omphaloskepsis love

Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Contemplation of or meditation upon one's navel.
  • noun figuratively ratiocination to the point of self-absorption

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun literally, the contemplation of one's navel, which is an idiom usually meaning complacent self-absorption

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Ancient Greek ὀμφαλός (omphalos, "navel") + σκέψις (skepsis, "perception, reflection")

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Examples

  • That was no way to earn three ounces of jasmine oil, let alone to earn three years of omphaloskepsis, which was what the doctor ordered (or did the doctor order the smothered burrito?).

    La insistencia de Jürgen Fauth 2010

  • Learned a new word you would like .. omphaloskepsis.

    festival of ones and zeros 2007

  • If pressed, could you spell syzygy or capybara, phylactery or omphaloskepsis or acouchi?

    Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph 2011

  • If pressed, could you spell syzygy or capybara, phylactery or omphaloskepsis or acouchi?

    Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph 2011

  • And once we get this baby up and running, expect to see me go back and forth between think-piece omphaloskepsis like the above and discussions of shows and artstuff I get to see here in the Los Angeles area and where'er else I travel.

    The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com Peter Frank 2010

  • And once we get this baby up and running, expect to see me go back and forth between think-piece omphaloskepsis like the above and discussions of shows and artstuff I get to see here in the Los Angeles area and where'er else I travel.

    The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com Peter Frank 2010

  • Entries might be traditional accounts of the day's hiking, messages to stragglers behind heckling them to catch up, introspective omphaloskepsis, cryptic musings of no obvious relevance to anything on the trail, or even entirely different things.

    Planet Mozilla 2009

  • These boring people who seem to spend their time telling us how to vote, omphaloskepsis, or calling the paparazzi over for crotch shots of their kids will be around for at least another six months.

    ORACULATIONS 2009

  • These boring people who seem to spend their time telling us how to vote, omphaloskepsis, or calling the paparazzi over for crotch shots of their kids will be around for at least another six months.

    ORACULATIONS 2009

  • Entries might be traditional accounts of the day's hiking, messages to stragglers behind heckling them to catch up, introspective omphaloskepsis, cryptic musings of no obvious relevance to anything on the trail, or even entirely different things.

    Planet Mozilla 2009

Comments

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  • I keep contemplating it, but nothing's happening. Maybe I'm doing it wrong?

    January 17, 2007

  • Omphaloskepsis (self-absorbed, navel-gazing). I'm not really a selfish person, but I do occasionally need someone to remind me to look up from my navel. Plus, things that have to do with belly-buttons are generally pretty fun.

    (Anise Brock, San Francisco, USA)

    October 15, 2008

  • Make your own comments, geesh! I ALSO like this word because of the ancient association. The omphalos was a stone thought to be the 'navel' of the earth. But it brings such Discworld-type associations to my mind. Giant belly-buttons under the ground . . .

    April 22, 2009

  • This word is great because it can act as an idiom, or indeed as a literal term. Who doesn't periodical ponder at the marvel that is one's belly button?

    April 23, 2009

  • My classmate suffers from acute omphaloskepsis.

    May 9, 2009