Subject:
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Re: Evidence of Warm Blooded Dinosaurs
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.fun
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Date:
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Fri, 28 Apr 2000 21:28:37 GMT
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Viewed:
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540 times
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Jeff Stembel wrote:
> In lugnet.off-topic.fun, Steve Bliss writes:
> > "Arch" is the prefix for "old". Like "archaic".
>
> I believe you are thinking of "archaeo", as in Archaeopteryx. :) "The
> Dinosaur Data Book" says, and I quote, "gave rise to the archosaurs or 'ruling
> reptiles'"
That's correct. But "ancient" is palaeo-. ;) In "archaic" it's that last "a"
that makes the difference--it's a merger of "archae" + "-ic".
> > "Monarch" originally meant "old man". Eventually, its meaning was narrowed to
> > the person who was typically the most important old man: the ruler. The
> > original version of the word was "arch-mon", from the Jamaican dialect.
>
> Maybe we do need an off-topic.bs.... Anyway, in case you weren't kidding:
There is an off-topic.bs...off-topic.geek. ;)
Part of the reason why the words are so close, IIRC, is because age was once
considered a necessary corollary of wisdom and thus the quality of leadership (at
least in the ideal sense).
Also, it's important to note that Jamaican English is not older than Norman
English--"Monarch" in English dates from the eleventh or twelfth century CE; but
considering the positionality of Greco-Roman Latin in European culture at that
point, it was probably used in liturgy as early as the fifth century, after the
conversion of Britannia had begun. Jamaican English is considered a creole"
language, as it's a pastiche of late-middle English (functionally, no different
than modern English, but some archaisms [another archae- word!] are preserved) and
several African languages, notably Igbo and Kongolese. (I may be thinking of Krio
with that last one, though.) Its forms were settled after the end of slave
importation in 1807, when fresh African-language influence ceased for all intents
and purposes.
The "arch-mon" construction is similar to "archbishop," "archangel," and
"arch-fiend" (though not in qualitative content, of course). The necessary
conceptual connection between age and wisdom/spiritual power that today does not
seem to exist in Northern European cultures (I include the cultures of the US and
Canada here) is still very important in the Caribbean and West and Central Africa,
among other places. (For better or for worse.) For another example of arch=ruler
but just as easily =aged, look at "patriarch." But without leadership
connotations, I'm pretty sure the proper Greek root for advanced age alone is
"gero/gerae-" (ex: geriatrics, gerontology).
But that's all I can spout off the top of my head. Maybe I'm not doomed on this
exam after all.
best
Lindsay
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: Evidence of Warm Blooded Dinosaurs
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| (...) Nope, I wasn't jesting. I am not a jester, after all. (...) I believe you are thinking of "archaeo", as in Archaeopteryx. :) "The Dinosaur Data Book" says, and I quote, "gave rise to the archosaurs or 'ruling reptiles'" (...) Maybe we do need (...) (25 years ago, 26-Apr-00, to lugnet.off-topic.fun)
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