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Month: August 2016
What does αέναη σοφία mean in Greek?
Yes, I’m going to have fun with this. First: HAH! You’ve outed yourself as a Modern Greek speaker, Anon OP! In ancient Greek, that would be ἀέναος σοφία. Compound adjectives used the masculine ending for the feminine; and αέναη is what you get when noone you know has been aware of Greek vowel quantity for […]
What do we call the process of creating all of the possible morphological extractions of a given word?
In traditional grammar, this is conjugation for verbs, and declension for nominals; both are limited to inflectional morphology. Answered 2016-08-30 [Originally posted on http://quora.com/What-do-we-call-the-process-of-creating-all-of-the-possible-morphological-extractions-of-a-given-word/answer/Nick-Nicholas-5]
Is there a connection between the two lower case sigmas in Greek and the two lower case s in traditional German writing (black letter / cursive)?
The two certainly originated independently. Blackletter started elongating the medial s in the 8th century (Long s); Greek started using the pre-8th century lunate sigma as a final form, from the 11th century on (Letters). Both Greek and Latin scripts invented lowercase at the same time, but there was no real cultural contact between West […]
Why isn’t there a non religious equivalent of agape love?
The noun agapē first arises in Koine. (In fact, the first attestations, other than as a proper name, are in the Septuagint.) But the related verb agapaō was used for 800 years before Christ, both agapē and agapaō have been used for 2000 years since Christ, and there’s nothing intrinsically Christian about agapē. In fact, […]
What country of origin does the first name “Zander” come from?
Can be German as Romain Bouchard said, can be English, can be Dutch (mostly as Sander (name)); Zander, Sander, and Xander are abbreviations of Alexander. Xan Fielding was born in 1919, and the oldest Xander listed under Xander was Xander Berkeley, born 1955. But the name was popularised through Xander Harris of Buffy. As a […]
In the New Testament, what different semantic shades can the verb agapao (“love”) take?
A non-theological response: I’m grabbing all the definitions of agapaō from ἀγαπάω, DGE Diccionario Griego-Español, and highlighting those for which they give New Testament or Septuagint instances. As you can see, there’s a fair area of coverage for the verb; theologians have tried to pin it down in a nice schema, but a concept as […]
How are colors perceived in different languages and cultures?
Greek: The colour of sex is pink. Actually, it’s roz, a borrowing from French rose. The colour of freshness and youth is not green, but pale green, khloros. Sky blue, galanos, is the colour of calm. (There’s been some etymological conflation there.) You go yellow with fear, not cowardice. Answered 2016-08-29 [Originally posted on http://quora.com/How-are-colors-perceived-in-different-languages-and-cultures/answer/Nick-Nicholas-5]
Eros and Agape are much more specific words than the English word love. Why was the word love decided to be the word for love? What are the etymological roots of love? Why did the English word for love not evolve to be as precise as the greek words?
Critical insight with the four-way classification of love in Koine Greek (Greek words for love): do not assume that the Greek classification was that clear cut. These are theologically useful idealisations. Like I already pointed out in Nick Nicholas’ answer to Why isn’t there a non religious equivalent of agape love?, the Diccionario Griego–Español’s definitions […]
What should I know (but don’t) about the culture and history of the Cyclades in general and Syros in particular?
https://el.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CE%A3%CF%8D%CF%81%CE%BF%CF%82 Taking the *Greek* Wikipedia article as a baseline, Dimitris Almyrantis? I hate you. The fact that the anthem of Rebetika, Frangosyriani, means “Catholic Girl from Syros”, is too obvious for the Greek Wikipedia page to mention; it does at least mention that the song’s composer Vamvakaris was himself a Catholic Boy from Syros (a […]
Is there a more specific word for endonyms which simply mean “our language” or similar and are semantically awkward for outsiders to use?
Not aware of such a term, but it’s a nice distinction: the endonym is really just a pronominal reference, so much “ours” that it doesn’t warrant a name at all. I could coin the term hemeteronym, “ours-name”, for it, but I won’t. It’s a pronominal, or deictic, endonym. Answered 2016-08-28 [Originally posted on http://quora.com/Is-there-a-more-specific-word-for-endonyms-which-simply-mean-our-language-or-similar-and-are-semantically-awkward-for-outsiders-to-use/answer/Nick-Nicholas-5]