23 November 2004

Word for the Day

entelechy · (en-TEL-&-ki) · noun
1. Perfect realization as opposed to a potentiality.
2. In some philosophies, a vital force that propels one to self-fulfillment.

"It concerns our final end, our entelechy, the purpose of our existence, where we are going to go."
--Gray Henry; "The First Prophet;" Parabola (New York); Spring 1996.

"As movies directed by ex-Star Trek actors go, it isn't nearly as jejune as, say, Leonard Nimoy's Three Men and a Baby, but neither does it possess the ambivalent entelechy of LeVar Burton's The Tiger Woods Story."
--Michael Atkinson; "Three Woman and an Organ;" The Village Voice (New York); Apr 9, 2002.
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[From Late Latin entelechia, from Greek entelecheia, from enteles (complete), from telos (end, completion) + echein (to have).]


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