| idiot savant: A mentally defective person who exhibits exceptional skill or brilliance in some limited field. Such people, usually demonstrate their extraordinary ability in music, mathematics, feats of memory, or extra-sensory perception. By extension, the word has come to refer to a person who is highly knowledgeable about one subject but knows precious little about anything else. The term is French, meaning "learned idiot" incubus: An evil spirit that lies on persons in their sleep; especially one that has sexual intercourse with women while they are sleeping. Also, a nightmare, or feeling that oppresses like a nightmare. The term's sexual connotation comes from medieval times; the existence of the incubus was recognized in church and civil law. Testimony of the medieval victims of the demon is not unlike contemporary accounts of alien abduction. The female counterpart is the succubus, from the succumbere, to lie under. Trouble can result from not knowing things like this. The Reebok Corporation, to its enormous embarrassment, in 1997 was forced to withdraw a women's athletic shoe which they had named Incubus. in flagrante delicto: In the very act of committing a misdeed; red-handed. Also, in the midst of sexual activity. In Latin, it means while the crime is blazing. It's frequently applied to noncriminal but embarassing situations. icon: A conventional religioius image. Also, an object of uncritical devotion; an idol. An emblem or symbol. Someone who has achieved such fame and or authority in his field of endeavor that he is accorded wholehearted adoration; or someone who has become a symbol of a movement or idea or issue. |
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