More fun with classical etymologies!

[us4-he2-gal2]

Thread Orientation: This thread continues the fun with etymological explanations of modern words that derives from Greek or Latin which began on the Greek religion and the ANE thread. While that thread can continue with religious parallels, I hope to add more etymologies here on the general board (as its somewhat off topic).

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wheeww spending my afternoon typing etymologies -the force is with me!!

Welll my Greek course is almost over already - it was one of those one that stuff into 6 weeks so you need to read a chapter a day, not really that bad at all and pretty manageable if you just have the one course. Well, as my teacher is primarily an instructor in classical languages, he added perhaps a few more etymological explanations than would a normal professor of religion so, hopefully my notes are mostly sufficient where to start hm...

• The Medes
  
  
  Not exactly an etymology, but an interested explanation for the Greek term for the Persians, who the called "the Medes" lies in the mythical story of Jason and the Argonaughts - while in a foreign land Jason had taken Medea, a women versed in the powers of the witch (and incidentally the grand daughter of Helios the sun god) as his partner. To make a long story short he screws her over eventually and she elopes to a distant land, supposedly Persia, who the Greeks came to know as the Medes (after Medea).
  
  
  
• The Aegean sea
  
  The Aegean sea also gets its name from myth - this one comes from the story of Theseus, the Athenian king who travels to Crete and defeats the Minotaur. When his father believes his son has failed and perished in Crete, his is so distraught he commits suicide by jumping into the sea, there after known as the Aegean sea.
  
  
  
• Focus
  
  Originally a Latin term referring specifically to the family hearth which every household had - the hearth (Greek Hestia), was the center not only of domestic activity but also of the family religion. Both Hestia and her Latin equivalent Vesta were important or central in Greco-Roman private religion.
  
  
  
  
• Barbarian
  
  
  From the Greek Barbaros (apparently foreigners all sounded the same to the Greeks, all uttering an unintelligible "bar bar"
  sound, from whence the word supposedly derived.)
  
  
  
  
• Numinous
  
  
  Numinous is a term Thorkild Jacobsen frequently uses in his "Treasure of Darkness", his look into the history of Sumerian religion - the word derives from the Latin "Numen" which their believed each god had (and indeed the divine for the Romans were indwelling in just about every physical object). The Numen that in tern each divinity had was a "spirit force that filters to the mundane from the divine realm."
  
  
  
  
• College
  
  
  From the Latin collegium meaning group, society, group
  
  
  
  
  - Priestly Colleges in Rome -
  
  
  
• Pope/Pontificies
  
  
  There were 4 major Priestly colleges in ancient Rome, the most prominent were the Pontifices. The word Ponti-ficies itself appears to mean bridge makers (bridges in the city were essential to Roman life and required priestly blessings to achieve durability - apparently). In a way that is beyond my linguistic understanding, but which my professor outlines, the head priest of the Pontifices was the Pontifex Maximus or the Pontif, which is shortened further to Pope.
  
  
  
• Inauguration
  
  
  This word relates to the Roman practice of Augury, that is divination by observing the flight of birds - this constituted a major religious practice for the Romans and the college of Augurers was second only to the to Pontifices. They required actual training unlike many priests and had very specialized knowledge of their subject matter - before any weighty event, for example war, Roman leaders consulted the Augurer - the word inauguration, used today in the sense of 'A formal beginning or initiation of something' stems from the Latin inaugurationem which was to begin an undertaking under the guidance of an omen from the Augurer.
  
  
  
  
• Arcane
  
  
  Augerers would spend hours and hours in contemplation of the sky and birds for which their knowledge of was highly secret and specialized - they would sit on the "ARX" of the citadel (arch of the citadel) and its from this word arx from which the word arcane is explained to derive. (the modern meaning is loosely comparable to the secret/hidden nature of the Augurers craft.)
  
  
  
  
  
• Dexter / Sinister
  
  
  An interesting aspect of the Greco-Roman mentality is that in addition to being extremely sexist, they were extremely handist - that is to say all that was "*right* was entirely correct and noble while all that was left was corrupt and suspicious. This is evident even in their words for the right and left hand, where dexter is the word for "right hand" (and the origin of the modern word dexterous) and Sinister is the word for "left hand" (the word and its modern use preserve the original notion intact). This is of course comparable to the use of the word right/correct in modern terminology.
  
  

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More to follow....

[sheshki]

Im not sure if this fits in here, but ive read in Fischers Weltgeschichte 5, Griechen und Perser about the word Bánausos (Er ist ein Banause./He is a peasent.)

"Im übrigen galt die Landwirtschaft als höchst ehrenwertes Gewerbe, ganz anders dagegen das Handwerk und der Kleinhandel. Wer sich hiermit beschäftigte, lief Gefahr, als Bánausos, als ein Mensch ohne geistige Interessen, verspottet zu werden. Nur Sokrates machte hier eine rühmliche Ausnahme, wenn er für die Notwendigkeit der körperlichen Arbeit eintrat, allerdings unter der Voraussetzung, daß sie Gelegenheit zur Muße übrigließ."


"In all other respects agriculture was considered a most honourable trade, different , on the other hand to the handicraft and retail trade. So whoever was busy with this risked being mocked as a bánausos, an ignoramus.
Only Socrates made a creditable exception by speaking in support of elbow grease, but only on the condition that you had enough time for leisure (activities)."

thanks to andrea for proof reading