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#170006 09/14/07 11:36 PM
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Note: M-W says 'pseudo' is from Late Latin.

Every other source I've seen says it's Greek. Seems like an obvious mistake, but I suppose it's possible that Greek was it might have come to us from through some circuitous route.

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It's Greek. You don't get ps word initially in Latin. It may have come through Latin as many a word did. There's a play by Plautus called Pseudolus. The title character is a smart slave. This is the basis for the Zero Mostel character in the movie of the Sondheim musical A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. I have a dictionary of Late Latin; I'll take a look-see.


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??
pseudo-
[ME, fr. LL, fr. Gk, fr. pseudes, fr. pseudesthai to lie] [MWCD-10]

Cf. post-classical Latin pseudo- [OED2]

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OK, I've look it up in Alexander Souter's A Glossary of Later Latin to 600 AD. There's about 1 1/3 columns of words beginnig in pseudo-, e.g., pseudoapostolus 'false apostle' to pseudothyrum 'false (secret) door'. Name that keeps cropping up is [Sophronius Eusebius] Hier[onymus] aka Jerome, he of the Vulgate. So, it became a kind of prefix with the Church Fathers.


Ceci n'est pas un seing.

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