[B-Greek] entelecheia and intellectual

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Sun May 1 07:31:37 EDT 2005


On May 1, 2005, at 6:59 AM, troy harris wrote:

> Could someone kindly help me with this question? At first glance  
> Aristotle's invented word entelecheia gives the immediate sense of  
> being the origin of the word "intellectual." Yet as I have never  
> come across a discussion concerning such a relation, nor find any  
> now via online search, I am in doubt.

There is no relationship whatsoever. The former has a Greek etymology  
and is derived from native Greek elements, the later has a Latin  
etymology and is derived from native Latin elements.

ENTELECEIA derives from the adjective ENTELHS--meaning "complete,  
full" (itself deriving from the noun TELOS and EN) and ECW, "have."  
It's related to DUNAMIS and means something like "having (its)  
potentiality (DUNAMIS) fulfilled." The classical "classroom" paradigm  
is that an oak tree is the ENTELECEIA of the DUNAMIS of an acorn.

"Intellectual" is of Latin origin, from the adjective INTELLECTUALIS,  
which is derived from the noun INTELLECTUS ("understanding"), itself  
derived ultimately from the verb INTELLIGO ("understand") and the  
adjectival formative element -ALIS/E.


Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad at ioa.com
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/




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