Replying to LO27913 --
Dear Organlearners,
Andrew Campbell < ACampnona@aol.com > writes:
>[Humbly dedicated to the memory of an American
>artist and journalist Daniel Pearl recently murdered
>in a foreign country]
Greetings dear Andrew,
What a fitting dedication.
You write further:
>Michelangelo saw in every block of marble (so 'they'
>say) a perfect sculpture. I think he had an inkling;-) of
>his CREATOR, whom he both adored and feared in
>almost equal measures as seeing each human as
>becoming/being in the same manner. The ABLATIONS
>of life would wittle that PERSONALITY to his absolute
>CORE of realization, .... (snip)
The first works of Michaelangelo had a bolsterous boldness which he
learned from his great master Leonardo da Vinci. But it seems to me that
in his later works he began increasingly to depict the frailty of human
nature. It is if he wanted to say: "do not only learn to live with joy,
but also learn how to die with grace". It is very much the same in the
epistles of St Paul.
>At, you love words so and discovering for us
>where they may have come from ...will you
>please help me with the etymology of the words,
>genus,
>genuine
>and genius?
I love words because I learn so much from them how people think.
Genus comes form the Greek word "genea" which meant generation,
descendants, nation or race. It is related to another Greek word for to
become orderly, namely "gi(g)nomai". It is also related to the Greek word
"genesis" for beginning or origin.
Genuine comes comes from the Lating word "genuinus" which meant innate,
native or implicit. It is related to another Latin word for refering to
noble birth, namely "genurosus" (which we now have in the English word
generosity). The Latin word for beginning or origin was "genus" itself.
This is the root of genuine. The suffix "ine" seems to have come from the
Latin suffixes "ina" or "inus", but I am not sure. Both seemed to have
indicated impartiality.
Genius comes from the Latin word "genius" which meant a tutelary
(self-edificating, self-tutoring or self-guarding) spirit -- not the genie
in the lamp ;-) It was never used for someone who had to rely on others
for his/her training and guarding. The "genius" was a most sought after
quality in Roman generals and senators before the Roman empire began to
disintegrate.
Latin and Greek belongs to the Romanic family of the Indo- European
languages. There are other families in it too like the Germanic and Slavic
languages. My mother tongue Afrikaans, the most modern of all Germanic
languages, often shows roots going back into the most ancient of Germanic
languages.
Our word for genus is "soort" (the English sort) coming from the
Nederduits (Saxon) "sortan" which meant to seek the common. Our word for
genuine is the word "egte" (authentic) Its very short root "eg" is used to
indicate a deep connection. For marrying we would say "in die eg verbind"
(in the deep connected). Our word for genius is "begaafd". Its morphemic
translation into English would be "be-given". It refers to a person who is
(en)able(d) to give a lot. The "gaaf" itself comes from "gee"=give and
means friendly. The word "gawe" means gift. In other words, our "begaafd"
for genius is matched closest by the English word gifted.
It is clear that the words genus, genuine and genius have much in common
in the Romanic langauges. But in the Germanic languages such a common
origin is not clear. It is rather as if each of the words "soort"=genus,
"egte"=genuine and "begaafd"=genius view the tacit concepts involved from
three different viewpoints rather than a common viewpoint. The words
"Gattung"=genus, "ehe"-genuine and "Begabung"=genius in German seem to do
the same.
When I look at the three tacit concepts from both the Romanic and Germanic
languages, a much richer picture unfolds for me. It is one which I can
summarise by the seemingly simplistic phrase "the natural way". Perhaps
this is the purpose of humankind in the coming age -- finding "the natural
way".
When I think of the great teachers and educators like Socrates, Groote,
Comenius, Pestalozzi, Rosseau and Froebel, it is most striking that they
all searched endlessly for "the natural way" in teaching and learning.
With care and best wishes
--At de Lange <amdelange@gold.up.ac.za> Snailmail: A M de Lange Gold Fields Computer Centre Faculty of Science - University of Pretoria Pretoria 0001 - Rep of South Africa
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