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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

palimpsestuous.

Pertaining to the textual relationality of a palimpsest; referential to earlier works or self-referential between several meanings of a single text.

14 characters4 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj
  1. Pertaining to the textual relationality of a palimpsest; referential to earlier works or self-referential between several meanings of a single text.

Where this word comes from

From palimpsest + -ous by surface analysis, but also a humorous blend of palimpsest (“a text with several layers”) + incestuous (“involving relationships between related things”). Coined by Anthony Burgess (as palimpcestuous, with a suggested alternative form palincestuous to make the connection with incestuous clearer) to describe self-reference and the use of wordplay in the works of James Joyce.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.