It's the word of the day for October 10th.
Today's word is numinous, spelled N-U-M-I-N-O-U-S.
Numinous is an adjective.
It's a formal,
often literary word that typically describes things that have a mysterious or spiritual quality.
It can also describe something holy or something that appeals to one's aesthetic sense.
Here's the word used in a sentence from The New Yorker by John Adams.
The breakthrough for me was the idea of embedding the hymn-like harmonies of Charles Ives' sublime,
the unanswered question with my music.
Ives gives this hushed hymn to a string orchestra playing pianissimo throughout.
A lone trumpet seeming to come from another planet asks the question repeatedly,
five notes without a text but full of numinous meaning.
When people of the 1600s were ruminating on an adjective to reflect their awe of the mystical and supernatural elements of their experiences,
they gave the nod to the word numinous, and quite aptly so.
Numenus comes from the Latin word numen, which can mean both a nod of the head and divine will.
The latter sense suggesting a figurative divine nod indicating approval or command.
English users were already using the noun numen, a direct borrowing from Latin,
to refer to a spiritual force or influence associated with a particular place or phenomenon.
Numenis is not a common or everyday word,
which seems fitting for one used to describe what is far from quotidian,