I think I get your question. Is the etymology of etymology subject to the Etymological fallacy? The etymological fallacy is a genetic fallacy that holds that the present-day meaning of a word or phrase should necessarily be similar to its historical meaning. This is a linguistic misconception, and is sometimes used as a basis for […]
Scottish English? My Scottish personal trainer reports people have difficulty understanding her. I can’t fathom why, and I don’t, but maybe my ear isn’t as tin as I think it is. (FWIW, it’s rare that any Scots creeps in to her speech: cannae only once in a while.) Northern English? I think highly of it, […]
Eg : αὐλέω to αὐλητής, actually. 🙂 For a list of suffixes and how they work in Ancient Greek, see Herbert Weir Smyth, A Greek Grammar for Colleges from §833 on for more detail than you’ll ever want on the mechanics. The list starts at §839. That list is for Ancient Greek; Koine is substantially […]
Translating your surname into Latin was in fashion in the 16th through 18th centuries for many Germans and Swedes; Linnaeus (von Linné), for example, or Neander (as in Neanderthal; Neumann). EDIT: Philip Newton points out Neander is Greek. True dat. OK, try Faber (surname), Latin for “Smith”. Or Schmidt. Sometimes, it has stuck around. I’m […]
The Magister tripped me up this morning with the very first sentence I saw from him. Michael Masiello’s answer to How do I avoid atheists? I have this fear that atheists will ridicule me for being a theist. Andrew Weill and others have bewrayed the remarkable difficulty of your undertaking. Bewrayed? Bewrayed? Obviously no typo […]
I have attempted to recuse myself from answering this, being ethnic Greek myself. But Desmond James has importuned me to answer with my Australian hat on, and I do appreciate a challenge. So I will meet this challenge with generalities, reflecting on the hellenophiles and/or philhellenes that I have encountered. Hellenophile is not an established […]
I have been invoked by Heinrich Müller, and I corroborate him. Sociolinguistics, after all, is sociology. (Vote #1: Heinrich Müller’s answer to Is there an inverse relationship between social mobility and prevalence of formality in language?) The classic study of formality and social level is Labov’s “4th floor” study, in 1966 New York. Or should […]
Habib Fanny has just included inexorable in A few of my favorite words here, and I wondered to myself: has the Magister used one of my favourite words, which is related to inexorable but is even more emotive? Was there ever any doubt? Michael Masiello’s answer to What is importance of divine intervention in literature? […]
I’m an arrogant overeducated effete sumbitch. I’m looking at the contributions so far, and going, ha! I know that word. That word too. But the Magister has tripped yours truly up as well. And not with big words (Greek and Latin are my gig, after all), but with really small ones. The Magister loves limn. […]
https://www.quora.com/How-did-you-learn-Klingon/answer/Nick-Nicholas-5 Oh, it’s a very good question, ’erIq qaDye qaH and raHul chabra qaH. Although it’s a question I did prompt. Let me clarify the question I prompted, because it may not be as obvious from the wording. Klingon is a made up language. Noone has ever spoken it fluently. All the records we have […]