inglés
"MAECENAS"
ENGLISH WORD: “maecenas”.
CURRENT MEANING: patron of arts that promotes patronage to support diferents kinds of arts.
ORIGIN: this term was taken from the Gaius Cilnius Maecenas, a rich nobleman, Augusto´s friend, who helped to artists to promote their work providing them economic support.
Gaius Cilnius Maecenas supporting the arts. Gerard the Lairesse (1640-1711).
“SYBARITE”
ENGLISH WORD: “sybarite”.
CURRENT MEANING: the modern sybarites are people devoted to pleasure, who have the ultimate in luxuries and spend most of their time enjoying these luxuries. We can also use the terms “voluptuary”, “sensualist” or “hedonist” as synonyms.
ORIGIN: it comes from the Latin term Sybarita, inhabitant of Sybaris, an important city of Magna Graecia, located in the Gulf of Tarento. This ancient city was known for its exceptional wealth and a huge population that were devoted to a pleasure seeking and hedonistic life style.
Overview of excavated ruins in the Archaeological park of Sybaris.
“PHAROS”
ENGLISH WORD: “pharos”.
CURRENT MEANING: the word pharos or lighthouse comes from the Greek word pharos and in many Romance languages such as French phare, Italian and Galician faro is very common use this word from this etymological origin. In English, it´s hardly ever applied this name with the meaning of “tower whose purpose is to help the sailors”, but we can find this word associated to a large Hellenistic lighthouse built on an island of Alexandria in Egypt in about 280 BC.
ORIGIN: Ptolemy, general of Alexander the Great, made build a gigantic tower opposite the city of Alexandria, on the island of Pharos in order to illuminate ships. It had a height of 122 metres and at its peak permanently burned a fire visible from a hundred miles.
Reconstruction of the lighthouse of Alexandria.
“CANDIDATE”
ENGLISH WORD: “candidate”.
CURRENT MEANING: a person regarded as suitable for applying to a particular job or for being nominated for an election or position.
ORIGIN: sometimes the etymology of a word looks like the denial of which currently has. In fact, the candor is not often an attribute that identifies any “candidate” for public office. Curiously, this term derived from the Latin adjective candidus “white” or candidatus “white-robed”, the color of the robe used during the election campaign by who was intended to be chosen in ancient Rome.
“EIGHTH WONDER OF THE WORLD"
ENGLISH WORD: “Eighth Wonder of the World”.
CURRENT MEANING: this expression is used with the meaning of exceptional human work that only can be compared with the list of seven remarkable constructions of classical antiquity.
ORIGIN: it comes from the comparison with the widely known list of seven remarkable constructions of classical antiquity, called the Seven Wonders of the World.
Seven Wonders of the World.
ENGLISH WORD: “laconic”, “laconic phrase”.
CURRENT MEANING: expressing much in few words; concise, neatly brief, exact.
ORIGIN: from Greek Lakon, inhabitant of Lakonia, a district of ancient Spartan in which their inhabitants had reputation of talking briefly.
ENGLISH WORD: “spartan/spartanic”.
CURRENT MEANING: it makes reference to a kind of life or attitude extremely austere, disciplined and simple.
ORIGIN: it has its origin in the ancient city of Sparta characterized by an educational system of extreme toughness and disclipine to which both boys and girls were subjected.
Young Spartans exercising. Edgar Degas.
ENGLISH WORD: “the pretorian guard”.
CURRENT MEANING: bodyguard, a group of men who escorts and protects some important person.
ORIGIN: it comes from The Praetorian Guard, the elite of bodyguards used by the Roman emperor. The term praetorian has its origin in praetorium, the hut of the commanding general or praetor, leader of a Roman army.
ENGLISH WORD: “squaring the circle”.
CURRENT MEANING: figuratively, it represents a very difficult problem or impossible to solve and it can be used as a metaphor for trying to do the impossible.
ORIGIN: squaring the circle is an irresolute problem proposed by the ancient geometers consisting in constructing a square with the same area as a given circle.
Squaring the circle. Durero.
ENGLISH WORD: “cynical”.
CURRENT MEANING: shameless, disparaging the motives of others, concerned only with one´s own interests and distrustful of human sincerity or integrity.
ORIGIN: this adjective comes from the greek κύων, κυνός, “dog” and it´s used to refer to the school of cynical philosophy of ancient Greek which was known by its frugal way of life, “doglike”. The cynical philosophers sought to identify themselves with a dog, looking for the simplicity of canine life.
Diogenes sitting in his jar. Jean-Léon Jérôme.
ENGLISH WORD: “Diogenes syndrome”.
CURRENT MEANING: it´s a behavior disorder characterized by extreme personal and social neglect, as well as voluntary isolation at home, compulsive hoarding of household waste and lack of shame.
ORIGIN: the name derives from Diogenes of Sinope, a Greek philosopher that belongs to cynical school and was known for living in a mud jar and looking for a natural life away from society.
Alexander visits Diogenes at Corinth by W. Matthews.
ENGLISH WORD: “travail”.
CURRENT MEANING: onerous work, great effort, pain or suffering.
ORIGIN: in its origin this word is associated with the idea of suffering. It comes from the Latin tripalium, “three sticks”, a torture device consisting of three crossed stakes to which the reo was tied.
ENGLISH WORD: “ostracism”.
CURRENT MEANING: a modern use developed from this Greek term refers to exclude or banish a person from a particular group or society.
ORIGIN: it derives from the Greek ὀστρακισμός, and it was a procedure under the Athenian democracy in which any citizen considered a threat could be expelled from the city-state of Athens for ten years.
Ostrakon with the name of Themistocles. Ancient Agora museum in Athens.
ENGLISH WORD: “rest on one´s laurels”.
CURRENT MEANING: it can be defined as be careless, stop working, pleased with the achievements of the past.
ORIGIN: it comes from the Roman Empire in which laurel was considered a symbol of the victory used to crown victorious generals and emperors, hence the word laureate and the word baccalaureate (bachelor´s degree) from Latin baccae lauriatus “crowned with laurel berries”. Later, when the laureates became careless because they were satisfied with the achievements of the past, the population began to say that “they rested on their laurels”.
Bust of Augustus wearing the Civic Crown. Glyptothec of Munich
ENGLISH WORD: “album”.
CURRENT MEANING: today it´s used with the meaning of book with blank pages to keep stamps or photographs.
ORIGIN: it comes from the Latin adjective albus, “white”. In the Roman world it refers to a blank blackboard for exposing the popular edicts.