[B-Greek] Word enquiry

frjsilver at optonline.net frjsilver at optonline.net
Sun Oct 29 08:08:30 EST 2006


FWIW, Chantraine pretty much agrees with Hofmann, and I (as usual) agree with Carl Conrad on the eymological patterns of TECNH.
 
In Modern Greek, the word TECNH feels so broadly general as to want a little help for clarity and precision, so it's become common to use KALLITECNIA, e.g.,  to mean 'art, artistry' in any sense related to talented esthetic efforts in painting, music, ktl.
 
Father James Silver
 
Monk James 
Orthodox Church in America

----- Original Message -----
From: "Carl W. Conrad" 
Date: Sunday, October 29, 2006 6:16 am
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] Word enquiry
To: B-Greek B-Greek 
Cc: James Ernest , Peter Mickelson 

> 
> On Oct 28, 2006, at 11:44 PM, James Ernest wrote:
> 
> > Before this comment ran right off the rails (clicking rocks and
> > whatnot), I thought it was headed in a direction that might 
> put us on
> > course for an excursion from Plato to Gadamer on the difference
> > between wisdom or understanding, on the one hand, and on the 
> other the
> > skill or cunning or artisanry (techne) needed for 
> accomplishing this
> > or that practical task with or without any profound 
> understanding of
> > its goodness or truth or beauty. But that would have been a 
> bit far
> > afield for this list.
> >
> > I doubt the etymology of techne, whatever it may be, could 
> shed any
> > light on the meaning of technology--except possibly in the 
> imaginative> way so loved by the likes of Heidegger and Gadamer: 
> if truth
> > (a-letheia) is unveiling, why shouldn't technology be rock-banging
> > (tek, tek, tek) .
> 
> I think that what's suggested here is more a matter of 
> philosophical 
> speculation than of demonstrable propositions. Although some 
> posters 
> in this forum have attempted to formulate propositions on word-
> usage 
> based upon etymological evidence, the recurrent admonition is 
> that 
> the origin of a word, even when it can be demonstrated, does not 
> 
> necessarily have any bearing upon its actual usage at any 
> particular 
> period of a word's history within a language's history.
> 
> My own little bit of research into the etymology of TECNH has 
> taken 
> me to Hofmann's _Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Griechischen_, 
> where 
> I find TECNH linked to TEKTWN ("builder," "constructor"), to a 
> Sanskrit noun 'taksan' with the same meaning and to Latin 
> 'texo/texui/ 
> textum' with the meaning "weave." There is evidently no 
> relationship 
> to the word for "child," TEKNON and the root from which that 
> word is 
> derived, TEK/TOK ("give birth to") and the verb TIKTW/TEXOMAI/ETEKON.
> 
> > On 10/28/06, Carl W. Conrad wrote:
> >> Forwarded for: "Peter Mickelson" 
> >> 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
> >> 
> >>
> >>
> >> 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/
> >>
> >>
> >> ---
> >> B-Greek home page: http://metalab.unc.edu/bgreek
> >> B-Greek mailing list
> >> B-Greek at lists.ibiblio.org
> >> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-greek
> >>
> > ---
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> 
> 
> 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/
> 
> 
> ---
> B-Greek home page: http://metalab.unc.edu/bgreek
> B-Greek mailing list
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> 



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