Archive:

Greek: Someone drunk is, or becomes: 1. στουπί, meaning oakum, or tow: Oakum: “loose fibre obtained by untwisting old rope, used especially in caulking wooden ships.” Tow: the coarse and broken part of flax or hemp prepared for spinning. It’s a traditional society concept, so the modern metaphorical meaning is the main one. Presumably the […]

In Modern Greek, posótita and piótita; in Ancient Greek, posótɛːs and poiótɛːs. So… sure. But look at what’s actually happening here. The two words are derived from the words for “how much” and “what kind” (in Latin, quant-um and qual-e), plus the affix for nominalising adjectives (Latin –itas). It’s literally “how-much-ness” and “what-kind-ness”. If the […]