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[This term literally means rare bird but is also used in a more general sense, as in this example.]. ❚ John Feinstein is that rara avis of sports literature, a best-selling author. In fact, according to his publishers, his first book … A Season on the Brink, which recounted the sometimes unseemly adventures of coach Bobby Knight and his Indiana University basketball team, is nothing less than the “best-selling sports book of all time.” (Ron Fimrite, Books, Sports Illustrated, 10/14/1991, p. 6.)

On March 4, 1865, Abraham Lincoln gave his second inaugural address before a multitude who braved the rain and the mud … to hear something out of the ordinary. No president had been re-elected since Andrew Jackson, so the very fact of a second inaugural was a rara avis in the [world] of political utterances.  (Ted Widmer, “And the End Came,” The New York Times, 3/3/2015.)…

The concept of a sudden, uncharacteristic adherence to the truth is not new either, Jim Carrey having recently played a lawyer magically condemned to a veridical 24 hours in “Liar, Liar.” (James Gill, Beatty Movie Right on the Money, Times-Picayune [New Orleans, LA], 05/27/1998, p. B7.)…

[In the precise use of the term, for something to be apodictic it must necessarily be true, such as a mathematical equation. However, it is frequently used as a rhetorical device, such as in expressing a matter of opinion that something must be true in the opinion of the writer, or sarcastically, such as accusing another of treating something as being apodictic, when it obviously is not.]

A number of letters in response to your excellent June 27 editorial “The Disaster of Failed Policy” reveal that many still do not accept the apodictic fact that Hussein had no hand in the 9/11 outrage. Bush’s “great courage” was perfectly justified in the invasion of Afghanistan but totally served a personal vendetta … in the case of the war and occupation of Iraq. (Paul McCaig [letter writer], Surveying Iraq With Allawi at the Helm, Los Angeles Times, 07/2/2004, p. B12.)…

Women fleeing bondage to fathers, husbands, or male relatives are denied eligibility for asylum in the United States despite the moral abomination that their plights present. This stain on the nation’s escutcheon should be removed. Holding females in servitude is every bit as morally repugnant as are the outrages that qualify for asylum. (Watson, A Stain on Our Asylum Law? The Washington Times, 06/8/2003.)…

[Fashion designer] Oscar de la Renta was hors de combat for a moment there after a model accidentally stabbed him with her 5-foot stiletto heel on a fashion runway. Ah, the perils of haute couture! (Liz Smith, How Oscar Partied, Newsday, 03/26/1998, p. A15.)…