Why this word is great
MAPPEMONDE — [Noun] A medieval map of the known or imagined world. From Old French mapamonde (modern French mappemonde), from Latin mappa mundī ("map of the world"), from mappa ("cloth, chart") + mundī (genitive of mundus, "world"). Unlike an "atlas" (a systematic compilation of modern maps) or a "portolan" (a pragmatic chart for sailors), a mappemonde is a singular artifact of wonder, where geography bends to theology and myth. It is Jerusalem centered like a navel, the edges crawling with dog-headed men and antipodean monsters; it is the world as a flat disk cupped in divine hands, or as a body with rivers for veins and mountains for bones; it is the cartographer’s quill tracing not just coastlines but the boundaries of belief—a fragile attempt to hold the vast and unknowable in the palm of parchment.