Derivation of words

[thinkandmull]

A book I was reading says “deva, the Sanshrit term for god, is related to the English term divine, to *deus *in Latin, to *theos *in Greek…” What does it mean to be related to “theos”. It does use the same letters?

 

[Gorgias]

It means that, in terms of linguistic development, the sounds (i.e., phonemes) that made up the word for ‘god’ in proto-indo-european developed (through time and other influences) into the sounds that made up the word for ‘god’ in later languages.

Nothing more, nothing less. It doesn’t mean that we worship ancient pagan gods, or that our understanding of what ‘God’ is proceeds from an earlier understanding of what pagans thought ‘gods’ are. It’s a simple linguistic development.

 

[thinkandmull]

So its the Greek sound, not the English was of saying theos?

 

[Bonnie]

Spelling, pronunciation, and meaning can all change as words meander through the years and across continents.

Etymology is a great deal of fun. I get A Word a Day in my e-mail and learn so much from it. My husband & I, being word nuts, love to look up the “life history” of words. It’s very educational!

 

[Mousey]

Spelling, pronunciation, and meaning can all change as words meander through the years and across continents.

Etymology is a great deal of fun. I get A Word a Day in my e-mail and learn so much from it. My husband & I, being word nuts, love to look up the “life history” of words. It’s very educational!

I agree with you. I remember a conversation with my sister about the poem “a Diller a dollar”. If you read it with today’s understanding, than it is read as irony. My sister said that her teacher used it as such. However, if you realize that noon meant nine, there is no irony.

 

[Medawlinno]

All of the words described above and many of the words used for “day” in Indo-European languages (e.g. Spanish - dios, French ‘jour’, Ital. ‘giorno’, Port. ‘dia’, most Slavic languages - 'djen/dien, Gaelic ‘diugh’, etc.) come from the same Indo-European root, *deiwos, meaning “the shining one”. A direct reference to the sun, most likely the chief diety of the Indo European pantheon.

Keep in mind that there are various historic and thus predictable sound changes between related languages. For example, where Greek has “z”, Latin commonly has ‘d’. Latin ‘Deus’ is essentially the same exact word as Greek “Zeus” (again, meaning “the shining one”) - Greek “'zeus-pitar” (Jupiter) is the same as Latin “deus-pater” (the “father-god”). Also bear in mind that in Greek, “th” was originally just a ‘t’ pronounced with a strong puff of air - like the ‘t’ of “Tom” as oposed to the ‘t’ of “stop”, making it even closer the the Latin ‘d’.

 

[Bonnie]

I However, if you realize that noon meant nine, there is no irony.

Noon (or none) did mean nine - the ninth hour after sunrise. So about 3 p.m. But by the 12th century, noon meant midday. So whether the unwilling student arrived at noon or when school let out in the afternoon, it’s definitely sarcastic.

 

[spedteacherita]

Spelling, pronunciation, and meaning can all change as words meander through the years and across continents.

Etymology is a great deal of fun. I get A Word a Day in my e-mail and learn so much from it. My husband & I, being word nuts, love to look up the “life history” of words. It’s very educational!

I found a book like that at a yard sale and it is fascinating where a word or phrase began and the connotation it had at its start!

god bless!

 

[thinkandmull]

How in the world do they know, however, that theos comes from deva?? Sounds like wishful thinking

 

[Bonnie]

How in the world do they know, however, that theos comes from deva?? Sounds like wishful thinking

Nope - scholarly thinking. That’s what makes etymology so much fun; it’s like a treasure hunt.

Today I was typing up some word lists for my husband - he teaches Latin - and I learned some new roots: pulsare/to knock, speculum/mirror, letalis/deadly, vestire/to dress, mutare/to change. You can see the modern words in the Latin. It would be harder to recognize the relationship if he were teaching Sanskrit.

 

[thinkandmull]

You would have to know what happened to every person on every day of the era in question. How would this scholars now what words these people were using when only a fraction of a million were written down