December notes

Dec. 3

I'm enjoying the greek still. I can translate some fairly long sentences (10-12 words) either way. But, for me, it's very slow going. There's no rush, none at all, but I just kinda plod along. One guy wrote something like "I'm not sure why all these people imagine that the introductory phases of learning a foreign language is a whole lot of fun .. it takes a lot of memorization and drill."

Dec. 4

I had another good Greek work (again no English derivative that I can think of): ἀθάνατος "athanatos" which means "immortal." It just sounds neat, like ἐπιθυμία "epithymia." There is some connection to English, θἀνατος "thanatos" means "death." There is a famous poem: Thanatopsis.

The poem was never any particular favorite of mine, but there's the word. Anyway the prefix "a-" means "without," or "not" .. so "athanatos" is literally "without death."

Dec. 7

hysteron proteron

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hysteron-proteron

"put on your shoes and socks." heh

Dec. 10

ἐνθάδε "enthade" means "here" ... or "there." But that's okay, because there's a verb ἔρχομαι "erkomai" that means "come" ... or "go."

Dec 14

Another Greek word is "poet." Which seems odd, since the Greek roots usually end up in long, scientific-sounding words. But, there it is. ποιητής "poietas" is maker (or poet). And the verb ποιέω "poiew" is 'to make.' All of which pales compared to ή τῶν βαρβάρων τυρό-κεφανή heh tawn barbarbawn tyrou-kephaleh.' :)

Oh yes, κεφαλή 'kephaleh' for head. Like "encephalitis," i.e. "in the head."