Various entries from Websters' First New Intergalactic Wickedary of the English Language, by Mary Daly with Jane Caputi, originally published in 1987 by HarperCollins and reissued in paperback form in 1994. According to the jacket text, the unusual dictionary "frees the English language from its patriarchal and confining patterns by Weaving [sic] a fascinating, feminist, linguistic revolution." Sojourner comments: "Mary Daly has once again given us a brilliant, Goddess-inspired and Original [sic] book.... Hard evidence that she is, without question, one of the finest minds of our time." Ms. Daly teaches Feminist Ethics at Boston College and lectures in the United States and Europe "Irregularly." [sic]

Abecedarian n ["one that is learning the alphabet.... archaic: one that teaches the alphabet and the rudiments of learning"—Webster's] : a Be-Spelling woman who combines and recombines the Elements of words in New ways, Hearing New Words into be-ing

Spooking: Re-membering Witches' powers to cast Glamours; Re-calling our powers to detect and exorcise patriarchal patterns that spook women; Dis-possessing women's Selves of the demons of the Predatory State....

Time/Spaceship n : vehicle of memory, Divination, and Archaic/Astral Travel; vessel steered governed by the Witch within all Weirdsome women

Parthenogenesis (Anne Dellenbaugh) n [derived fr. Gk parthenos virgin + Gk genesis birth—American Heritage] 1: process of a woman creating her Self 2: process by which a Virgin brings forth Daughters by herSelf without the interference or input of any male 3: process by which a Spinster creates unfathered works: SPINNING. See Virgin

Toadal Time: the Time of the Toad; Toadally experienced Time; Time of Toadal encounters: eventide; Hopping Time, outside the totaled time of clockocracy

Volcanoes, Women as: all women under patriarchy, understood as containing deep Memories and Passions which always have the potential to rise explosively to the surface, making possible Self-Realization and Macromutational leaps of consciousness. Canny Comment:

So what we have in effect, each of us, is miles and miles of underground corridors full of filing cabinets in which we busily file away mountains of data every day.

Somewhere in these endless subterranean storage cabinets, women have a unique file entitled "What it means to be female in a male world." ...

The miraculous part of an epiphany is that when the file bursts, and all the file data flood into the conscious mind, they are perfectly organized; they present one with conclusions. I knew instantly what the women's movement was all about; I knew it in my very bones.

—Sonia Johnson

Prime Matter: Original Matter that is alive and that is also Spirit of the finest corporeality. Examples: rocks, trees, stars, butterflies, the readers of this book

Spell-Muttering: the mad mumbling/grumbling of Furious Crackpot Crones. Example: the mutterings of "Trudy," character created by Lily Tomlin and Jane Wagner for Tomlin's one-woman show, The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe (1985)

Quack-pot Crone [akin to Crackpot Crone] : a wise old She-Duck; a Laughing Duck

Lunatic n [(derived fr. L luna moon): "...one who is wildly eccentric: one crazy actions or extravagances: CRACKPOT"—Webster's] : This definition has been awarded Websters' Intergalactic Seal of Approval. See Crackpot Crone; Maenad; Weird

[Ed.: In 1999, after excluding male students from her Boston College classroom for 25 years, Ms. Daly was pressured under federal anti-discrimination law to admit men, leading her to take a leave of absence instead.]

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