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Work #1643 · Late-middle period

Webster's First New Intergalactic Wickedary of the English Language

Mary Daly and Jane Caputi's 1987 radical-feminist dictionary — playful neologistic linguistic-politics

Mary Daly · 1987 (with Jane Caputi) · English · Radical-feminist dictionary / neologistic philosophical work

Tradition: Mary-Daly radical feminism / linguistic-politics / post-Christian feminism

Daly and Caputi's 1987 'Wickedary' — radical-feminist dictionary, playful neologistic linguistic-politics

Published by Beacon Press in 1987 with co-author Jane Caputi (Daly's longtime collaborator and a media-studies and women's-studies professor at Florida Atlantic University), 'Webster's First New Intergalactic Wickedary of the English Language' is Daly's playful-radical-feminist dictionary of her distinctive vocabulary. Where the standard English-language dictionary names a patriarchal-Christian-imperial world, the Wickedary names an alternative feminist-cosmic-elemental world. The book is structured in three parts plus an extensive Preliminary Webs (introduction). Part I: Wickedary Definitions — an alphabetical dictionary of approximately 1500 entries that develop Daly's neologistic feminist vocabulary, often with elaborate cross-references, etymological-philosophical play, and (Caputi's contribution) iconic illustrations. Major terms: Wickedary (the dictionary itself); Nag-Gnostic (the radical feminist epistemological position — combining the 'nagging' that resists conventional politeness with the 'gnostic' that seeks hidden knowledge); Crone (the elder woman as the dictionary's principal user); Hag (the feminist heretic, claiming the misogynist epithet as a positive identity); Spinster (the unmarried woman as autonomous philosophical-political agent); Spiral Galaxy (Daly's term for phases of intellectual development); Be-Dazzling, Re-membering, Sin-Speaking, and many others. Part II: Word-Webs — thematic groupings of related terms, showing the relational structure of the Wickedary vocabulary. Part III: Conjurings — sample passages showing the Wickedary in use. The book is a major late-Daly work of linguistic-political philosophy in the form of a dictionary; it has been influential in subsequent feminist-philosophical work on language (especially Hélène Cixous's écriture féminine programme).

Author

Editions cited

  • Webster's First New Intergalactic Wickedary of the English Language (Beacon Press, Boston, 1987; in cahoots with Jane Caputi)
  • Companion works: Gyn/Ecology (Beacon, 1978); Pure Lust (Beacon, 1984); Outercourse (HarperSanFrancisco, 1992); Quintessence (Beacon, 1998)
  • Critical context: Sarah L. MacMillen, Mary Daly's 'Methodicide' (Routledge, 2018); Mary E. Hunt and Diann L. Neu (eds.), New Feminist Christianity (SkyLight Paths, 2010)
Compare this work

School Embodiments

Feminism · 30%
Philosophy of Language · 20%
Deconstruction · 14%
Critical Theory · 14%
Queer Theory · 8%
Intersectionality · 14%
Feminism 30%

Defining radical-feminist linguistic-politics.

"Wickedary — the feminist dictionary." (Wickedary, title)
Philosophy of Language 20%

Major feminist philosophy-of-language work.

"Patriarchal language imprisons; feminist language liberates." (Wickedary, introduction)
Deconstruction 14%

Strong deconstructive-linguistic methodology.

"Re-membering, dis-membering, naming." (Wickedary)
Critical Theory 14%

Critical-theoretical linguistic-political analysis.

"Language as the structural site of patriarchal power." (Wickedary)
Queer Theory 8%

Anticipates queer-theoretical attention to performative language.

"Language as performative-political act." (Wickedary)
Intersectionality 14%

Engagement with race, sex, and species in language.

"Patriarchal language across race, sex, species." (Wickedary)

Internal Tensions

Late-Daly distinctive linguistic-political work. The Wickedary is the most extensive single example of radical-feminist neologistic philosophy in English; the book has been continuously productive in subsequent feminist-philosophical engagement with language (especially feminist-philosophy-of-language and feminist literary theory).

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I. Time

1987. Daly was 59, in the period of her most prolific late-career work.

Attributes
Extent: Infinite Ontological Status: Relational Grain: Continuous Freedom: Non-Deterministic Traversability: Linear Direction: Uni-directional Dimensionality: One
✦

II. Space

Boston (Boston College and Daly's home in Newton, the converted-barn residence where she would hold her late seminars).

Attributes
Extent: Infinite Ontological Status: Relational Curvature: Flat Dimensionality: Three Locality: Local
◉

III. Matter

Single radical-feminist dictionary (~280 pages, lavishly illustrated). Form is encyclopedia-dictionary with Caputi's illustrations integrated throughout.

Attributes
Extent: Infinite Ontological Status: Substantival Conservation: Conserved Dimensionality: Three Locality: Local
◎

IV. Observer

Late-middle Daly. The observer-philosopher is the senior radical-feminist philosopher-theologian at her most linguistically inventive.

Attributes
Time Instance: Single Space Instance: Single Knowledge Extent: Immediate Knowledge Retainment: Partial Physicality: Both Agency: Active Number: Plural Metaphysical Agency: Impersonal
⚡

V. Energy

Linguistic-political energies. The book's distinctive force is the combination of philosophical-theological seriousness with linguistic-poetic play.

Attributes
Extent: Infinite Ontological Status: Substantival Conservation: Conserved Dispersibility: Reversible
⧉

VI. Information

Single book of ~1500 dictionary entries plus structural-thematic material. The Preliminary Webs (introduction) sets out the philosophical-methodological framework.

Attributes
Ontological Status: Relational Cosmic Conservation: Conserved Personal Conservation: Conserved Granularity: Continuous

Personas that cite this work

Mary Daly

Personas with the nearest attribute fingerprint

Historical figures whose own classification on the same six-dimensional grid lands closest to this work's. Computed by attribute-agreement on coordinates both address.

94%
Mary Daly
32/34
90%
Carneades
9/10
88%
Protagoras of Abdera
30/34
85%
Bruno Latour
29/34
85%
Rabindranath Tagore
29/34
83%
Theophrastus
25/30

Computed school proximity

The work's attribute fingerprint scored against all schools using the same quiz scorer. Useful as a sanity check on the hand-curated embodiments above.

65%
Process Philosophy
19/26
65%
Hylomorphism
21/26
62%
Cartesianism
21/26
58%
Ubuntu / African Communal Ontology
17/26
58%
Islamic Philosophy / Falsafa
18/26
58%
Confucianism
18/26
57%
Dvaita Vedanta
19/26
56%
Process Theology
16/26

How Webster's First New Intergalactic Wickedary of the English Language resolves each dilemma

37 resolved positions across 4 dimensions, including 6 distinctive where the majority of schools go the other way · 20 unaligned.

Each dimension is sorted so minority positions come first. Mainstream positions are folded into an expandable list.

Time · 9 dilemmas · 3 distinctive

Persistence, the future, and the direction of becoming.

Distinctive · only 15% of schools agree (31/202)
Is the universe running out of usable energy?
The heat death of the universe — entropy maxed out, no further work possible — is among the more sobering implications of mainstream physics. Whether it is structurally inescapable depends on what kind of finitude the cosmos has.
Both time and matter are unbounded; 'running out' is misframed.
On this view, the cosmos has neither a temporal horizon nor a material exhaustion point. The framing of running out presupposes bounds that the cosmos doesn't have. Energy gradients perpetuate; new configurations emerge; the categories that make heat-death scary don't apply at the cosmic scale.
Roads not taken Time is unbounded but matter is finite; usable energy can fail without time failing. (47%) · Time both has and lacks bounds depending on the level you ask at; finitude is conventional. (26%) · The cosmos has bounds; heat death is a real horizon. (12%)
Distinctive · only 15% of schools agree (31/202)
Are natural resources fundamentally finite, or only practically so?
Whether we can grow our way out of resource constraints — or whether the cosmos sets limits the economy ultimately must obey — depends on what kind of finitude matter has.
Resources are practically inexhaustible on cosmic scales; terrestrial limits are engineering.
On this view, matter and time are both unbounded at the largest scales. Terrestrial resource limits are real engineering and political constraints but not metaphysical ones; the cosmos can in principle support whatever expansion intelligence is capable of.
Roads not taken Time goes on but matter is bounded; we are eventually constrained even with infinite time. (47%) · The finitude question is level-dependent; resource ethics happens at the level that constrains us. (26%) · Resources are finite in the strict sense; living well requires accepting the limit. (12%)
Distinctive · only 15% of schools agree (31/202)
Could we owe future generations more than is materially possible to provide?
If we owe future people a habitable planet and the material means to flourish, and the cosmos is bounded in ways that make those obligations impossible at some scale, the obligation and the possibility come apart. Where they come apart turns on what kind of finitude we live in.
Both time and matter are unbounded; we cannot in principle owe more than is possible.
On this view, the cosmos has the resources to support whatever flourishing future generations are capable of, given sufficient time and intelligence. The impossibility concern is misplaced; the real questions are about trajectories and choices, not about resource ceilings.
Roads not taken Time is unbounded but matter is not; we can owe more across long time than the matter can provide. (47%) · The owing-and-possibility question is level-dependent; we owe what is appropriate at the level we act on. (26%) · The cosmos is bounded; our obligations to future generations are bounded with it. (12%)
6 mainstream positions
Do you really choose? The future is open and you are a genuine origin of it. 69% Are addicts responsible for their addiction? The addict could have chosen otherwise — that's why recovery is real. 69% Should we hold AI systems responsible for what they do? An AI without a free will is not the kind of thing that can be responsible. 69% How much weight do future people deserve? Time arises from events or from a deeper substrate — the future is not yet. 32% Is regret rational? The past is not a thing now; regret is the present holding what is no longer. 32% Do we owe extinct species something we cannot give them? Past species no longer exist; what we owe is to the present and the future. 32%
Matter · 7 dilemmas, all mainstream
Is the world created from nothing? Yes — matter was created and is conserved as a real substance. 55% Is the physical world fully real? Yes — the physical world is fully real, mind-independent, persisting. 55% Does matter have intrinsic moral standing? Matter is morally considerable insofar as it is created or conserved good. 55% What is money? Money is a real institution with intrinsic features. 54% What is a nation? A nation is a real moral community with intrinsic character. 54% What makes someone male or female? Sex is a real biological kind with given content. 54% Should we edit the human germline? Human nature is a real biological kind given by reproductive biology or by creation; editing the germline transgresses what is given. 54%

Observer · 37 dilemmas · 3 distinctive

Mind, agency, and the knower's relation to the known.

Distinctive · only 5% of schools agree (11/202)
Is environmental damage ever truly permanent?
Extinction is forever; soil erosion takes centuries to repair; the carbon we emit will warm the climate for millennia. But whether 'forever' or 'millennia' means what they say depends on what kind of process the universe is.
What appears irreversible is reversible by the right action.
On this view, the appearance of permanence is a function of limits we have not yet exceeded. Divine action, sufficiently advanced technology, intentional restoration practice can in principle reverse what now appears irreversible. The lost is not gone for good; it is gone for now.
Roads not taken Damage is real and permanent on the relevant timescales. There is no recovery; there is only limitation. (66%) · Loss is part of cycles; what disappears returns in another form. (17%) · From the standpoint of the One, the categories of permanence and loss are conventional. (8%)
Distinctive · only 5% of schools agree (11/202)
Can a civilization recover from collapse?
Rome fell; Maya cities emptied; Bronze Age trade networks collapsed in a single generation. Whether what was lost can be recovered — or whether collapse is structurally final — depends on what kind of process civilization is.
Civilization is the kind of order that can in principle be restored.
On this view, the order that constitutes civilization — information, practices, institutions, ethics — is not destroyed by collapse, only dispersed. Given the right work, by humans, divine action, or both, it can be reconstituted. The historical pattern of recovery and renewal is partial evidence; …
Roads not taken Civilizational complexity is hard to build and easy to lose; recovery is at best partial. (66%) · Civilization rises and falls in cycles; recovery is structural to history. (17%) · From the One's vantage, civilizational categories are themselves conventional. (8%)
Distinctive · only 5% of schools agree (11/202)
Does the second law of thermodynamics mean something morally?
The universe trends from order to disorder. Whether that physical pattern carries moral weight — making the preservation of order, beauty, complexity a kind of cosmic duty — depends on whether time has the kind of structure morality could lean on.
Apparent entropy is reversible in principle; the moral category is restoration.
On this view, the second law describes local pattern rather than cosmic destiny. What is broken can be repaired — by divine action, by human work, by energetic intervention. The moral weight of restoration is real and not borrowed from the physics. The cosmos is …
Roads not taken Entropy is what time is. The moral weight, if any, is the weight of working against the current. (66%) · Local entropy increase is part of a cycle; the moral category is participation in the cycle. (17%) · From the One's vantage, the second law is itself a feature of the conventional, not the ultimate. (8%)
14 mainstream positions
Could causation work backwards? Causation runs one way — the arrow of time is real and structural. 68% Is the asymmetry between memory and anticipation a real feature of time, or just of us? The asymmetry is real because time itself has a real direction. 68% Is the arrow of time a real feature of the cosmos, or only of how we describe it? The arrow is real and structural; the asymmetry isn't an artifact of description. 68% When does a person begin? A person exists from conception — when a new being comes into existence. 54% What is marriage? Marriage has a given form — it’s a kind of thing we recognize, not make. 54% What is our place in nature? Active in a real nature — we cultivate, steward, transform. 48% Should we colonize space? Cultivating worlds beyond Earth is the next form of stewardship. 48% Is genetic engineering of food stewardship or domination? Genetic modification is cultivation by other means. 48% Should we trust expert testimony when we can't verify it? Trust expertise whose conclusions a competent mind can in principle reproduce. 32% Is religious revelation a real source of knowledge? Revelation is evaluable by reason — and not above it. 32% Does an LLM 'know' the things it correctly produces? An LLM can produce correct outputs but not reason to them; useful, not knowing. 32% What makes someone the same person over time? You are a soul — what persists through change is the non-bodily aspect. 29% Is the late-stage dementia patient still the person their spouse married? The soul persists; the cognitive change is the body's, not the person's. 29% If a teleporter copied and destroyed you, would you have survived? The soul accompanies the person; engineering can't transfer it. 29%
20 unaligned
Are coincidences ever more than coincidence? Schools split: 49% / 37% / 8% — Are the dead morally present to the living? Schools split: 44% / 35% / 13% — Are there indivisible units of experience? Schools split: 44% / 37% / 13% — Can prayer for someone far away affect them? Schools split: 49% / 37% / 8% — Could a fetal brain organoid in a petri dish be conscious? Schools split: 32% / 29% / 11% — Could an AI have a mind that matters? Schools split: 30% / 30% / 15% — Do animals have moral standing comparable to humans? Schools split: 32% / 29% / 11% — Does environmental harm in another country bind me morally? Schools split: 50% / 29% / 12% — Does history have a direction or meaning? Schools split: 37% / 23% / 19% — Does meditation reveal something genuinely timeless? Schools split: 46% / 33% / 13% — Does prayer change God's mind? Schools split: 46% / 33% / 13% — How is knowledge of reality produced? Schools split: 25% / 17% / 13% — Is divine omniscience compatible with human freedom? Schools split: 46% / 33% / 13% — Is memory stored or reconstructed? Schools split: 44% / 37% / 13% — Is reality fundamentally digital? Schools split: 44% / 37% / 13% — Is salvation, liberation, or fulfillment individual or communal? Schools split: 15% / 14% / 4% — Is truth universal, tradition-bound, situated, or constructed? Schools split: 65% / 16% / 10% — What happens to "you" when you die? Schools split: 37% / 30% / 18% — What kind of religious-theological authority does the tradition recognize? Schools split: 44% / 16% / 14% — Who is the moral primary — the individual, the community, the cosmos, the class, or the species? Schools split: 40% / 28% / 14% —
Information · 4 dilemmas, all mainstream
Is anything truly lost when someone forgets? Information is conserved — the personal pattern is held even when an individual mind loses it. 39% Does deleting your data online destroy something real? Information at the cosmic level isn't destroyed; deletion only obscures access. 39% Could the dead, in principle, be brought back? The information that constitutes a person is conserved; restoration is in principle possible. 39% Is forgiveness ontologically possible? The offense persists ontologically; forgiveness is real moral work, but it doesn't erase what was. 39%
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