It is one of those moments by which the sting probably makes it feel more significant than it is, but still, I just don’t feel like dealing with this, right now:
Oh, for … now I have to go back and … I know the first definition, but have overlooked the second in a way that is actually important but obscure and therefore hard to explain. Stetkevych, “Muhammad and the Golden Bough”. Recursive apotropaism in the analysis that I missed.
[Stetkevych, Jaroslav. Muhammad and the Golden Bough: Reconstructing Arabian Myth. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1996.]
See also: Robert Macfarlane:
Word of the day: “apotropaic” – of an object, mark, gesture or utterance; preventing of evil, warding off of harm. Also, of an image or sight; causing the viewer to turn away, to feel unsettled.
(from Greek ἀποτρέπειν ,”to turn away”, to “avert”)
[repository] 