The Finer Points of Selection: Twelfth Week

Johnson’s word this week is “eclogue.” He says this means “A pastoral poem, so called because Virgil called his pastorals eclogues.” The Greek etymology given is εκλογη (eklogā). This Greek noun means a selection or choice and according to Liddell, Scott, and Jones can indicate a selection from writings. This seems the context of the idea offered by Johnson concerning Virgil’s poems.

A note on the Greek word is of interest. Εκλογη can be understood in its two parts – the base word and the prefix. The prefix is εκ meaning in this context out. The base word is λογη and related to λεγω and λογας which mean respectively pick or collect and gathered or chosen. If the base and prefix are put together the resulting noun means that which is chosen (literally: out picked, out collected, out gathered, or out chosen). The prefix sets our word apart from the verbs from which it is related by showing that that which was picked was also set apart or picked-out. This is were an illustration drawn from youth may be helpful.

Children choosing teams is a typical playground scene. Two captains make choice from the other children gathered around them and one by one pick and then collect the chosen into separated teams. The difference between picked and picked-out or chosen and chosen-out is the same as the difference between calling a player’s name and moving the player into the chosen team. One may consider both actions inseparable and simply two steps making up one action. However, they are actually two distinct actions because both can stand on their own. One can be chosen but not moved and another could be moved but not chosen for the team. This sort of analytical thinking is required to understand the difference between λεγω, λογη, and εκλογη. The explanation given above does not preclude some overlap in meaning and use of the words from one Greek writer to another or variations in lexical entries, but it is a literal reckoning for the use of the prefix and a defense against useless redundancy and for nuance.  

Johnson does not offer a Latin background for our word this week, but it is particularly applicable to the meaning he gives. Lewis tells us the Latin word ecloga  means “a selection, consisting of the finest passages, from a written composition” and comes from εκλογη. From this, one can deduce that when εκλογη came into Latin the meaning was consolidated into a literary selections process, from which English absorbed it by way of French eglogue  as a near transliteration.

The absorption process is a powerful characteristic of English and contributes to the difficulty of mastering it. Of its power, Melvyn Bragg wrote, “…English’s most subtle and ruthless characteristic of all: its capacity to absorb others” (page 2, see link on the right). As I mentioned in an earlier post, the etymology of English words opens a long lineage of history through Greek, Latin, and French. Absorbing word history, and with it history in general, fortifies the structural integrity of English, lending it great staying power and flexibility. This is why it endures and why English is used by so many around the world. As is said of the mighty oak that weathered centuries of storm and gale because it bent to the wind, so the same should be said of English tongue.

Until next week,

John