(from I&A)
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.
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
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.
"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]
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.
So, it's "Maestra! Maestra! Brava! Brava!" huh?!!
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.
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.
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.
ck: Maybe you are aware of Hermann Hesse's novel, Magister Ludi. I've not read it, but my impression is that it involves a mysterious game of some kind. I'm sure others are more conversant with it.
Yes. and then there is John Fowles' The Magus and Christianity's Three Magi.
after seeing what man* has wrought with cleave, why this insistence that these should have a common root?! <scratching head>
()
why this insistence that these should have a common root?!
It's the conspiracy theory gene that *lurks in all of us.
all of uswho's this "us", white man?
I want a legal citation before I can accept such sweeping generalisation: chapter and verse!
I want a legal citation before I can accept such
sweeping generalisation: chapter and verse!
must... resist... temptation....
ASp: all of us
mav: who's this "us", white man? (emphasis added)
man? man????
must... resist... temptation....
er, faldage, would you please explain this matter to mav in whatever detail may be necessary?
maestra e maestro are used for teacher for children in the first five years of school. After that, we use professore or professoressa.
Maestro in the meaning of master still survives in some old expressions.
Dottore is everyone is graduate with a laurea in every subject, but in practice it is used just for doctors in medicine
What she said in Espańol, as well.
Italian: maestra e maestro
Spanish: maestra y maestro
Italian: professore or professoressa
Spanish: profesor o profesora
Italian: Dottore
Spanish: Doctor
The one thing, at least in Mexican Spanish, I could never sort out is the difference between licenciado and abogado. It seems that all abogados are licenciados, but not all licenciados are abogados. My dictionary doesn't clarify. My brother-in-law, a licenciado no-abogado, tried to explain it to me once, but no entiendo. Anybody out there care to explain?
-- ASp: all of us
-- mav: who's this "us", white man? (emphasis added)
-- er, faldage, would you please explain this matter to mav in whatever detail may be necessary?
Mav may not be the only person not familiar with the joke... so, (drum roll):
LONE RANGER: Well, Tonto, there are two thousand Indians surrounding us and they don't look friendly. I guess we've come to the end of the line, old fellow.
TONTO (LR's Faithful Indian Companion): What you mean "we", white man?
(rim shot)
Sorry, folks, there's just no way to correct that one politically. In any dimension. And the Lone Ranger was definitely "man."
Mav may not be the only person not familiar with the joke...
Huh? I thought he was referring to it?
Man -- Old English word meaning human being
{white}Man -- Old English word meaning human being{/white}Granting the technical accuracy of your point, faldage,
allow me, as a long-married man of the male persuasion, to offer one reflection. You would be apt to create a great deal of confusion and possible resentment were you to refer to ASp as "my man".