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Well, Christos is a Greek word which ultimately comes from the Indo-European word ghrei, meaning rub.
http://www.bartleby.com/61/roots/IE172.html

According to this review (http://hnn.us/articles/6641.html) of a book putting forward similar ideas to Massey's: KRST is the word for “burial” (“coffin” is written “KRSW”), but there is no evidence whatsoever to link this with the Greek title “Christos” or Hebrew “Mashiah”.



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...played by Boris Karloff, was named "Karis".

By any chance, was the character's last name 'Borloff'?


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Karis Borloff


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>Can anyone do something similar with an electronic OED?

a search for 'Egyptian' in etymologies yields 88 results, but of course few of these are "words from"; a quick scan gives: ankh, behemoth(?), card (as in playing-cards)(?), loofah, ouija(??), pyramid(?)



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ouija!? I thought that was just supposed to the French and German words for 'yes', or is that another folk etymology?

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Coincidentally, I created my own Ouija board. Being a Mechanical Engineer and interested in ergonomics as well as psychic phenomena I decided that it would be more efficient to group the vowels in a central location. After much juggling and finally a psychic phenomenon of my own I was successful and quite astonished at the results! The alphabet is bilatterally symmetrical about its vowels! Also, coincidentally, my interest in Gerald Massey's works followed my reading of Alvin Boyd Kuhn's work, The Esoteric Meaning of the Alphabet." Kuhn was a protege of Massey. If you're interested in seeing Scrybe email me at joelamando@aol.com and I'll attach a copy.


#143710 06/10/05 04:38 PM
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ouija rated a (??) based on this:

[Origin uncertain.
The word has been variously explained as (a) < French oui OUI adv. + German ja yes (see YEA adv.), (b) < an ancient Egyptian word for ‘good luck’ (although app. no such word exists), and (c) < the name of Oujda, the name of a city in Morocco.]


this is from the revised draft edition of OED © 2004;
the 2nd edition has only this: [f. F. oui yes + G. ja yes.]

so they've backed off from the oui/ja explanation.


#143711 06/11/05 01:21 AM
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I attended a conference on the history of the Ouija board several years ago in Salem, Mass and met william Fuld's grandaughter there. Fuld was the creator of Parer Brothers Ouija board. Ouija was the French and German combination of words as I recall according to Feld. There were a lot of talking boards after before and after that but it was Feld's definition of Ouija. Actually, before Feld, the original inventor Charles Kennard called the new board Ouija (pronounced wE-ja) after the Egyptian word for good luck. Ouija is not Egyptian for good luck, but since the board reportedly told him it was during a session, the name stuck. Or so the story goes. It is more likely that the name came from the fabled Moroccan city Oujda (also spelled Oujida and Oudjda). This makes sense given the period's fondness for Middle Eastern cites and the psychic miracles of the Fakirs.


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