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Mandrake (mythology)
A mandrake is the root of a plant, historically derived either from plants of the genus ''Mandragora (genus), Mandragora'' (in the Family (biology), family Solanaceae) found in the Mediterranean region, or from other species, such as ''Bryonia alba'' (the English mandrake, in the family Cucurbitaceae) or the American mandrake (''Podophyllum peltatum'' in the family Berberidaceae) which have similar properties. The plants from which the root is obtained are also called "mandrakes". Mediterranean mandrakes are perennial herbaceous plants with ovate leaves arranged in a rosette, a thick upright root, often branched, and bell-shaped flowers that produce yellow or orange Berry (botany), berries. They have been placed in different species by different authors. They are highly variable Perennial plant, perennial herbaceous plants with long thick roots (often branched) and almost no stem. The leaves are borne in a basal rosette, and are variable in size and shape, with a maximum length o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mandragoras 454 Dodoens 1583
In European folklore, mandragoras are familiar spirit, familiar demons who appear in the figures of Little people (mythology), little men without beards. Mandragoras are thought to be little dolls or figures given to Magic (paranormal), sorcerers by the Devil for the purpose of being consulted by them in time of need, and it would seem as if this conception had sprung directly from that of the ''Fetishism, fetish'', which is nothing else than a dwelling-place made by a shaman or medicine-man for the reception of any wandering spirit who chooses to take up his abode therein. See also * Mandrake (mythology), Mandrake * Imp * Golem * Homunculus References {{reli-stub European demons Familiars Little people (mythology) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pareidolia
Pareidolia (; ) is the tendency for perception to impose a meaningful interpretation on a nebulous stimulus (physiology), stimulus, usually visual, so that one detects an object, pattern, or meaning where there is none. Pareidolia is a specific but common type of apophenia (the tendency to perceive meaningful connections between unrelated things or ideas). Common examples include Cloud#In culture and religion, perceived images of animals, faces, or objects in cloud formations; seeing faces in inanimate objects; or lunar pareidolia like the Man in the Moon or the Moon rabbit. The concept of pareidolia may extend to include hidden messages in recorded music played in reverse or at higher- or lower-than-normal speeds, and hearing voices (mainly indistinct) or music in random noise, such as that produced by air conditioners or by fans. Face pareidolia has also been demonstrated in Rhesus macaque, rhesus macaques. Etymology The word derives from the Greek words ''wikt:para-, pará'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anticholinergic
Anticholinergics (anticholinergic agents) are substances that block the action of the acetylcholine (ACh) neurotransmitter at synapses in the central nervous system, central and peripheral nervous system. These agents inhibit the parasympathetic nervous system by selectively blocking the binding of ACh to its receptor in nerve cells. The nerve fibers of the parasympathetic system are responsible for the involuntary movement of Smooth muscle tissue, smooth muscles present in the gastrointestinal tract, urinary tract, lungs, sweat glands, and many other parts of the body. In broad terms, anticholinergics are divided into two categories in accordance with their specific targets in the central and peripheral nervous system and at the neuromuscular junction: antimuscarinic agents and antinicotinic agents (ganglionic blockers, neuromuscular blockers). The term "anticholinergic" is typically used to refer to antimuscarinics that competitively inhibit the binding of ACh to muscarinic a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alkaloid
Alkaloids are a broad class of natural product, naturally occurring organic compounds that contain at least one nitrogen atom. Some synthetic compounds of similar structure may also be termed alkaloids. Alkaloids are produced by a large variety of organisms including bacteria, fungus, fungi, Medicinal plant, plants, and animals. They can be purified from crude extracts of these organisms by acid-base extraction, or solvent extractions followed by silica-gel column chromatography. Alkaloids have a wide range of pharmacology, pharmacological activities including antimalarial medication, antimalarial (e.g. quinine), asthma, antiasthma (e.g. ephedrine), chemotherapy, anticancer (e.g. omacetaxine mepesuccinate, homoharringtonine), cholinomimetic (e.g. galantamine), vasodilation, vasodilatory (e.g. vincamine), Antiarrhythmic agent, antiarrhythmic (e.g. quinidine), analgesic (e.g. morphine), antibacterial (e.g. chelerythrine), and anti-diabetic, antihyperglycemic activities (e.g. berb ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gallows
A gallows (or less precisely scaffold) is a frame or elevated beam, typically wooden, from which objects can be suspended or "weighed". Gallows were thus widely used to suspend public weighing scales for large and heavy objects such as sacks of grain or minerals, usually positioned in markets or toll gates. The term was also used for a projecting framework from which a ship's anchor might be raised so it is no longer sitting on the seabed, riverbed or dock; "weighing [the] anchor" meant raising it using this apparatus while avoiding striking the ship's hull. In modern usage the term has come to mean almost exclusively a scaffold or gibbet used for execution (legal), execution by hanging. Etymology The term "wikt:gallows, gallows" was derived from a Proto-Germanic word ''wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic/galgô, galgô'' that refers to a "pole", "rod" or "tree branch". With the beginning of Christianization, Ulfilas used the term ''galga'' in his Gothic language, Gothic T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Flemish Dialects
Flemish ( ) is a Low Franconian dialect cluster of the Dutch language. It is sometimes referred to as Flemish Dutch (), Belgian Dutch ( ), or Southern Dutch (). Flemish is native to the region known as Flanders in northern Belgium; it is spoken by Flemings, the dominant ethnic group of the region. Outside of Belgium Flanders, it is also spoken to some extent in French Flanders and the Dutch Zeelandic Flanders. Terminology The term ''Flemish'' itself has become ambiguous. Nowadays, it is used in at least five ways, depending on the context. These include: # An indication of Dutch written and spoken in Flanders including the Dutch standard language as well as the non-standardized dialects, including intermediate forms between vernacular dialects and the standard. Some linguists avoid the term ''Flemish'' in this context and prefer the designation ''Belgian-Dutch'' or ''South-Dutch'' # A synonym for the so-called intermediate language in Flanders region, the # An indica ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lily Weiser-Aall
Lily Weiser-Aall (18 December 1898 – 26 February 1987), born Elisabeth Augusta Jeanette Weiser, was an Austrian philologist and ethnologist who specialized in Germanic studies. Biography Lily Weiser-Aall was born in Vienna, Austria-Hungary on 18 December 1898 to an upper middle class family. Her father was a lawyer and her mother was a singer and pianist. After gaining her abitur, Weiser-Aall studied German and Nordic philology at the University of Vienna under Rudolf Much. She became one of Much's favourite students, and gained her Ph.D. in 1922 under his supervision with a thesis on Yule. Her thesis was published in 1923. After gaining her Ph.D., Weiser-Aall held an internship at a museum in Hamburg, and worked as a teacher at a Viennese middle school for girls. During this time Weisser-All attended scholarly conferences in Sweden and Italy, where she established contacts with folklorists such as and Eugen Fehrle. With Much and Fehrle, Weiser-Aall conducted her post-doctor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Drak (mythology)
The ''Drak'' (), ''Drâk'', ''Dråk'',Jungwirth: ''Kobold''. In: Hanns Bächtold-Stäubli, Eduard Hoffmann-Krayer: ''Handwörterbuch des Deutschen Aberglaubens: Band 5 Knoblauch-Matthias''. Berlin/New York 2000, p. 33. ''Drakel'' or ''Fürdrak'' (either for-''Drak'' or fire ''Drak''), in Oldenburg also ''Drake'' (f.), is a household spirit from German folklore often identified with the ''Kobold''Mackensen: ''Drache''. In: Hanns Bächtold-Stäubli, Eduard Hoffmann-Krayer: ''Handwörterbuch des Deutschen Aberglaubens: Band 2 C.M.B.-Frautragen''. Berlin/New York 2000, p. 391 f. or the devil (German ''Teufel''),Jungwirth: ''Kobold''. In: Hanns Bächtold-Stäubli, Eduard Hoffmann-Krayer: ''Handwörterbuch des Deutschen Aberglaubens: Band 5 Knoblauch-Matthias''. Berlin/New York 2000, p. 46. both of which are also used as synonymous terms for ''Drak''. Otherwise it is also known as ''Drache'' (dragon) but has nothing much to do with the reptilian monster in general.Mackensen: ''Drache''. I ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kobold
A kobold (; ''kobolt'', ''kobolde'', cobold) is a general or generic name for the household spirit (''hausgeist'') in German folklore. It may invisibly make noises (i.e., be a poltergeist), or helpfully perform kitchen chores or stable work. But it can be a prankster as well. It may expect a bribe or offering of milk, etc. for its efforts or good behaviour. When mistreated (cf. fig. right), its reprisal can be utterly cruel. A () meaning "little hat" is one subtype; this and other kobold sprites are known for its pointy red cap, such as the ''niss'' (cognate of Nisse (folklore), nisse of Norway) or ''puk'' (cognate of Puck (folklore), puck fairy) which are attested in Northern Germany, alongside ''drak'', a dragon-type name, as the sprite is sometimes said to appear as a shaft of fire, with what looks like a head. There is also the combined form Nis Puk. A house sprite Hinzelmann is a shape-shifter assuming many forms, such as a feather or animals. The name supposedly refer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Household Spirit
A household deity is a deity or spirit that protects the home, looking after the entire household or certain key members. It has been a common belief in paganism as well as in folklore across many parts of the world. Household deities fit into two types; firstly, a specific deity typically a goddess often referred to as a hearth goddess or domestic goddess who is associated with the home and hearth, such as the ancient Greek Hestia. The second type of household deity is not one singular deity but a type or species of animism, animistic, which usually has lesser powers than major deities. This type was common in the religions of antiquity, such as the lares of Religion in ancient Rome, ancient Roman religion, the gashin of Korean shamanism, and cofgodas of Anglo-Saxon paganism. These survived Christianisation as fairy-like creatures existing in folklore, such as the Anglo-Scottish brownie (folklore), brownie and Slavic domovoy. Household deities were usually worshipped not in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
French Language
French ( or ) is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European family. Like all other Romance languages, it descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire. French evolved from Northern Old Gallo-Romance, a descendant of the Latin spoken in Northern Gaul. Its closest relatives are the other langues d'oïl—languages historically spoken in northern France and in southern Belgium, which French (Francien language, Francien) largely supplanted. It was also substratum (linguistics), influenced by native Celtic languages of Northern Roman Gaul and by the Germanic languages, Germanic Frankish language of the post-Roman Franks, Frankish invaders. As a result of French and Belgian colonialism from the 16th century onward, it was introduced to new territories in the Americas, Africa, and Asia, and numerous French-based creole languages, most notably Haitian Creole, were established. A French-speaking person or nation may be referred to as Fra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Folk Etymology
Folk etymology – also known as (generative) popular etymology, analogical reformation, (morphological) reanalysis and etymological reinterpretation – is a change in a word or phrase resulting from the replacement of an unfamiliar form by a more familiar one through popular usage. The form or the meaning of an archaic, foreign, or otherwise unfamiliar word is reinterpreted as resembling more familiar words or morphemes. The term ''folk etymology'' is a loan translation from German ''Volksetymologie'', coined by Ernst Förstemann in 1852. Folk etymology is a productive process in historical linguistics, language change, and social interaction. Reanalysis of a word's history or original form can affect its spelling, pronunciation, or meaning. This is frequently seen in relation to loanwords or words that have become archaic or obsolete. Folk/popular etymology may also refer to a popular false belief about the etymology of a word or phrase that does not lead to a change in t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
