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Ancient Greek terms worth reviving

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Re: Ancient Greek terms worth reviving

#61

Post by jihadjihad »

pjungwir wrote: post #33
AlbertCory wrote: post #18

One of my favorite moments at Oracle was when we were on a business trip and had to get ready at 6:00 am (don't ask why). I said, "Ah, the rosy-fingered dawn!" and one guy actually got the reference. ============= This is Latin, not Greek, but =========== Supposedly "Cicero" was pronounced "KICK-er-oo" I don't care. I'm going to keep saying SISS-er-oh.

And his name means Chickpea. :-) Evidently (since it's the family name) it's because his ancestors farmed chickpeas, but I still like to imagine it as a personal nickname instead.

I heard it was because of his ancestors' warts

Re: Ancient Greek terms worth reviving

#62

Post by menage »

mcdonje wrote: post #27

Xenia is what the Xen hypervisor is named after.

Almost! :-)

I coined the term "Xenoserver" back in 1999, for a paper in IEEE HotOS proposing an architecture for allowing systems in core networks to safely accept and execute code from untrusted users (for a fee, of course!): https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/research/srg/netos/papers/1999-hoto...

I was inspired by the word "xenos" (meaning both stranger and guest, or in combination a stranger who you invited into your home) rather than the word "xenia" for the general concept of hospitality extended to such a stranger [EDIT: since I wasn't familiar with the word "xenia"].

The Xenoserver project at Cambridge University developed this idea, and eventually focused around the hypervisor, which took on the name Xen.

Re: Ancient Greek terms worth reviving

#64

Post by mjklin »

The Ancient Greek word “δαίμων” referred to a lesser god linked to a place (like the spirit of the hearth) or a person (like a guardian angel). Latin took this idea into the related word “genius” which in modern Romance languages can mean either an intelligent person or a person’s mood. In Spanish, “estar de mal genio” means “to be in a bad mood”. So then to have “ευδαιμονία” can mean “to be in a good mood” although it’s probably meant to be more permanent than that.

See:

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/δαίμων#Ancient_Greek

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genius_(mythology)

Re: Ancient Greek terms worth reviving

#65

Post by ftxbro »

emporas wrote: post #39

As a Greek, living in Greece i second most of the terms. Know thyself (γνώθι σαυτόν) is a big one as well. Ancient Greeks were masters of psychology, i.e. what kind of animal humans are. Are we a good creature by nature or a bad one? The more we study chimps the more we realize that we, as their descendants, are pretty vicious as well. Education by our parents, schools and social circles play a big role, to keep in c…

> "As a Greek, living in Greece i second most of the terms. Know thyself (γνώθι σαυτόν) is a big one as well. Ancient Greeks were masters of psychology, i.e. what kind of animal humans are. Are we a good creature by nature or a bad one?"

Cool! I hope we can learn from this rich vocabulary the Greeks have developed to describe and to understand our common nature.

> "So there is a solution for every person on the planet to be genius 1000x or a 1.000.000x, never suffer psychological ailments, and that is to eat a lot of saffron every day."

wait what

Re: Ancient Greek terms worth reviving

#66

Post by thedailymail »

Dalewyn wrote: post #31
pjungwir wrote: post #25

These are great suggestions. Adding these words to your own internal vocabulary is totally worth it for self-reflection. Less seriously, a grammatical construction I wish we had in English is the Latin future passive participle, typically ending in -ndus, -nda, -ndum. It means that something needs/ought to be done. For instance "Amanda" is "she who must be loved." So if someone asks you why your feature isn't in prod…

Addendum?

Yep! Quite a few other common examples, including agenda, propaganda, referendum, corrigenda.

Re: Ancient Greek terms worth reviving

#67

Post by lo_zamoyski »

AlbertCory wrote: post #18

One of my favorite moments at Oracle was when we were on a business trip and had to get ready at 6:00 am (don't ask why). I said, "Ah, the rosy-fingered dawn!" and one guy actually got the reference. ============= This is Latin, not Greek, but =========== Supposedly "Cicero" was pronounced "KICK-er-oo" I don't care. I'm going to keep saying SISS-er-oh.

The pronunciation of Latin will vary depending on whether you're relying on classical (restored/reconstructed) or ecclesiastical pronunciation. "Cicero" in the former is [ˈkɪkɛroː], whereas in the latter, it is [ˈtʃitʃero] which is close to the English pronunciation. In most European languages, the pronunciation is closer to the latter (e.g., the Polish "Cyceron"), while, e.g., in Greek it is closer to the former (Κικέρων).

Re: Ancient Greek terms worth reviving

#68

Post by thedailymail »

swyx wrote: post #55

my favorite of this is Episteme - i spend a lot of time thinking about how we know what we think we know, and wish that more people did as well before mouthing off completely incorrect or unexamined beliefs (esp not understanding when the dependencies under which they are true, are no longer true). p.s. TIL that Odysseus was forced to be a sex slave for 7 years?

Forced!

Re: Ancient Greek terms worth reviving

#69

Post by jihadjihad »

mjklin wrote: post #64

The Ancient Greek word “δαίμων” referred to a lesser god linked to a place (like the spirit of the hearth) or a person (like a guardian angel). Latin took this idea into the related word “genius” which in modern Romance languages can mean either an intelligent person or a person’s mood. In Spanish, “estar de mal genio” means “to be in a bad mood”. So then to have “ευδαιμονία” can mean “to be in a good mood” although…

I am reminded of the name of Othello's wife, Desdemona, which shares a similar etymology (in fact they are antonyms of one another). The sense is "ill-fated" [0]

0: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Desdemona

Re: Ancient Greek terms worth reviving

#70

Post by adzm »

rgrieselhuber wrote: post #3

Xenia plays a very important role in both the Iliad and the Odyssey. The idea of obligations running in both directions makes it a much richer concept than simple “hospitality.”

Such a beautiful word, too. It's great to see it in a context outside of a tornado that destroyed a city in Ohio.
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