their ties to the real world, refusing to be mirrors of life.
- 1985, the New Orleans Review - Volume 12:
- If the structure of language is accepted as mirroring the world, the trope ceases to be a lethetic figure
- 1989, Clayton Koelb, Kafka's rhetoric: the passion of reading:
- Lethetic reading, on the other hand, could be liberating and indeed is liberating for some of Kafka's characters and for Kafka himself some of the time