metanohi/site/writings/atem.org

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Atem: a new word

#&summary A presentation of the new word 'atem' and why it's so desperately needed #&

Atem: a new word

Have you ever checked the Wiktionary entry for 'meta'? I have. It's right here. When I looked at it, I noticed that there were no antonyms. None!

But why?

#&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.

This alien agrees.

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.