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#106576 06/28/03 01:48 AM
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Jackie Offline OP
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Someone PM'ed me today and used this word: eruditeness. Though it is perfectly correct, it somehow struck me as awkward; dunno why. For a second, I thought it should be erudity, but that's not right! So, I looked it up, and thought you-all might find this interesting, as I did:
er'u·dite'ness n.
WORD HISTORY One might like to be erudite but hesitate to be rude. This preference is supported by the etymological relationship between erudite and rude. Erudite comes from the Latin adjective çrudîtus, “well-instructed, learned,” from the past participle of the verb çrudîre, “to educate, train.” The verb is in turn formed from the prefix ex–, “out, out of,” and the adjective rudis, “untaught, untrained,” the source of our word rude. The English word erudite is first recorded in a work possibly written before 1425 with the senses “instructed, learned.” Erudite meaning “learned” is supposed to have become rare except in sarcastic use during the latter part of the 19th century, but the word now seems to have been restored to favor.

From Atomica (AHD 2000).


#106577 06/28/03 02:01 AM
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S
sjm Offline
old hand
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S
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eruditeness

I prefer erudicity.

Repectfully yours,
H. Dumpty




#106578 06/28/03 10:01 AM
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E
enthusiast
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E
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what about erudition?


#106579 06/28/03 10:53 AM
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Is it just me, or does Jackie have the etymons for erudite starting with a c with a cedilla? That can't be right.

Bingley


Bingley
#106580 06/28/03 12:15 PM
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çrudîtus, “well-instructed, learned,” from the past participle of the verb çrudîre, “to educate, train.”

And herein seems to lie some more oxymoronological etymology:

Whence crude and crud?




#106581 06/28/03 01:49 PM
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I'm with emanuela.


#106582 06/28/03 02:45 PM
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erudage, dude...



formerly known as etaoin...
#106583 06/28/03 03:18 PM
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W
wow Offline
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On a T-shirt - made me laugh -
"Eruditer than thou"


#106584 06/29/03 10:26 AM
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Love the t-shirt slogan, wow.

I would say that erudition is the process of becoming erudite and eruditeness is the quality of being so.


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The character that got transmorgrified(C) to a c-cedilla was an e with a macron over it in the original.


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