peritext means images and textual elements which surround, or are secondary to, the main body of a published work, such as an introduction, notes, front covers, etc. It carries an Arena rating of 1419, earned across 87 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, peritext ranks #2,137 of 17,138 for Most Incisive Words, #3,240 of 17,149 for Most Exacting Words, #6,660 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words, #7,333 of 17,151 for The Improbable.
Why “peritext” is a great word
PERITEXT — [Noun] The constellation of textual and visual elements that physically surround and frame the main body of a published work, such as a preface, cover, and notes. Formed within English by derivation; from the prefix peri- (meaning "around, surrounding") + text. The concept was defined by Gérard Genette in his 1997 work on paratext. Unlike "epitext" (material like interviews existing outside the book's binding) or the overarching "paratext" (the general category of thresholds), peritext is the tangible architecture of the book itself. It is the deliberate weight of the hardcover, the cryptic italic footnote that alters a chapter's meaning, and the author's name in raised, cool foil on the spine—the silent apparatus where a book first learns to introduce itself.
Etymology
By surface analysis, peri- + text.
noun
- Images and textual elements which surround, or are secondary to, the main body of a published work, such as an introduction, notes, front covers, etc.e.g.“The main work is not the translation at all, but Nabokov's appropriation of it through his inflated peritext.” — 2011, David Bellos, Is That a Fish in Your Ear?, Penguin, published 2012, page 143:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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