#+title: Atem: a new word
#&summary
A presentation of the new word 'atem' and why it's so desperately needed
#&
#+license: bysa

* Atem: a new word

Have you ever checked the Wiktionary entry for 'meta'? I have. It's right
[[http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/meta#English][here]]. When I looked at it, I noticed that there were no antonyms. *None!*

But why?

#+caption: This alien agrees.
#&img;url=/img/aliens/lulala.png,float=right,width=200
I often find it useful to be able to un-metaize complex thoughts: instead of
thinking about thinking (meta-thinking), I think. Nothing else. However, when I
mention that "I think", it may not be obvious that before I was thinking, I was
thinking about thinking, which is why I have chosen to create *atem*, a new
word whose only function is to act as meta's antonym. With this word, I can now
say that "I atem-think", meaning "I think because I thought of thinking", or I
can say that "I think", meaning "I think". 'atem' removes a lot of ambiguity
from the English language.

Ok, maybe not that often, but sometimes it's useful.

Also, *atem* could be quite useful in abstract definitions, as a way to focus
on making something abstract concrete instead of making something concrete
abstract. For example, this page is probably an atem-page, because somewhere
out there there's a page about this page.

Perhaps every object in existence could be considered an atem object. It's not
impossible, it just doesn't make much sense.

Still, this word could be useful. I hope it gets into a dictionary.