siderism
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 0.00 in modern English
11
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
1
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A former system of natural philosophy that posited relationships of inorganic phenomena to organic phenomena and studied pendulums, magnets, and dowsing rods; developed by Johann Wilhelm Ritter (1776–1810) and others.
Uncountable
noun
The supposed curative effects of metals upon the body, in metallotherapy; metallotherapy itself.
Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "You’d think such a momentous finding [the discovery of ultraviolet light] would have elevated Ritter to the status of Herschel. It didn’t. First Ritter continued his habit of embedding his findings in the language of polarities and soul, the Naturphilosophie tenets of “oneness between nature and people.” And soon he got worse, routinely peppering his papers with references to such occult practices as dowsing (using a divining rod to find water underground). He imagined he’d found the general principles governing the interdependencies of inorganic nature and human phenomena and named this new branch of study siderism. He even published a periodical with that title. With virtually no subscribers, its first issue was its last."
Etymology
From sidero- (“star-related”) + -ism.