Word Muse: Logos I
1
What word has hypnos, eros, and machia for its roots and what does that word mean?
2
Which of the following, if any, is never used pejoratively: adolescent, soft, pity, actor, nice?
3
What does Albuquerque Academy’s motto Scientia ad faciendum mean?
4
What did psyche mean before it meant soul?
5
What is praeterition (also spelled ‘preterition’)?
6
What is an apotropaic device used for?
7
Etymologically speaking, how is ‘nuance’ like a cloud (L. nubes: cloud)
8
What is the etymology of etymology?
9
How does the line ‘Gather ye rosebuds while ye may’ express the idea of carpe diem?
10
What is a speaker doing when he enters upon his peroration?
11
What part of what animal is referred to in the etymology of cynosure?
12
What is a Socratic apology? Socratic wisdom?
13
What is the etymological meaning of the word person?
14
What are crepuscular creatures?
15
What figure of speech is “I am not unwell”?
16
Why are the witches in Macbeth called the weird sisters?
17
What Latin phrase refers to a personal attack?
18
What do we mean when we say a candidate lacks sufficient gravitas?
19
Distinguish in meaning sensuous and sensual?
20
What is wrong with the phrase unpredictable vicissitude?
21
What is the etymology of pity?
22
What god is present in the word enthusiasm?
23
Where is utopia to be found?
24
Distinguish between a congenital liar and an inveterate liar?
25
What feeling does Et tu, Brute? convey?
Notes
1 hypnerotomachia: the struggle for love through dreaming. This is the title of one of the first books to be
printed in the late 15th century.
2 All theses words can be used pejoratively, i.e. with a negative connotation.
nice derives from Latin nescire: not to know -- originally referred to someone naïve or ignorant.
3. Scientia ad faciendum means ‘knowledge for the sake of doing’. The school incorrectly, stubbornly and
unashameably translates the motto as “Knowledge by doing.”
4. psyche originally meant breath in ancient Greek – then the source of life – then soul
5. praeterition or preterition is a rhetorical strategy by which the speaker pretends to omit saying what he
does in fact say, e.g. “I will not tell you where I saw your daughter last night about 3:00 a.m. near the old,
abandoned chocolate factory?”
6. An apotropaic device is used for warding off evil, especially the evil eye of envy. Our word fascination
etymological refers to bewitchment. A fascinum, the embodiment of a divine phallus, was the means by
which such bewitchment was to be averted. A fascinum was an apotropaic device.
7. ‘Nuance’ is the subtle shade of meaning that is sometimes added to a word or sentence. A cloud
provides a little shade from the noon day sun..
8. The Greek root etymos means true. Hence, etymology is the study of the true origins of a word or, some
suggest, the true meaning of a word. Be sure to distinguish between etymology and entomology, the study
of insects.
9. Carpe diem means ‘Seize the day’. The phrase conveys the idea of the transitory nature of life and, as in
this poem, urges us to enjoy life now as best we can. It did not originally convey the anxious sense of
seizing an opportunity before it is lost.
To Virgins, to make much of Time
by Robert Herrick (1591-1674)
GATHER ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying:
And this same flower that smiles to-day
To-morrow will be dying.
The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun,
The higher he 's a-getting,
The sooner will his race be run,
And nearer he 's to setting.
That age is best which is the first,
When youth and blood are warmer;
But being spent, the worse, and worst
Times still succeed the former.
Then be not coy, but use your time,
And while ye may, go marry:
For having lost but once your prime,
You may for ever tarry.
10. Peroration is the conclusion of a speech. The exordium is the beginning or introduction.
11. Cynosure etymologically refers to a dog’s tail, something that catches your eye.
12. A Socratic apology is a vigorous defense. Socratic wisdom is knowing that you do not know.
13. Person derives from Latin persona: mask. Used in the Latin phrase personae dramatis to refer to the
characters in a play.
14. Crepuscular creatures become active at dusk.
15. Litotes.
16. Weird etymologically refers to fate or destiny from a word root that means to turn or bend.
17. Ad hominem
18. Gravitas refers to ‘weight’ or ‘seriousness of purpose’.
19. Sensuous means ‘appealing to the senses’: sensual ‘relating to gratification of the sexual appetite’.
“Those big movies around Fiftieth Street are cool,” suggested Jordan. “I love New York on summer afternoons when
every one’s away. There’s something very sensuous about it—overripe, as if all sorts of funny fruits were going to fall
into your hands.”
The word “sensuous” had the effect of further disquieting Tom, but before he could invent a protest the coupe came to a
stop, and Daisy signaled us to draw up alongside. (Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby)
20. Unpredictable vicissitude is repetitiously redundant, i.e. vicissitudes refers the unpredictable turns that
life may take.
21. ‘Pity’ and ‘piety’ both ultimately derives from the Latin pietas which, as used by Vergil, means the
fulfillment of duties to family, country and gods. Aeneas is a man marked out for his pietas (pietate
insignis). In Latin, pietas does occasionally suggest ‘affection’ and even ‘compassion’, especially with
respect to family members and friends (vide pietas, Lewis & Short). Generally, commentators have
not recognized this last occasional use, even though affection of a father for his child or the child for
his father is completely natural within the context of familial obligation . Later, Christian writers
extended the meaning of pietas to include God’s mercy. This too, however, has its parallel in classical
civilization where a man’s pietas is expected to earn him a gracious response from the gods. Indeed,
Aeneas complains loudly about the apparent lack of divine reciprocity for his pietas. Today, ‘piety’ is
almost exclusively used within a religious context and even sometimes pejoratively connotes ‘holierthan-thou’ pretensions.
In OF there were two spellings for pietas: piete and pite, both with the sense of compassion
included at first within the idea of fulfilling one’s religious duty and later simply as compassion itself.
Later, ‘piete’ and ‘pite’ became differentiated, with the latter becoming a wholly secular expression.
22. Enthusiasm etymology refers to the’ god (th-/theos as in theology) within’, the god being Dionysus
whose presence in wine makes us ‘enthusiastic’ (as in communion).
23. Utopia etymologically means ‘ not a place’ or ‘no place’, thus it is to be found ‘nowhere’ or, perhaps,
‘now here.’
24. A congenital liar refers to someone who simply cannot tell the truth as though it were wired into his or
her genes. Less severe, perhaps, is an inveterate line, one whose lying is of long standing, long accustomed
to lying, a real veteran.
25. Betrayal. Though Caesar actually spoke in Greek (kai su, teknon? You too, child?), it is Shakespeare’s
version that we all know. The shortened phrase “Et tu?” can convey the same sense of betrayal.