Roddles suggested that
numinous might also be re-classified to rare.
The word was "invented" in the 1920s by a German theologian named Rudolf Otto:
For this purpose I adopt a word coined from the Latin numen. Omen has given us ominous, and there is no reason why from numen we should not similarly form a word ‘numinous’. I shall speak..of a unique ‘numinous’ category of value and of a definitely ‘numinous’ state of mind.
I put "invented" in quotes, because the word already existed as an obscure word for something that indicated the presence of the divine.
Numen, which is listed in English dictionaries (and accepted in Chihuahua as a rare word), means a divinity or spirit.
In the 20th century it seems the word
numinous came to be used more broadly, for anything that invoked a feeling of transcendence or awe, without necessarily having any religious or spiritual connotation. An example is the following sentence from the
Age Good Weekend magazine on 25 March this year:
Most mysteries are irresistible, but there is something about the ocean, her spectral depths and numinous beauty, that makes nautical mysteries especially compelling.
Before researching it, I think I was aware of the existence of this word, without knowing quite what it meant. Does this mean it was a word known to me? In any case I doubt the word is present in all or most of our players' vocabularies, so it will be rare in future.