> Oh? I speak a Germanic tongue, and the Finns do not even (natively)
>> What about "Anima"?
>> Latin is our common forefather, after all.
> speak an Indo-European one. Not to mention that the Japanese Digest
> readers use one that has no relation to either the Indo-Europen or
> Finno-Ugaric groups.
English is the common language being used on this list, so what the Finns, Japanese and even Germans do in their linguistic private lives is not particularly relevant (no offence), though FWIW I've always seen English as a basically Germanic language that had a load of Latinate vocabulary dumped on it by the Normans.
>> The fact that the word is equally an italian one is >> unconsequential :-)
> It is quite consequential. When they started developing "scientific"
> names for everything, the English used Latin or Greek because they were
> different enough from common speech that they had no connotations, let
> alone denotations.
I don't know for sure, but I very much doubt that. There are an abundance of English words that are easily traced back to their Latin origins.
> Therefore, Latin or Greek are entirely out.
Nor do I see why that is a logical consequence of your argument, even if true... nevertheless...
> Ghosty Bits - to go along with the Pythonesque term "Naughty Bits".
THAT is a lovely idea. So good in fact, I might have to start using it in conversation!
> 3,4,5) What is the Polynesian, Finnish, or Gaelic term for this?
Well the Irish Gaelic for "soul" is "anam" (not a million miles away from "anima"), I don't know about Finnish, and where did Polynesian come from?
> 7) Psychon - a particle of n dimensions (where n >= 3, and may be much
> higher) whose total spin is 1, but can be polarized along any axis
Oh please, no! The horror! The horror! Anyway, I thought you were against terms derived from Greek !?
Cheers -
Malk. Received on Fri 12 May 2006 - 00:28:32 EEST
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