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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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This week's theme: insults.
praetorian or pretorian (pree-TOR-ee-uhn) adjective
Corruptible; fraudulent.
Many of us too lazy to look it up will derive a meaning from usage. Until this very day I had assumed that it meant politically powerful. Wonder why
dalehileman
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addict
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The word has two meanings.
A praetor was an elected official. The meaning not given was "of or like a praetor".
The meaning given comes from the Praetorian Guard, a military / guard force established by Caesar Augustus and lasting till the time of Constantine. They were frequently involved in intrigues, palace coups, assassinations, etc. Their allegiance (or lack thereof) was rather essential to becoming and/or remaining Emperor.
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old hand
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old hand
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Does it have anything to do with Pretoria, South Africa? When I was a kid we sang "We are marching to Pretoria, Pretoria, Pretoria...", but I had (and have!) no idea why we would march to Pretoria, or why we were happy about it (song ends with "hoo-ray!"). Anyone know? :0)
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Pretoria was named for its founder's father. Their surname was Pretorius.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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old hand
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old hand
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Pretoria was named for its founder's father. Their surname was Pretorius. Which I imagine was probably a Latin surname or nom de plume or academic name taken on sometime in the 15th to 17th centuries when it was fashionable so to do, especially by scholars. So indirectly, yes it does eventually come from Praetorian I would guess. Not being bothered to look it up myself, does the word have anything to do with pretend, pretentious, etc? Or is the Latin pretensio completely unrelated?
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Carpal Tunnel
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pretend
Unlikely. Most think prętor comes from prae 'before' + itor (< eo, ire 'to go'), sort of like praesidens 'sitting in front'. Meillet suggest it may actually be an Etruscan loanword that got folk-etymologized. Pretorius is probably just the Dutch name Schout (cf. German Schul(t)z) latinized. (Maybe Bran can corroborate.)
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Carpal Tunnel
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schout This is about schout.  Perfect word to practise the sch -sound on and schout sounds like out as in about. But praetorian and pretend seem to have some connection: ? At least the falsehood methinks. Online Etymology- pretend: c.1380, "to profess or claim," from O.Fr. pretendre "to lay claim," from L. prętendere "stretch in front, put forward, allege," from prę- "before" + tendere "to stretch," from PIE base *ten- "to stretch" (see tend). Main modern sense of "feign, put forward a false claim" is recorded from 1412; the older sense of simply "to claim" is behind the string of royal pretenders (1697) in Eng. history. Meaning "to play, make believe" is recorded from 1865.
Last edited by BranShea; 06/07/08 04:29 PM.
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is probably just the Dutch name Schout I'm very likely completely wrong, but didn't some people merely latinize the spelling rather than translate, e.g. most people seem to believe that Clavius' original name was Clau or Klau rather than Schlüssel for key (Latin clavis).
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Carpal Tunnel
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I'm very likely completely wrong, but didn't some people merely latinize the spelling rather than translate, e.g. most people seem to believe that Clavius' original name was Clau or Klau rather than Schlüssel for key (Latin clavis).
Some Latinized the name. There's a famous German jurisprudentist whose name is Heineccius, which was probably just Heinecke with -ius. Not only Latin, but Greek, too; there are names like Neander (a couple of Germans, a theologian and a philologist) which is the Greek translation of German Neumann, and Melanchthon was originally called Schwarzerd. Katz is a common Ashkenazi surname, but it has nothing to do with German Katz 'cat', but rather is a Hebrew acronym כ״ץ (K.Tz.), short for kohen tzadeq 'righteous priest'. So, it depends, hence my slight qualification. I did a minimal googling and that's the best solution I came up with. Perhaps Branny knows if there is a Dutch word pretor that means something.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Yes, dzjeem, pretor does have a meaning in Dutch, but it also comes from Latin. It can mean mayor or judge, but in older use it means 'schout'. pretor The third def. on the page gives landvoogd, meaning someone who runs an estate; also called 'schout' It is also used for some official function in church, chairman of a ring in the Ned. Reformed church. (?) The name Heineken is going around abundantly now with the European Soccer Championships on. Tonight the first Dutch performance against Italy. So the adepts will be watching over their piled up cases of.. 
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