lilo, soliloquy, ageless, timeless. my mother, awakened to a novel festive touch by a Swiss friend with Swedish tastes, had collected more than a hundred little hand-carved wooden figures — Scandinavian gnomes, dressed in red, mostly with cotton-wool hair.

A Christmas Gnome Tradition, More than 1,000-Strong

The writer Andrew Solomon recounts his enduring love for the cheerful little heroes of Swedish folklore, handed down from his late mother.


Credit...Ryan Lowry for The New York Times


By Andrew Solomon
Updated
Dec. 15, 2024, 12:00 a.m. ETDec. 15, 2024

First, advent calendars; then gnomes; then the tree; and then Christmas itself. Only as an adult did I discover that one element in this sequence separated us from other New York families. In my early childhood, my mother, awakened to a novel festive touch by a Swiss friend with Swedish tastes, had collected more than a hundred little hand-carved wooden figures — Scandinavian gnomes, dressed in red, mostly with cotton-wool hair.

Vogue's first ever 100-year-old model proves style is ageless

100-year-old model proves that style really is ageless

She stars in Vogue's special centenary issue

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Guardian culture

Straddling a lilo, folded round a TV stand ... Polly Penrose shoots herself in difficult positions, revealing the weight of expectation on other women

Throughout history, borders have caused unfathomable bloodshed, ageless feuds and decades-old legal disputes, which makes plans for a friendly exchange of land between the Netherlands and Belgium all the more remarkable.

Soliloquies in England and Later Soliloquies (1922)《英倫獨語》(2003)

gnome
[fr. Gk. gnome, thought, judgement, opinion]
a short pithy statement of a general truth; a proverb, maxim, aphorism, or apophthegm
[fr. L. gnomus]
1) an ageless and often deformed dwarf who lives in the earth and usu. guards treasure

ageless 

Pronunciation: /ˈeɪdʒləs/ ADJECTIVE

1Not ageing or appearing to age.

Example sentences

1.1Lasting for a long time or forever:the town retains an ageless charm

timeless 

Pronunciation: /ˈtʌɪmləs/ 

ADJECTIVE

Not affected by the passage of time or changes in fashion:antiques add to the timeless atmosphere of the dining room

lilo,

Etymology[edit]

From the name of the company which made rubberised canvas air-mattresses from the 1940s to the 1970s under the trademark name "LI-LO" (perhaps from lie low).

Pronunciation[edit]

• Rhymes: -aɪləʊ

Noun[edit]

lilo ‎(plural lilos)

1. An inflatable air mattress.

soliloquy
noun [C] SPECIALIZED
a speech in a play which the character speaks to him- or herself or to the people watching rather than to the other characters:n., pl. -quies.

1. 1. A dramatic or literary form of discourse in which a character talks to himself or herself or reveals his or her thoughts without addressing a listener.
   2. A specific speech or piece of writing in this form of discourse.
2. The act of speaking to oneself.

[Late Latin sōliloquium : Latin sōlus, alone + Latin loquī, to speak.]

Hamlet's soliloquy 'To be or not to be'