[B-Greek] Word enquiry

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Sat Oct 28 16:59:20 EDT 2006


Forwarded for: "Peter Mickelson" <PMICKELSON at sad6.k12.me.us>
Date: October 28, 2006 2:03:57 PM EDT

As an engineer (one who applies ingenuity) it has long been a concern  
for me that the word
"technology" -- my very trade -- has become a four-letter word, as in  
a recent headline
"Technology's Danger to Children" in which it was made clear that  
"technology" actually means
obscene pictures, language, solicitations, movies and other creations  
of the mind of man that can
harm young minds -- not in a museum, of course, but only when  
accessed over the Internet.

So, I began a hunt to get to the core of this, and discovered (no  
surprise) that TECNH and LOGOS
were originally combined to be a vowel encompassing the history (the  
word) of what one does
(technique) -- or as one dictionary puts it "what mankind does to  
meet its needs and wants."

Well, of course, that's a very limited view also, because any girl  
robin knows that her egg will
roll right off the tree branch if she doesn't first create a nest out  
of selected architectural
materials, found at her disposal, to create a gravitational potential- 
energy well.

Then I turned to Greek dictionaries (my wife and her family are from  
Greece) and discovered a
connection between "TEK" and TEC."  So, I smacked two rocks together  
and guess what?  They made the
unique sound "tek!"

Suddenly I could see this little girl, chipping a couple of stones  
together -- tek, tek, tek (or
maybe even "TEC, TEC, TEC") and coming up with the first knife  
blade.  "NH!" she exclaims.
("YESSS!" in today's vernacular) or "I did it!"  And ushering in the  
Stone Age.

Can any of you follow this deranged reasoning with me, and suggest  
any more support that might help
me go back beyond Greek to more ancient times and follow this path?   
Language is a symbolic thing,
and I'm betting it has been so since it's conception.

Of course, I also stand open to the humbling academic put-downs that  
one so often receives for
their imagination.


Pete Mickelson
<n.p.mickelson at ieee.org>


Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad2 at mac.com
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/





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