LATIN AND GREEK ETYMOLOGIES IN THE CURRENT LANGUAGES

• cadaver, sarcophagus, graffiti, SPA, tisane, almond, bulimia, anorexia, analgesic, delete, bit, rival, trivial, salary, idiotic, carnival   

"CADAVER"

ENGLISH WORD: “cadaver”.

CURRENT MEANIG: a dead body of human or animals. It´s especially used to refer to a human body to be dissected.

ORIGIN: there are two etymological explanations for this term. The first refers to Latin verb cadere “fall”, because the death would be metaphorically the definitive fall until the other world. According to another version, it would derive from the Latin words CAro DAta VERmibus, which the Romans used to inscribe in the graves and that means "meat given to worms".

 

 

The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolas Tulp. Rembrandt. 1632.

"SARCOPHAGUS"

ENGLISH WORD: “sarcophagus”.

CURRENT MEANING: a stone or marble tomb, especially one which bears sculptures or inscriptions, where cadavers are kept.

ORIGIN: the word comes to us from Latin and Greek, having been derived in Greek from sarx, "flesh" and phagein, "eat". The Greek word sarkophagos meant "eating flesh", and in the phrase lithos ("stone") sarkophagos it denoted a limestone that was thought to decompose the flesh of corpses placed in it. 

 

 

 Sarcophagus from Cerveteri. National Etrusc Museum of Vila Gulia.

"GRAFFITI"

ENGLISH WORD: “graffiti”.

CURRENT MEANING: inscriptions or drawings on walls of ancients buildings. In a more general sense, we call graffitis to drawings, words or phrases that find today on the walls of the buildings or other public spaces.

ORIGIN: Italian loanword. Graffiti, graffire derives from the Latin verb scariphare “influence with the scariphus”. The scariphus was the stylet or punch used by the ancients to write on waxed tablets.

 

 Graffiti at International Forum of the Cultures in Barcelona, 2004.

 

 Graffiti of erotic contents in the lupanar of Pompeia.

"SPA"

ENGLISH WORD: “SPA”.

CURRENT MEANING: it makes reference to a kind of hotel where people can do physical exercise and special treatments in order to improve their health.

ORIGIN: it´s an acronym which comes from the Latinism Salus Per Aquam, that has the meaning of “health through the water”.

 

Old Roman baths, Bath, England.

"TISANE"

ENGLISH WORD: “tisane”, “herbal tea”.

CURRENT MEANING: it´s a hot beverage made from the infusion or decoction of diverse herbs, flowers or seeds. Usually has a medical connotation.

ORIGIN: from the Greek verb πτίσσω “crash, peel” derives from the noun πτισάνη, that through a metonymy it came to designate a drink made of barley. The term comes through the latin ptisana, transcription from the Greek. The fact that the tisane no longer has to be exclusively of barley, is because, in principle, the barley was used alone to make preparations very efficient against the fever and to make other preparations of herbs that are based on them. Then the barley stopped using to make this preparations but the name remained.

 

 Tisane of hibiscus.

"ALMOND"

ENGLISH WORD: “almond”.

CURRENT MEANING: it´s the fruit of the almond tree.

ORIGIN: it comes from the Syrian word há-migdala “beautiful tree”. Through the Greek ἀμυγδάλη come to Latin amygdala. Hence comes the denomination of the unpleasant tonsils located in throat, that owe their name to which are almond-shaped. On the other hand, the current noun for the dry fruit derives from madorla, arabized form of amygdala.

 

 

 Almonds with shell.

"BULIMIA"

ENGLISH WORD: “bulimia”.

CURRENT MEANING: it´s an eating disorder that consists in a insatiable desire of eating which leads the person to stuffing themselves with food in very short periods of time and then to eliminate food through purges, laxatives or vomits.

ORIGIN: this term comes from the Greek βοῦς “ox” and λιμός “hungry”, literally “ox hungry” or “hungry in excess”. It refers to voracious hungry which has someone who suffers this disease.

 

"ANOREXIA"

ENGLISH WORD: “anorexia”.

CURRENT MEANING: it´s an eating disorder normally of psychosomatic origin that produces the loss of appetite, motivated many times by having a false perception of being too much fat.

ORIGIN: it derives from the Greek ὄρεξις “appetite” and from the privative prefix ἀν- (with euphonic ν) “without”, literally “without appetite”. The person affected by this disease doesn´t have the desire of eating, they suffer a complete lack of appetite.

 

 Sculpture Bronskvinnorna (The woman of bronze). Entry of the museum of art (Konsthallen), Växjö. Marianne Lindberg De Geer. 2006.

"ANALGESIC"

ENGLISH WORD: “analgesic”.

CURRENT MEANING: drug that reduces or eliminates the pain.

ORIGIN: it comes from the Greek privative prefix ἀν- “without” and from the noun ἄλγος “pain”.

 

"DELETE"

ENGLISH WORD: “delete”.

CURRENT MEANING: the computer key used to erase or suppress.

ORIGIN: it comes to us from the Latin verb deleo “erase”.

 

 

Delete

 

"BIT"

ENGLISH WORD: “bit”.

CURRENT MEANING: it´s a computer term used to define the basic unit of digital information.

ORIGIN: the complete expression is binary digit, and here we find a reference to Latin term digitus “finger”. Therefore a bit is a digit of the binary numbering system and it can represent only the value 0 or the value 1.

 

Memory of a computer of the 80 where the physical bits can be seen.

"RIVAL"

ENGLISH WORD: “rival”.

CURRENT MEANING: a person who is competing for the same object or goal as another.

ORIGIN: it alludes to Latin rivus “river”. In the past, in the wars and brawls that kept people with others, who were on the opposite bank of the river were rivals, the enemies to defeat.

 

"TRIVIAL"

ENGLISH WORD: “trivial”.

CURRENT MEANING: something trivial is what has no importance, what lacks interest and originality.

ORIGIN: etymologically it refers to Latin adjective trivialis, that in turn send us to trivium “crossroads, crossing”. The adjective meant in Latin “rude”, “vulgar” and can make reference to frivolous conversations held by unknown people in the crossroads. We can also call trivial arts to liberal disciplines framed in trivium, that is, the Grammar, the Logic and the Rhetoric, which were regarded less important than the of the quadrivium, Arithmetic, Music, Astronomy and Geometry.

 

 Intersection in winter. Cracow.

"SALARY"

ENGLISH WORD: “salary”.

CURRENT MEANING: wage periodically paid to a person for regular work or services.

ORIGIN: it comes from the Latin noun sal and refers to the fact that in the past the Roman soldiers received money to buy salt, or directly received their wage in salt. We must take into account that the salt was very important mainly to make saltings that kept the food in good conditions.

 

Annotation of the daily salaries sealed by a high emplyee. Ur, Mesopotamia.

"IDIOTIC", "IDIOT"

ENGLISH WORD: “idiotic”, “idiot”.

CURRENT MEANING: person without inteligence, who can not take advantage of the circunstances and who is fooled easily. It can be synonym of “dumb” and “stupid”.

ORIGIN: the current meaning of this word isn´t related to the etymological meaning. It leads us to the Greek adjective ἰδιώτης, formed on ἴδιος “private”, “personal, “own”, this meaning is preserved in the words idiosyncracy and idiom. The reason why idiot took this pejorative sense could be that in Greco-Roman antiquity was poorly considered the person who was devoted to serve their things without concerning of public or political issues.

 

"CARNIVAL"

ENGLISH WORD: “carnival”.

CURRENT MEANING: popular pagan festival held the three days preceding Lent, with typical costumes, comparsas, jokings and some delicious gastronomical tastings.

ORIGIN: the origin of this party has to do with ancient orgiastic celebrations in honor of Bacchus and Saturn (Bacchanalia and Saturnalia). Focusing on the word carnival, there are diverse etymological explanations. The most accepted is that which refers to the Italian noun carnevale which, in turn, derives from the Latin expression carnem levare “remove the flesh”, because the Catholics began the Lent after the carnival, forty days without meat. This explanation is supported by the synonym Carnestolendas also from Latin carnem tollere “leave the meat”. Another etymology leads us to Carna, the goddess of the beans and bacon. And some people even go further back, to the god Karna, indoeuropean divinity.

 

Tipical "Cigarróns" at Verin Carnival.