cimmerianism

Etymology

From cimmerian + -ism.

cimmerianism means mental darkness; ignorance. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 88 out of 100.

Why “cimmerianism” is a great word

CIMMERIANISM — [Noun] A state of mental darkness or profound ignorance. From Cimmerian (pertaining to the mythical Cimmerians, a people said to dwell in perpetual darkness) + -ism (forming nouns of action or condition). Unlike obscurantism, which denotes a deliberate policy of preventing enlightenment, or nescience, a neutral term for a simple lack of knowledge, Cimmerianism is a passive, inherent gloom of the intellect. It is the fog that never lifts from a closed mind, the soil in which no seed of an idea can germinate, and the static on a radio tuned to a frequency of pure silence—the native and unexamined night of the soul.

noun

mental darkness; ignorance.“1824, Blackwood's magazine, Volume 16, Letters of Timothy Tickler, Esp. No. XVIII. It is sufficient to have given all who understand anything about such matters, a glimpse of the awful cimmerianism of the philologer and classical critic of the Edinburgh Review.”