The Fame of Identity and the Laws of Reality: Fifteenth Week

Our word for the blog this week is “fame.” Johnson says this comes from φαμα (phama). The Liddell-Scott lexicon shows this Greek word to be the Doric form for φημη (phāmā). To Johnson’s credit he also gives the Doric attribution. The lexicographer simply states that “fame” means “Celebrity; renown” and “Report; rumour.” However, the Greek lexicon gives a more extensive use for φημη. Its possible usages include “utterance prompted by the gods, significant or prophetic saying,” “report, rumour,” “report of a man’s character, repute,” and “any voice or words, speech, saying.” The Greeks used φημη to designate a far broader range of meanings than we do today with “fame.” Johnson’s usages more closely mirror our own – indicating a withering away of the word through history.

Contemporary use of “fame” almost universally brings to mind celebrities – those celebrated and fawned over by their fans. In many ways “fame” is not a word taken particularly seriously by today’s world with its oft short-lived burst of intensity, lasting only until the next new celebrity comes to the fore. The Greek word had some significance but the etymologically connected English word has far less.

Perhaps this is indicative of words that represent ideas of shallow substance. It is reasonable to expect people to disregard the word as much as the thing it represents. Such is a segue to another interesting topic – what are words? In the most basic of senses words are combinations of letters of an alphabet so arranged to represent ideas of concrete things. When one says horse, one thinks of the animal commonly known by that designation. Contrastingly, when one says car, an automobile is brought to mind, though there are several common traits between the two. Cars and horses can carry people or loads to and from designated locations. Both can travel long distances and often at considerable speed.

Why do human beings not habitually confound the two words (of course only in their contemporaneous time period)? The obvious answer is that both words represent two uniquely different things, besides the fact that the words are constructed of different letters. The ability of human beings to form and use words in an unambiguous manner is evidence of the importance of the Law of Identity in the lives of mankind. Though easily taken for granted, the possession of individual properties by individual things is vital in preventing perpetual chaos. This characteristic of reality must not be disregarded or taken lightly. Failure to respect the strictures of identity always causes misfortune. Individual identity and individual reality are intimately intertwined, and one relies on the other for existence. I suppose one could say identity and its rules possess rather a lot of “fame” despite their sometimes being forgotten and left to obscurity.

 

John

Context, Context, Context: Fourteenth Week

This blog would be quite remiss in its purpose if it did not consider “etymology” as a weekly word of interest. Johnson offers this use concerning the origins of words, “The descent or derivation of a word from its original…” The lexicographer states “etymology is from the Latin word etymologia and a Greek compound of ετυμος (etumos) and λογος (logos). According to the Oxford Latin Dictionary the Latin term comes from ετυμολογια (etumologia), rendering the Latin a very near transliteration with the same meaning – word origin.

While it is true one should not define a word by its etymology, especially given the antiquity of many English terms, the origin of words does paint a picture of their evolution through use. Perhaps more importantly, etymology lays a groundwork for meaning. One can only stray so far from a thing’s structure before it is left behind and something else is being contemplated. So it is with word origins.

However, the final arbiter of word meanings is context. Finding and understanding the context of a passage is vital to knowing how that particular word or phrase is being used. A simplified exploration of context can be divided into two fronts: immediate and extended. In typical book format, immediate context deals with how a word is being used in a single sentence or at most a paragraph and may be limited to less than a paragraph if long or complex. Extended context considers how a word or phrase is used in a chapter or section and finally in the book as a whole. Mortimer J. Adler discusses context and its relation to the words of which it consists and that describe it. He writes in, How to Read a Book:

Most of the words in any English book are familiar words. These words surround the strange words, the technical words, the words that may cause the reader some trouble. The surrounding words are the context for the words to be interpreted. The reader has all the materials he needs to do the job. (p. 202, See the link to the right for the Adler book.)

It is in matters of context that most people make mistakes in understanding and the misinterpretation that follows. The antidote to such mistakes often can simply start with a good dictionary or lexicon. For English words the Oxford English Dictionary will almost always be the best option. The particular characteristic that sets this multi-volume work apart is its extensive use of chronologically sequenced quotations. Investigating the range of quotations offered reveals a broad multilayered context of usages. If the range of word usages are accurate the researcher should come away with a rather complete set of possible meanings from which to choose. If those findings are coupled with the context of the passage or book considered and etymological backgrounds are not ignored, proper word meanings are quite certain to be found. It is certainly worth saying again: Dictionaries offer usages, but contexts determine meanings.  

Until next week.

John

Secrets of the Riddle: Thirteenth Week

Our word this week is “enigma.” Johnson offers this meaning: “A riddle; an obscure question; a position expresses in remote and ambiguous terms.” The Greek from which the word comes is ἄινιγμα (ainigma). Greek lexicons offer these possible usages: “dark saying,” “riddle,” “an obscure thing,” and “indistinct image.” The New Testament describes the word as an obscure reflection in a mirror (1 Corinthians 13:12). This describes the idea exactly. One can see an image, but it is indistinct. This is just what a riddle is – the answer is in the question, but we cannot quite see it. Therein lies the fascination of riddles. A short riddle my father used to tell me when I was young goes like this:

            What’s round like a donut,

            Deep like a cup,

            And all the king’s men and all the king’s horses could never pull it up?

Since each line of the riddle uses common imagery, we feel the answer must be near at hand in our minds. But it remains just out of reach. Successful riddles evoke hope in us that we can surely find the answer. Perhaps we might say to ourselves, “Well, I know about men and horses, and I surely know about donuts and cups; so, I must know the answer.” But the answer is not so obvious. The answer to the little riddle above is: a well. A water well is round and deep and cannot be pulled up by might. Even the answer is simple. It is the means of getting to the answer that is difficult and intriguing.

This brings to mind something that remains an enigma to some – the power of the obvious. It is said that the best place to hide something is in plain sight. Why is this so? It is so because the brains of human beings do many things automatically. We have autofill as it were. An example is why common typos like the the or there for their are so easily overlooked and so hard to find in our own writing. Our brains automatically correct the error as we read. Interestingly, this accounts for almost all variations in the many Greek texts of the New Testament. From an age of hand-writing and hand-copying it is easy to see how such small differences exist in the manuscripts. Not to mention that the earliest manuscripts, the uncials, were written all in capitals with little or no spaces between words or punctuation. By the way, here is the sentence you just read in uncial form, albeit in English.

Nottomentionthattheearliestmanuscriptstheuncialswerewrittenallincapitalswithlittleornospacesbetweenwordsorpunctuation

The obvious and automatic are the keys to good enigmas or riddles – the ones that seem easy to solve but are not. As long as the enigmatist (also from Johnson, one who makes riddles) can make the lines seem obvious while maintaining their obscurity, he is well on his way to success.