On Friday, December 2, 2022 at 2:24:55 AM UTC-8, Ed Cryer wrote:
> henh...@gmail.com wrote:
> >> O miserrimum Ernestum! Quondam heroa hominum, nunc calcibus insultatum!
> >
> > i can't tell if (Calc in) Calcium is related to [Recalcitrant, inculcate] (mentioned below)
> >
> > ______________________________
> >
> > == a short description of my interest in Etymology (and Latin roots) ==
> >
> >
> > i remember a jump in my interest in Etymology
> > (about 30 years ago) when a girl i met on an airplane told me that
> > French has Difficile and Facile
> > but English only has Difficult (and no Ficult)
> >
> > (or maybe she said something deeper about etymologies of the French words.)
> >
> >
> > shortly after, i learned that Facile is not related to Face (as i always assumed) but to Fact
> >
> >
> > ____________________
> >
> > then i learned about Caulk (glue), calque, recalcitrant, (culture?), inculcate:
> >
> > >>> Inculcate derives from the past participle of the Latin verb inculcare, meaning "to tread on." In Latin, inculcare possesses both literal and figurative meanings, referring to either the act of walking over something or to that of impressing something upon the mind, often by way of steady repetition.
> >
> > ____________________
> >
> >
> > then 12 (?) years ago i read this:
> >
> > https://www.jstor.org/stable/25476795
> >
> > "Joyce and Skeat" by Stephen Whittaker
> > James Joyce Quarterly
> > Vol. 24, No. 2 (Winter, 1987), pp. 177-192 (16 pages)
> Language and how it evolves
>
> The Austrian-British philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein used the term
> "Sprachspiele" (language games). Language doesn't evolve linearly, far
> from it; his major example is the word "game" which has no cover-all
> meaning. This fact is fully recognised in modern dictionaries wherein
> many words' meanings are listed..1. 2. 3. etc.
> This is quite apart from the frequent use of metaphor (which even the
> Greeks knew about), and the sometimes pure misunderstandings that create
> words. My favourite example of the latter is the etymology of "kangaroo".
> My favourite example in Latin is "paganus" (villager for Cicero), used
> as an abusive term by early Christians until it became almost
> respectable, with a meaning completely different from the one Cicero knew..
>
> Shakespeare provides a good example of word-coining. He coined (or used
> recent coinings of) many, mostly from Latin. English has a central core
> of Teutonic words, wrapped around with Romance terms for many abstract
> concepts.
>
> Incidentally, Latin has two "calx", heel and pebble; and "inculcare" had
> already evolved in classical Latin itself.
>
> Ed

thakns! and thanks!!! for all the tidbits

>>> Why are you interested in etymologies ?

3 basic reasons why I'm interested in Etymologies --- What are your reasons ?

-----1----- Knowing (PIE) Etymologies help me with learning (new and
old) words in English, French, German, ... because there's going to
less to remember or memorize.

-----2----- it's SO MUCH _fun_ in itself... The moment of
discovery is an AHA moment... --- in an instant , Two unrelated
pieces of ling. knowledge become connected....

---------- it's as if... discovering that TWO people
i 've known for
many years were Cousins, ----- and i see the
Resemblance,
and i go... [D'oh! How did i miss it ?]

-----3----- knowing Languages and Etymologies help me
enjoy Joyce (and Nabokov) more ,

and knowing Joyce (and VN) help me
enjoy Languages and Etymologies more.

------- a recursive Win-Win