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Ancient Greek terms worth reviving

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Re: Ancient Greek terms worth reviving

#151

Post by LudwigNagasena »

afunk wrote: post #115

From a fun book I have “Philosophy in 40 Ideas” Eudaimonia THIS IS AN ANCIENT GREEK WORD, normally translated as 'fulfilment', particularly emphasised by the philosopher Aristotle. It deserves wider currency because it corrects the shortfalls in one of the most central terms in our contemporary idiom: happiness. The Ancient Greeks resolutely did not believe that the purpose of life was to be happy; they proposed that…

> The Ancient Greeks resolutely did not believe that the purpose of life was to be happy

I bet Ancient Greeks didn't constitute a hivemind and had different opinions on the matter.

Re: Ancient Greek terms worth reviving

#152

Post by LudwigNagasena »

Cpoll wrote: post #86
HKH2 wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> future passive participle, typically ending in -ndus, -nda, -ndum. ... > It means that something needs/ought to be done. > something needs/ought to be done. > "she who must be loved." All of your examples are in the present tense.

Some of those are contextual, but "ought to be done" is certainly future tense, it's referring to a future activity. It's a pretty apt example for future passive, juxtaposing the future active "will be done." Or at least that's how I reason it. English is rather hard to analyze sometimes.

Grammatically, it is present tense. Semantically, it is future time. And, for kicks, etymologically, it is past tense (owe - ought).

Re: Ancient Greek terms worth reviving

#153

Post by obfuscator »

Ancient Greek was one of the best courses I had in university. It changed my view on language and western thinking quite a lot. My favorite words are

μαθηματικὴ (mathematike): If I remember correctly, it means 1. learning, 2. letter or book and 3. "everything there is to know (for certain)".

χαίρε (chaire): Used as a greeting, literally "be happy!"

Also it is funny that βαίνω (baino) means: I am walking, while "Bein" means leg in German - the amount of Ancient Greek words in German and other languages is ridiculously high.

Re: Ancient Greek terms worth reviving

#154

Post by nomilk »

afunk wrote: post #115

From a fun book I have “Philosophy in 40 Ideas” Eudaimonia THIS IS AN ANCIENT GREEK WORD, normally translated as 'fulfilment', particularly emphasised by the philosopher Aristotle. It deserves wider currency because it corrects the shortfalls in one of the most central terms in our contemporary idiom: happiness. The Ancient Greeks resolutely did not believe that the purpose of life was to be happy; they proposed that…

Manolis Kellis discussed similar concepts on the Lex Fridman podcast. He mentions the idea that the West is very big on resolution and 'happily ever after', whereas the Greeks have a taste for all emotions and experiences in their film, song and poetry.

It's discussed in the Life sucks sometimes and it's okay section of the podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t06rkOOUa7g#t=1h13m

Re: Ancient Greek terms worth reviving

#155

Post by gdprrrr »

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…

It's also the origin of daemon, as in NTP daemon.

Re: Ancient Greek terms worth reviving

#156

Post by wirrbel »

obfuscator wrote: post #153

Ancient Greek was one of the best courses I had in university. It changed my view on language and western thinking quite a lot. My favorite words are μαθηματικὴ (mathematike): If I remember correctly, it means 1. learning, 2. letter or book and 3. "everything there is to know (for certain)". χαίρε (chaire): Used as a greeting, literally "be happy!" Also it is funny that βαίνω (baino) means: I am walking, while "Bein"…

Cognate to Bein is „bone“ in English btw.

Re: Ancient Greek terms worth reviving

#157

Post by once_inc »

jschveibinz wrote: post #128
pyridines wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've heard a regional English construction for this: "needs X'd". For your examples: - The pull request needs reviewed - The trash needs emptied - The dog needs walked Just one(ish) extra syllable!

Northeast Ohio uses this construction rather than the “-ing” gerund. It took me awhile to change that when I moved to the East Coast.

Southern Hillbilly uses the same construction with a prefixed a: "This here dog needs awalkin'"

Re: Ancient Greek terms worth reviving

#158

Post by marginalia_nu »

adverbly wrote: post #13

I've always liked "akrasia" https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akrasia > Weakness of will to act against one's own better judgement. It's everywhere in modern society, and I'd love to see it called out more.

I'm always amused by the fact that I feel like every few generations invents a new term for akrasia, including but not limited to 'moral incontinence' and more recently 'the value-action gap'.

Re: Ancient Greek terms worth reviving

#159

Post by mathieuh »

obfuscator wrote: post #153

Ancient Greek was one of the best courses I had in university. It changed my view on language and western thinking quite a lot. My favorite words are μαθηματικὴ (mathematike): If I remember correctly, it means 1. learning, 2. letter or book and 3. "everything there is to know (for certain)". χαίρε (chaire): Used as a greeting, literally "be happy!" Also it is funny that βαίνω (baino) means: I am walking, while "Bein"…

I think it's more likely that–being an indo-european language–there are frequent cognates between Ancient Greek and other indo-european languages like German.

Here's[0] a massive list of them, and you can see cognates between languages you might not have thought would have them, like Sanskrit, Latin, and Ancient Greek sharing many cognates.

Fascinating subject, definitely.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-European_vocabulary

Re: Ancient Greek terms worth reviving

#160

Post by emporas »

rflrob wrote: post #134
emporas wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's our closest relative animal, not gone extinct, which is alive in the world today, if not chimps?

Bonobos are exactly as close to us as chimpanzees (by descent). Maybe the “default“ human behavior, independent of the last x thousand years of culture, is closer to one or the other, but I don’t think there’s a good a priori reason to assume that we are “naturally” more chimp-like than bonobo-like.

I agree. Maybe the same variations between chimps and bonobos are exhibited between humans. So some of us are more like chimps, while others more like bonobos. Ancient Greeks said that "In peace, we are the best of the animals, in war, we are the worst".
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