Word of the Day Archive
Monday June 19, 2006
ephemeron \ih-FEM-uh-ron\ , noun;
plural ephemera \ih-FEM-uh-ruh\:
1. Something short-lived or of no lasting significance.
2. ephemera: Items, especially printed matter (as posters, broadsides, pamphlets, etc.), intended to be of use or importance for only a short time but preserved by collectors.
And collections of correspondence will always reveal "a remarkable mind, grappling with everything from the ephemera of day-to-day life to the mysteries of the universe."
-- John Bloom, "The 'Art' of the Review", National Review, May 21, 2002
The Sanskrit word for the world is jagati, while the word for changing or evanescent is jagat: the world's evanescent nature is actually built into the very definition of "world." Yet behind this shimmering ephemeron lies the deeper, sacred reality -- Brahman, the infinite, transcendent reality that covers and pervades all things.
-- Pravrajika Vrajaprana, "Contemporary Spirituality and the Thinning of the Sacred: A Hindu Perspective", Cross Currents, Spring-Summer 2000
It is one of the most collectable of all cult shows, with an army of fans hungry for a plethora of Star Trek ephemera.
-- Nick Pandya, "To boldly go where others don't", The Guardian, March 23, 2002
Ephemeron is from Greek, from ephemeros, "daily; lasting or living only a day," from epi, "upon" + hemera, "day."
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for ephemeron
