omphaloskeptic

plural omphaloskeptics · alternative omphalosceptic

1. One who contemplates or meditates upon one's navel; one who engages in omphaloscopy.

   His coronation as the Grand Omphaloskeptic of the cinema was still more than a decade away.

   1998, Eddie Muller, Dark City: The Lost World of Film Noir, Macmillan, →ISBN, page 154

   3 more examples

   The trouble with this book, however, is that he gazes so fixedly at himself that his own eyes dazzle a little. He is not an omphalosceptic. His gaze never turns downwards; it is kept obstinately at face-level.

   1956 January 28, Francis Wyndham, “A Beginning and Other Stories”, in London Magazine, archived from the original on 17 Mar 2008, page 85

   […]though you must admit that no omphaloskeptic, nay, not Plotinus, could have so utterly realized the Infinite as at moments one did to night.

   1970, Aldous Huxley, Letters of Aldous Huxley, Harper & Row, page 78

   Omphalopsychites: Mencken's word for those who dream of bringing American English into line with English English. Omphalos is Greek for navel, whence also omphaloskeptic, one who dreams up bright ideas while gazing at (skepsis, a looking at) his navel.

   1980, John B. Bremner, Words on Words: A Dictionary for Writers and Others Who Care About Words, Columbia University Press, →ISBN, pages 268-269

alternative omphalosceptic

1. not comparableLikely to, prone to, or engaged in contemplating or meditating upon one's navel.

   This approach has been referred to as an omphaloskeptic method of design, so called after the term omphaloskepsis used to describe the technique of meditation through contemplation of the navel (from the Greek "omphalos" for navel and "skepsis" for examination).

   1998, Louis C. Burmeister, Elements of Thermal-Fluid System Design, Prentice Hall, →ISBN, page 31