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#65969 04/17/02 09:16 PM
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In reply to:

This magisterium should NOT be confused in any way with "majesty", which comes from an entirely different root


okay, this would seem an unlikely coincidence. magisterium, per AHD, stems from "Late Latin magisteriālis, from magisterius, from Latin magister, master, teacher". AHD's offering for majesty, OTOH, is a woefully unspecific "Middle English mageste, maieste, from Old French majeste, from Latin māiestās.]"

what is the meaning of "maiestas"? this looks suspiciously similar to 'maestro', which AHD claims finds roots in L. magister, or teacher. Anyone happen to know the italian word for teacher? or is 'maestro' it? i always assumed 'maestro' meant 'master'.

this query is going in every direction, and i've totally lost my train of thought...sorry

can anyone make sense of it? it just seems that these two roots are related somehow.




#65970 04/17/02 09:28 PM
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Dear caradea: obviously there is quite a spectrum to "mag(nitude)"
I couldn't find definition of Italian "dottore" which is related to "doctor" = teacher


#65971 04/18/02 03:16 AM
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The meaning of maiestas - a more direct ancestor of "majesty" than the AHD suggests, I think - is (from my Latin dictionary):

maiestas, maiestatis: Greatness, dignity, majesty, authority, grandeur. It also offers up crimen maiestas as meaning "high treason", although I've never heard of that one before!

What it does illustrate quite well is that "j" used to be "i" and should therefore, as I have always maintained (Gawd, it gets lonely up here!) be a vowel.




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#65972 04/18/02 11:22 AM
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"j" used to be "i" and should therefore, as I have always maintained (Gawd, it gets lonely up here!) be a vowel.
You know, that makes sense, when it is given the "y" sound.
However, I have no wish to become Yackie! (YES, w and y are vowels, when they have to be!) [resurrecting old argument e]











#65973 04/18/02 12:44 PM
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Anyone happen to know the italian word for teacher?

For some reason every teacher I'd known during my time in Italy was a woman so it was "la maestra" pronounced "mah-E-strah" (the E big to show emPHAsis on that sylLAble). When you were a little kid it was fun to make puns with "la maestra" and "la minestra" (which is soup!). Kids have a different, simple sense of humour!

A less euphonous word for teacher is "insegnante" presumably from the verb "insegnare" = to teach.


#65974 04/18/02 01:11 PM
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So, it's "Maestra! Maestra! Brava! Brava!" huh?!!




#65975 04/18/02 01:23 PM
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Is "double u" a vowel?


#65976 04/18/02 02:01 PM
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should therefore, as I have always maintained (Gawd, it gets lonely up here!) be a vowel

The letters I and V were used by the Romans to represent both straight vowels and semi-consonants. Examples :
In VINVS (vinus) the I is a straight vowel; the first V is a semi-consonant, similar to our W in sound. The second V is a straight vowel. In IVLIVS (Julius) the first I is a semi-consonant similar to our Y sound and the second I is a straight vowel. In MAIESTATIS the first I was a semi-consonant, a glide between the A and the E. Over the years the pronunciation of the glide took on voicing and eventually a plosive beginning and became the J of our modern majesty.


#65977 04/19/02 01:51 AM
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Maiestas (majestas) comes from major, the comparative of magnus = large, great. Magisterium comes from magister = teacher, master (in the British sense). I don't know that the two words are related; their similarity may be accidental.


#65978 04/19/02 12:50 PM
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I don't know that the two words are related; their similarity may be accidental.

Funny you should comment on this. I spent some time trying to track down the origins of magister when this thread first surfaced, and failed. I suspect that if the professional etymologists can't sort it out, I ain't a-going to.



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