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angharaI just thought that this, from my favourte Usenet group, was worth disseminating:
As most here probably know, English
originally had "mann" for "person" and "wer" for "male person".
The latter survives only in "wergild," "werewolf," and (as Brian
pointed out) the heavily-changed "world".
Which is why there's that neat linguistic joke in _The Lord of
the Rings,_ where the head Nazgul is fated not to be killed by
the hand of man. He is therefore killed by Eowyn (a human, but
not a male) and Meriadoc (a male, but not a human _strictu sensu_)
combined.
As I put it a while back:
The word "man" in English has been made to stand in for what were
originally two words: _mann_ meaning "a man, as distinguished from
an animal, demon, or god" (compare Latin _homo_, Greek _anthropos_),
and _wer_ meaning "a man, as distinguished from a woman or a child"
(Latin _vir_, Greek _aner, andros_).
If Eowyn and the Witch-King had been pedants like the herb-master
of Minas Tirith, the dialogue might have gone more like this:
"You fool, no living man may harm me."
"_Distinguo_, Sir, I am not _vir_ but _femina._ Prepare to die."
"Excuse me, your Westron is so imprecise. I did not mean _vir_, I
meant _homo_."
"Ah, point taken! In that case, permit me to point out that
Meriadoc, who is not _homo_ but _dimidiulus,_ a Halfling, has
just introduced an Arnorian blade into your knee."
(You just have to go to rasfc for the full exchange...)
Back to work now.
As most here probably know, English
originally had "mann" for "person" and "wer" for "male person".
The latter survives only in "wergild," "werewolf," and (as Brian
pointed out) the heavily-changed "world".
Which is why there's that neat linguistic joke in _The Lord of
the Rings,_ where the head Nazgul is fated not to be killed by
the hand of man. He is therefore killed by Eowyn (a human, but
not a male) and Meriadoc (a male, but not a human _strictu sensu_)
combined.
As I put it a while back:
The word "man" in English has been made to stand in for what were
originally two words: _mann_ meaning "a man, as distinguished from
an animal, demon, or god" (compare Latin _homo_, Greek _anthropos_),
and _wer_ meaning "a man, as distinguished from a woman or a child"
(Latin _vir_, Greek _aner, andros_).
If Eowyn and the Witch-King had been pedants like the herb-master
of Minas Tirith, the dialogue might have gone more like this:
"You fool, no living man may harm me."
"_Distinguo_, Sir, I am not _vir_ but _femina._ Prepare to die."
"Excuse me, your Westron is so imprecise. I did not mean _vir_, I
meant _homo_."
"Ah, point taken! In that case, permit me to point out that
Meriadoc, who is not _homo_ but _dimidiulus,_ a Halfling, has
just introduced an Arnorian blade into your knee."
(You just have to go to rasfc for the full exchange...)
Back to work now.
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(no subject)
Date: 2006-06-05 10:05 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-06-06 04:27 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-06-06 07:33 pm (UTC)Hint please?
(no subject)
Date: 2006-06-06 07:46 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-06-06 09:08 pm (UTC)The thread is "question for catholic choir singers, the post by Dorothy dated 5 June 2006 at 2:28 pm (if that helps) - I'd give you a reference URL but I have no idea how to do that...
(no subject)
Date: 2006-06-06 09:29 pm (UTC)