Wordsmith.org: the magic of words

Wordsmith Talk

About Us | What's New | Search | Site Map | Contact Us  

Previous Thread
Next Thread
Print Thread
Page 1 of 2 1 2
#121838 02/01/04 05:14 PM
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
W
wwh Offline OP
Carpal Tunnel
OP Offline
Carpal Tunnel
W
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Most males become sadly familiar with this term. But take a look at the etymology!

alopecia [ˌ©¡lə'pi¢°ʃ©¥ə]
noun loss of hair, esp. on the head; baldness
[ETYMOLOGY: 14th Century: from Latin, from Greek alopekia, originally: mange in foxes, from alopex fox]

Do you know any other words that use this root?


#121839 02/01/04 05:28 PM
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 1,475
J
veteran
Offline
veteran
J
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 1,475
Alopeks 'fox' from *wlp- (*lup-) 'dog-like beast of prey (fox, jackel, wolf)' :- Latin volpes 'fox'. There's another root *wlkwos 'wolf' :- whence Skt vrka 'wolf', lupus (whichis listed as a Sabine loanword), English wolf.

The /w/ sound in Greek is interesting. There used to be a special letter called digamma that looked like an italic capital eff. It stopped being pronounced and used before the classical period. Dropped at the beginnings of words like in alopeks above. There were a couple of other letters in the old Greek alphabet, some of which still appear as numerals (letters in Greek and Phonoecian alphabets doubled as numbers).


#121840 02/01/04 07:58 PM
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
italic capital eff=F?



formerly known as etaoin...
#121841 02/01/04 08:25 PM
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 1,475
J
veteran
Offline
veteran
J
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 1,475
italic capital eff=F?

Yeah, that's pretty much how it look. More rounded on the top. It was alled a digamma 'cause it looked like a gamma with a second crossbar. (I'm not sure if it's even in Unicode, but it should be.)


#121842 02/01/04 08:40 PM
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 1,475
J
veteran
Offline
veteran
J
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 1,475
I see that Unicode has both upper- and lowercase digamma (0x03dc and 0x03dd), as well as qoppa (0x03dec and 0x03df) and sampi (0x03e0 and 0x03e1). I'll try pasting them in as XML entities, but that might not work: Ϝ, ϝ, Ϟ, ϟ, Ϡ, ϡ. (I only see the capital versions in my browser.)

The URL below has the PDF for this section of Unicode and includes Coptic letters, too.

http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U0370.pdf



#121843 02/01/04 09:57 PM
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
thanks, jheem. wow. there's so much I never knew I didn't know...



formerly known as etaoin...
#121844 02/01/04 11:37 PM
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
W
wwh Offline OP
Carpal Tunnel
OP Offline
Carpal Tunnel
W
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Wenige wissen wieviel man wissen muss, um zu wissen wie wenig man weiss.


#121845 02/01/04 11:44 PM
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
"Few know how much one to know must, around to know as few one white."

cool.




formerly known as etaoin...
#121846 02/02/04 12:43 AM
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
as few one white

Whadjoo, cygne, get that from Babelfish?


Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
Sherlock, my dear Watson...





formerly known as etaoin...
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Sherlock as in that miserable attempt to find stuff on Macs?


Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
W
wwh Offline OP
Carpal Tunnel
OP Offline
Carpal Tunnel
W
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
It's sure luck to find anything alimentary on a Mc


Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
miserable attempt

yup. that'd be the one. I couldn't find my usual translator page, so I resorted to Sherlock. woeizmi...



formerly known as etaoin...
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
For what it's worth, I doubt your usual translator page would have done much better.


Take it from a human: Few know how much one must know to know how little one knows.

Page 1 of 2 1 2

Moderated by  Jackie 

Link Copied to Clipboard
Forum Statistics
Forums16
Topics13,913
Posts229,629
Members9,187
Most Online3,341
Dec 9th, 2011
Newest Members
Karin, JeffMackwood, artguitar, Jim_W, Rdbuffalo
9,187 Registered Users
Who's Online Now
1 members (A C Bowden), 546 guests, and 4 robots.
Key: Admin, Global Mod, Mod
Top Posters(30 Days)
Top Posters
wwh 13,858
Faldage 13,803
Jackie 11,613
wofahulicodoc 10,746
tsuwm 10,542
LukeJavan8 9,934
AnnaStrophic 6,511
Wordwind 6,296
of troy 5,400
Disclaimer: Wordsmith.org is not responsible for views expressed on this site. Use of this forum is at your own risk and liability - you agree to hold Wordsmith.org and its associates harmless as a condition of using it.

Home | Today's Word | Yesterday's Word | Subscribe | FAQ | Archives | Search | Feedback
Wordsmith Talk | Wordsmith Chat

© 1994-2024 Wordsmith

Powered by UBB.threads™ PHP Forum Software 7.7.5