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Day: September 26, 2016
Why did the Byzantine record the name of Osman Ghazi as Otoman?
Here’s some data, from Gyula Moravcsik’s Byzantinoturcica, a dictionary of all Turkic names and words that ended up in Byzantine Greek. The names are in roughly chronological order. Osman is named as: Atman (George Pachymeres, Nicephorus Gregoras) Atouman Atoumanos Atoumanes (Notitiae Chronicae, Chronicon Turcorum) Otmanos Otmanes (Hierax, Chronica Minora) Otoumanos (Chalcocondyles) Othmanos Othman Otthmanos Otthmanes […]
What’s the Latin translation of “Fun or money? (I’ll work for one or the other; optimally, both)”?
Pro ludo aut pro lucro? Pro alterutro laboro; pro utroque malim. Alberto Yagos? Answered 2016-09-26 [Originally posted on http://quora.com/Whats-the-Latin-translation-of-Fun-or-money-Ill-work-for-one-or-the-other-optimally-both-”/answer/Nick-Nicholas-5]
What is the etymology of “Laconia”?
Well, Chad Turner, Frisk and Chantraine are on the internet… Frisk (Lakōn): Krahe, in Indogermanische Forschungen 57:119, relates the name as suspected Illyrian to Lacinium, a promontory in Southern Italy, and Juno Lacinia. Chantraine (Lakedaimōn): Etymology unknown. There have been unsuccessful attempts to use the gloss in Hesychius “lakedama: bitter water made in the sea […]
What is the difference between Cretan, Cypriot, Asia Minor (mostly Lydian and Trojan), Mycenaean, Classical, Hellenic, Hellenistic, and Modern Greeks?
Different regions and/or time periods of Greek culture. Not all of them involving ethnic Greeks. Mycenaean: Greek culture of 1500–1200 BC. Associated with the site of Mycenae. Cretan: Culture of Crete. No timeframe. Initially non-Hellenic. Cypriot. Culture of Cyprus. No timeframe. Initially non-Hellenic. Rhodian. Culture of Rhodes. No timeframe. Asia Minor. Culture of Asia Minor. […]
What is some good Greek music for people that smoke weed?
Lots of the Rebetiko tradition of music is to do with hashish, if that helps. This song in particular references gambling rather than hash, but it certainly sounds like it’s performed under the influence, and it’s hypnotic in its simplicity. Recorded by Yannakis Ioannidis with Manolis Karapiperis on bouzouki, New York, 1928. Τούτοι οι μπάτσοι, […]
No, not, never, negative, nein, neither, nope, non, none, nix, nuh-uh, nil. What’s with “N” and so much negativity? Who cursed this poor letter?
The negativity all comes from the simple fact that *ne is proto–Indo-European for not. Follow me down Wiktionary, the free dictionary, won’t you? no: < Old English nā, nō < Proto-Germanic *nē < PIE *ne not: < Middle English noght < Old English nāht ‘nothing’ < nōwiht ‘not anything < ne + āwiht ‘anything’ < […]
How did countries get their English names?
Depends. Recent country names are carried across from whatever the country is calling itself, without much alteration: Bhutan, Nepal, Senegal, Angola. Neighbouring countries that England had close contact with traditionally would have the most diverse names—mainly based on what those countries called themselves, but looking Germanic, and not made to be consistent. Scotland, Ireland, Denmark, […]
Do modern Greek people feel that Istanbul/Constantinople belongs to them?
27 followers. A lot of people are waiting for an answer to this question. I’ll bite. With the initial note that this is a different question from Do Greeks want to recover Constantinople? I’m not necessarily the best person to be answering this: I lived in Greece in the 80s, before the thawing in relations […]