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Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
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"The Latin word for insect is insectum, but the Romans did not "invent" this arthropodan term. The Greeks did. Insectum is actually the Latin translation of Greek entomon, which is from Greek [en- ("in") + tomos ("cutting")]. So, both the Latin and the Greek words for insect mean "cut into parts." Now you know why entomologists are people who study insects.
You might recognize the Latin root sect in other "cutting" words like section, dissect, and vivisection. You might also recognize the Greek root tom- in words like atom ("un-cut-able"), tome (a word for a big book, which came from the fact that Greek books were made out of sections of papyrus), or appendecTOMy. (An appendectomy is an operation to cut out the appendix. There are lots of surgical operations with tom- as part of their names.) You might not realize it, but even the word tmesis, a grammatical term, has the root tom- hidden behind it. To find out how, check out the entries for tmesis and tome in Webster's Third. "
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Joined: Mar 2000
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enthusiast
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enthusiast
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Please, who's Caroline, and which is the relationship with "insectum"?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
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Joined: Sep 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
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In reply to:
You might recognize the Latin root sect in other "cutting" words like section, dissect, and vivisection. You might also recognize the Greek root tom- in words like atom ("un-cut-able"), ...
Any connection to "tomahawk"?
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Joined: Jan 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Careful, WW. You'll have tsuwm telling you the Indians didn't speak Greek and AS will be doing her horizontal dervish delirium endangering her fundament.
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Joined: Sep 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
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Hey, I was just askin'! For all I know, tomahawk was never an actual term of the natives.
But I would like to see the ASp do a dervish here!
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Virginia Algonquian, tamahaac, tamohake: Proto-Algonquian temah- (unattested), to cut off by tool + -aakan, (unattested), noun suffix.
As per AHD
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