Date: Wed Apr 17 00:41:45 EDT 1996
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--ana

1. ana \'an-*\ av [ME, fr. ML, fr. Gk, at the rate of, lit., up] : of each
an equal quantity - used in prescriptions
2. ana \'an-*, 'a:n-\ n or ana or anas [-ana] pl 1: a collection of the memorable sayings or table talk of a person 2: a collection of anecdotes or interesting or curious information about a person or a place

In prescriptions ana used to be very often written "aa" with a line over it. "cum" meaning "with" was "c" with a line over it. "sine" meaning "without" was "s" with a line
over it. "q" meant "every". "Noc" was "night". And the handwriting was so bad that it lead to many errors.

And for suffix of a collection, I think it is often "-iana".

Many of your abbreviations were based on medieval Latin ones. I used to use the cum and sine abbreviations in my class notes in college. Lawyers and doctors, learned professions. The root of ana is related to the na in naprapathy.

Dear jheem: I never heard of naprapathy before. I had difficulty finding etymology.
A system of therapeutic manipulation based on the theory that morbid symptoms are dependent upon strained or contracted ligaments in the spine, thorax, or pelvis.

Origin: Bohemian napravit, to correct, + G. Pathos, suffering

What fools these mortals be.

Bohemian napravit

Bohemian! What's the age on that dictionary you consulted? It's been called Czech (or Czechoslovakian) for quite some time now. (I wonder, you never heard of Moravian as a language.) Anywho, náprava 'correction' from napravit 'to correct' from na 'to, on' + pravý 'true, correct'. (Cf. Russian pravda 'truth', also name of newspaper.)

Dear jheem: now you've got my biting my tongue trying to
remember the joke about Isvestia and Pravda. No truth in
one, and no something else in the other.

the joke about Isvestia and Pravda.

I guess it would be no news in one or truth in the other. Izvestie means news; ultimately from the same root as wit and history.

The joke, as I remember it, is there's no news in Pravda and no truth in Isvestia.

Thanks, Faldage, I'd never heard the joke, but it occurred to me after I posted that it might be a chiasmus.