Latin Roots of the Yoga-Sutra--Chapter 1--Aphorism 5

Welcome back fans of Latin roots as they relate to English vocabulary words! Recently I have been focusing this SAT English vocabulary blog on analyzing the Latin root words of titles of great English and world literature, and then discussing why those great works are nonpareil. I have recently perused Patanjali's great work concerning yoga, the Yoga-Sutra, translated by Chip Hartranft. I have found the aphoristic style of the Yoga-Sutra to be not only engaging, but also deeply profound; in it, Patanjali discusses the considerable spiritual, mental, and physical rewards that one can derive from the practice of yoga, which is much, much more than the usually held western conception of yoga as just the asanas, or physical postures/poses. During the next two years or so, I will devote myself to writing about each of Patanjali's aphorisms, sequentially, contained in his remarkable 2nd-century BCE text, with a focus on analyzing the text in terms of its classical Greek and Latin roots of the fine English translation, and then providing an individual's exegesis of the text itself, based upon my own wonderful experience with yoga thus far. It has been said that memorizing the Sanskrit text of the Yoga-Sutra in and of itself can re-pattern the mind; I am most curious to see if this phenomenon is also metalinguistic, that is, can English and its root words effect the same transformation? Last week I focused on the Latin roots of the Yoga-Sutra: Chapter 1: Aphorism 4. This week I move on to:

Aphorism 5: There are five types of patterns, including both hurtful and benign.

Let's first discuss the Greek and Latin roots of four of the following words above:

type: From the Greek root typos: "blow, impression, form." One "types" on a keyboard by making "impressions" on the keys with one's fingers, just as a "type" of candy is the "form" it takes, just as character traits "form" a "type" of person. Numerous SAT and GRE-level vocabulary words run through the Greek root typos, including: archetype, stereotype, atypical, typify, prototype, genotype, and timbre. Pattern: from the Latin word pater, patris: “father;” a “pattern” is the “father” of something because it generates the limitations within which forms can arise, that is, according to its “pattern,” in much the same way that a father’s genetic information helps form the physical “pattern” of his offspring, and also the child’s mental “patterning” by the way that the father behaves, highly influencing the child. Other SAT and GRE-level derivatives from pater, patris include: patriarch, paternal, patron, patronize, repatriate, patriarch, and compatriot. Include: from the prolific Latin verb claudo, claudere, clausi, clausum: "shut, close;" when something is "included" with something else, it is etymologically "shut in" with it. This root has many, many English derivatives at the SAT and GRE-level that come from it, "including" but not limited to the ff.: exclusive, inclusion, exclusion, preclude, occlude, recluse, conclusive, closure, disclosure, seclude, conclusive, claustrophobia, seclusion, cloister, and foreclose. For even more SAT and GRE vocabulary words, check out www.wordempire.com where you will find many more examples! Benign: this word comes directly from the Latin word benignus: "kind;" this includes the Latin adverb bene: well and ago, agere: "do;" so, someone who "does well" is kind. English words are legion from ago, agere (in the 100s); from bene: benediction, benefactor, beneficent, benevolent, beneficial, etc. Aphorism 5: There are five types of patterns, including both hurtful and benign. As we learned in my last post concerning aphorism 4, patterns of thought that are formed at birth and early on in life limit one's view of reality, coloring one's awareness of what the world truly is and restricting it to the view of the pattern, which is not necessarily where reality lies, but only the reality of the pattern itself, which is not actual truth or clear perception. Hence, to understand how to supersede such patterning, one must learn the "types" or forms of these patterns; all of them, according to Patanjali, are not necessarily hurtful, although some are. Being able to harness those that are benign to further the process towards enlightenment and obviating those that are hurtful will take us a long way towards fulfilling our goal, that is, to allow one's awareness of true reality to be unhindered and unfettered by those patterns. We all live with the purview or even control of these patterns, and without even being able to recognize them as such, one cannot know how to deal with them, for through the patterns we perceive the reality dictated by the pattern, not unadulterated, pure reality. This concept is fully discussed in Plato's Allegory of the Cave, in which men live who have only ever seen shadows dancing on the wall of the cave and have never been out in the real world; imagine one man's surprise one day when he leaves the cave and comes upon glorious, colorful, three-dimensional reality--what a blow to his mind and preconceptions that must have been! In much the same way do our mind's patterns cause us to remain in the shadows, shackling awareness and giving us only the smallest glimpses of the glory of reality as it truly is. My next post will focus on aphorism 6: They are right perception, misperception, conceptualization, deep sleep, and remembering. Fascinated with English vocabulary words? Want to pick them apart into their constituent Greek and Latin roots? Want to know even more SAT and GRE words that come from the Latin root words pater, bene, ago, and claudo? Studying hard for the SAT or GRE verbal section, and just can't get a handle on all of those vocabulary words, which are truly legion? Check out www.wordempire.com , where you will find the most comprehensive Greek and Latin roots dictionary available today, and also the most beautiful...it's in full color, and artistically designed. There's even a Greek and Latin roots poster available, which nicely illustrates the full power of what Greek and Latin root words can do for you.

Latin Roots of the Yoga-Sutra--Chapter 1--Aphorism 4

Welcome back fans of Latin roots as they relate to English vocabulary words! Recently I have been focusing this SAT English vocabulary blog on analyzing the Latin root words of titles of great English and world literature, and then discussing why those great works are nonpareil. I have recently perused Patanjali's great work concerning yoga, the Yoga-Sutra, translated by Chip Hartranft. I have found the aphoristic style of the Yoga-Sutra to be not only engaging, but also deeply profound; in it, Patanjali discusses the considerable spiritual, mental, and physical rewards that one can derive from the practice of yoga, which is much, much more than the usually held western conception of yoga as just the asanas, or physical postures/poses. During the next two years or so, I will devote myself to writing about each of Patanjali's aphorisms, sequentially, contained in his remarkable 2nd-century BCE text, with a focus on analyzing the text in terms of its classical Greek and Latin roots of the fine English translation, and then providing an individual's exegesis of the text itself, based upon my own wonderful experience with yoga thus far. It has been said that memorizing the Sanskrit text of the Yoga-Sutra in and of itself can re-pattern the mind; I am most curious to see if this phenomenon is also metalinguistic, that is, can English and its root words effect the same transformation? Last week I focused on the Latin roots of the Yoga-Sutra: Chapter 1: Aphorism 3. This week I move on to:

Aphorism 4: Otherwise awareness takes itself to be the patterns of consciousness.

Let's first take a look at the Latin roots of two key words:

Consciousness: from "scio, scire": to know; the “con” of “consciousness” means “thoroughly” (from the preposition “cum” which here acts as an intensive), so one who exhibits “consciousness” possesses the “state, quality, or condition” of “thoroughly knowing” one’s surroundings. Other SAT and GRE-level derivatives that come from "scio, scire" include: conscience, conscientious, conscionable, conscientiousness, unconscionable, omniscient, omniscience, prescient, nicety, plebiscite, and nice.

Pattern: from the Latin word pater, patris: “father;” a “pattern” is the “father” of something because it generates the limitations within which forms can arise, that is, according to its “pattern,” in much the same way that a father’s genetic information helps form the physical “pattern” of his offspring, and also the child’s mental “patterning” by the way that the father behaves, highly influencing the child. Other SAT and GRE-level derivatives from “pater, patris” include: patriarch, paternal, patron, patronize, repatriate, patriarch, and compatriot.

Aphorism 4: Otherwise awareness takes itself to be the patterns of consciousness.

A human’s “awareness,” if having been proscribed or circumscribed or limited by the early “patterns” that have delimited or delineated her “consciousness,” cannot see reality for what it is, but only reality as it appears to the “patterns” or “filters” that keep true, or unfiltered, reality in check. It is as if she were seeing reality through rose-colored glasses. Imagine, if you will, true reality as clear, unsullied water, and ground coffee as the “patterning” or “filter” through which that “reality” must pass; the grounds stain the water as it passes through the coffee maker, creating an end product that is opaque and indiscernible to that clear water, despite the fact that the clear water is the primary substrate or underpinning of all that darkness or lack of clarity. Transcendent vision is all around one, permeating one’s senses, but the “patterns” of “consciousness” themselves are so impermeable that they act to obscure or obfuscate our vision of the ding-an-sich, the “thing-in-itself.” How does one remove these patterns of the mind, these dark coffee grounds that so influence our vision of the transcendent? How does one clear one’s consciousness for clear viewing? Is it truly as difficult as removing the dark color from that once clear water that created the coffee? Hmmm…maybe, maybe not. Patanjali contends that the patterns of consciousness can be stilled through the discipline of yoga, a new reverse filtration system, as it were, that can make pellucid the opacity of compromised vision, that can return lucidity to the darkness of that cup of coffee, to those clouds swirling in one’s cup of awareness. The substrate of clear water is comfortably there, and yoga is the path to clear the way.

Fascinated with English vocabulary words? Want to pick them apart into their constituent Greek and Latin roots? Want to know even more SAT and GRE words that come from the Latin root words scio, scire and pater, patris (there are a good number)? Studying hard for the SAT or GRE verbal section, and just can't get a handle on all of those vocabulary words, which are truly legion? Check out www.wordempire.com , where you will find the most comprehensive Greek and Latin roots dictionary available today, and also the most beautiful...it's in full color, and artistically designed. There's even a Greek and Latin roots poster available, which nicely illustrates the full power of what Greek and Latin root words can do for you.

Latin Roots of the Yoga-Sutra--Chapter 1--Aphorism 3

Welcome back fans of Latin roots as they relate to English vocabulary words! Recently I have been focusing this SAT English vocabulary blog on analyzing the Latin root words of titles of great English and world literature, and then discussing why those great works are nonpareil. I have recently perused Patanjali's great work concerning yoga, the Yoga-Sutra, translated by Chip Hartranft. I have found the aphoristic style of the Yoga-Sutra to be not only engaging, but also deeply profound; in it, Patanjali discusses the considerable spiritual, mental, and physical rewards that one can derive from the practice of yoga, which is much, much more than the usually held western conception of yoga as just the asanas, or physical postures/poses. During the next two years or so, I will devote myself to writing about each of Patanjali's aphorisms, sequentially, contained in his remarkable 2nd-century BCE text, with a focus on analyzing the text in terms of its classical Greek and Latin roots of the fine English translation, and then providing an individual's exegesis of the text itself, based upon my own wonderful experience with yoga thus far. It has been said that memorizing the Sanskrit text of the Yoga-Sutra in and of itself can re-pattern the mind; I am most curious to see if this phenomenon is also metalinguistic, that is, can English and its root words effect the same transformation? Last week I focused on the Latin roots of the Yoga-Sutra: Chapter 1: Aphorism 2. This week I move on to:

Chapter 1: Integration
Aphorism 3: Then pure awareness can abide in its very nature.

The name of this chapter (itself derived from the Latin root caput, capitis: "head") comes from the Latin root integer: "whole, entire, untouched." Thus, this first chapter, the first of but four in the Yoga-Sutra, from an etymological point of view, will focus upon "the act of becoming whole, entire, or untouched."

The third aphorism includes three key English derivatives, all three from Latin root words:

pure: from the Latin root word purus: "clean, pure, spotless," source of the following English SAT vocabulary words: purgation, expurgate, impurity, purge, puritanical, et al.

very: from the Latin root word verus: "true," source of numerous and sundry English SAT words, including but not limited to: verify, verdict, verity, verisimilitude, veracious, and aver. Hence, "very," at core, is "truly."

nature: from the Latin root word nasci, nasci, natus sum: "to be born," and, more directly, natura: "character, power which gives birth to the world," source of a huge number of SAT and GRE English vocabulary words, including but certainly not limited to: innate, nascent, nativity, naive, puny, renaissance, cognate, preternatural, etc. The key here is the power of giving birth, or of creating the world.

Aphorism 3: Then pure awareness can abide in its very nature.

"Awareness" is defined as "knowing, realizing, or perceiving." Consciousness brings about awareness, that ability we humans have of being cognizant of not only our own existence, but also of that which surrounds us. Once aphorism 2 has been attained, that is, the "patterns of consciousness have been stilled," "pure," or "spotless, clean" knowing can transpire--which intimates that patterns of consiousness control our thought processes and give us an "impure" view of the world around us, somehow tainting our awareness (in much the same way that Kant described the mind as a a-priori filter that sees "reality" only in terms of itself, not as it really is). So, once the knowing becomes spotless, it can "reside" or "abide" or "be" in its "very" (or "true") nature..the question is, what is the "true nature?" A linguistic or etymological clue here, I believe, resides in the root of the word "nature" discussed above, that is, natura: "character, power which gives birth to the world." If the "nature" of this "pure awareness" is a "power which gives birth to the world," and the inherent "patterns of consciousnss" that is that "awareness" are not "spotless" or "pure," we cannot know the true essence of the world as it really is, what its "truth" is, because the "power which gives birth to the world" is blocked by patterning. But...this awareness, this "very nature," if it indeed does have the "power to give birth to the world," must contain the seeds of enlightenment, indeed must be an immanent, divine force which can allow us to see the world as it is, to view truth (the Platonic Ideals, discussed in the Allegory of the Cave in Plato's Republic), indeed, allow us (since we possess awareness) to "abide in true nature." With the intimation that this "true nature" in an inherent part of every human being, and that every human being can become and has the innate ability to become enlightened.
I guess that blows the "divine elect" out of the water. And supports the conviction that all people are indeed equal. And that all people are sacred and divine and ONE. Sorry, hierarchy of priests and all you infallible ones, we are all infallible.
But...a big but here...how to cleanse the patterning of consciousness so that we can reside in our "true nature," so that we can take the blinders off "awareness" so that we can apprehend the transcendent, the divine, the ineffable nondual that surrounds us? Yoga, in all its phases. How huge is that?
Next: Aphorism 4: “Otherwise awareness takes itself to be the patterns of consciousness.”

Fascinated with English vocabulary words? Want to pick them apart into their constituent Greek and Latin roots? Want to know even more SAT and GRE words that come from the Latin root words purus, natura, and verus (there are a great number!)? Studying hard for the SAT or GRE verbal section, and just can't get a handle on all of those vocabulary words, which are truly legion? Check out www.wordempire.com, where you will find the most comprehensive Greek and Latin roots dictionary available today, and also the most beautiful...it's in full color, and artistically designed. There's even a Greek and Latin roots poster available, which nicely illustrates the full power of what Greek and Latin root words can do for you.

Latin Roots of the Yoga-Sutra: Chapter 1: Aphorism 2

Welcome back fans of Latin roots as they relate to English vocabulary words! Recently I have been focusing this SAT English vocabulary blog on analyzing the Latin root words of titles of great English and world literature, and then discussing why those great works are indeed great. I have recently perused Patanjali's great work concerning yoga, the Yoga-Sutra, translated by Chip Hartranft. I have found the aphoristic style of the Yoga-Sutra not only engaging, but also deeply profound; in it, Patanjali discusses the considerable spiritual, mental, and physical rewards that one can derive from the practice of yoga, which is much, much more than the usually held western conception of yoga as just the asanas, or postures. During the next two years or so, I will devote myself to writing about each of Patanjanli's aphorisms, sequentially, contained in this remarkable 2nd-century BCE text, with a focus on analyzing the text in terms of its classical Greek and Latin roots of the fine English translation, and then providing an individual's exegesis of the text itself, based upon my own wonderful experience with yoga thus far. It has been said that memorizing the Sanskrit text of the Yoga-Sutra in and of itself can re-pattern the mind; I am most curious to see if this phenomenon is also metalinguistic, that is, can English and its roots bring effect the same transformation? Last week I focused on the Latin roots of Chapter 1: Integration and Aphorism 1: Now, the teachings of yoga. This week I move on to:

Chapter 1: Integration
Aphorism 2: Yoga is to still the patterning of consciousness.

The name of this chapter (itself derived from the Latin root caput, capitis: "head") comes from the Latin root integer: "whole, entire, untouched." Thus, this first chapter, the first of but four in the Yoga-Sutra, from an etymological point of view, will focus upon "the act of becoming whole, entire, or untouched."
The second aphorism includes two key English derivatives, both from Latin root words:

pattern: The word "pattern" comes from the Latin root pater, patris: father. Just as a "father" or pater contribues to children via his genetic pattern, so too are patterns progenitors of forms. Patterning in the conscious mind becomes the "father" of action or thought; early patterns that are formed in the mind lead to children of restricted thought. Many SAT-level English vocabulary words arise from the Latin root word pater, patris, including but not limited to: patriarch, paternity, expatriate, patron, patronize, patronizing, patronage, perpetrate, and patricide.

consciousness: The word "consciousness" arises via the Latin prefix "con" which comes from the Latin preposition "cum," which in this case acts as an intensive, meaning "thoroughly," and the Latin verb scio, scire, "to know." It is one's "consciousness" that allows one to "thoroughly know" the world around one, making one aware that one is not only alive, but that much, apparently, surrounds one in this world; a whirling vortex of samsara which leads to the kleshas, or afflictions. Other SAT-level derivatives that derive from the Latin verb scio, scire include: conscientious, omniscient, prescient, conscionable, unconscionable, nicety, and plebiscite.

Aphorism 2: Yoga is to still the patterning of consciousness.

Let's take a look at the aphorism in light of the etymology of "pattern" and "consciousness." Patterns formed in the consciousness early on in life lead to restricted ways of thought limited by those patterns, which give a skewed, awry, and false view of our awareness and knowing because our consciousness has been, as it were, biased. This yogic view of the apprehension (or not) of reality is remarkably similar to Kant's philosophical bent towards Metaphysical Agnosticism, in which Kant asseverates that our minds contain a priori filters with which we are saddled, or "patterned," at birth, and which color our view of reality for our entire lives; hence we must, by the limitations of our own ability to apprehend reality, remain metaphysical agnostics. Kant's filters are similar to viewing "reality" through rose-colored glasses at all times, or similar to an operating system of a computer that can only read programs based upon its own code. Although Nietzsche thought that Dionysiac carousing (which he termed Rausch) could ephemerally touch that transcendent reality, the beholder could not recall the experience once having returned to consciousness (probably because of the huge post-wine headache, if nothing else). The yogic view, however, is different; although our minds or consciousness are limited by their "patterning" which is formulated early on in life during our impressionistic childhoods, there is a way to break through the false view of reality to see reality as it is (Kant's ding-an-sich) via the multi-step approach of yoga. Thus, despite the undeniable greatness of Kant's 1781 Critique of Pure Reason and its ultimate limited conclusion, yogis provide an answer to not only experience reality, but also to relieve human suffering which is created by this invidious and insidious "patterning" of the "consciousness."
Next week I will focus on Aphorism III of Chapter 1: Then pure awareness can abide in its very nature.

Fascinated with English vocabulary words? Want to pick them apart into their constituent Greek and Latin roots? Want to know even more SAT and GRE words that come from the Latin root words pater, patris: father or scio, scire: "to know"? Studying hard for the SAT or GRE verbal section, and just can't get a handle on all of those vocabulary words, which are truly legion? Check out www.wordempire.com, where you will find the most comprehensive Greek and Latin roots dictionary available today, and also the most beautiful...it's in full color, and artistically designed. There's even a Greek and Latin roots poster available, which nicely illustrates the full power of what Greek and Latin root words can do for you.

Latin Root Words of the Yoga-Sutra

Welcome back fans of Latin roots as they relate to English vocabulary words! Recently I have been focusing this SAT English vocabulary blog on analyzing the Latin root words of titles of great English and world literature, and then discussing why those great works are indeed great. I have recently perused Patanjali's great work concerning yoga, the Yoga-Sutra, translated by Chip Hartranft. I have found the aphoristic style of the Yoga-Sutra not only engaging, but also deeply profound; in it, Patanjali discusses the profound rewards that one can derive from the practice of yoga, which is much more than the usually held western conception of yoga as just the asanas, or postures. During the next two years or so, I will devote myself to writing about each of Patanjanli's aphorisms, sequentially, contained in this remarkable 2nd-century BCE text, with a focus on analyzing the text in terms of its classical Greek and Latin roots of the fine English translation, and then providing an individual's exegesis of the text itself, based upon my own wonderful experience with yoga thus far.

Chapter 1: Integration

Aphorism 1: Now, the teachings of yoga.

The name of this chapter (itself derived from the Latin root caput, capitis: "head") comes from the Latin root integer: "whole, entire, untouched." Thus, this first chapter, the first of but four in the Yoga-Sutra, from an etymological point of view, will focus upon "the act of becoming whole, entire, or untouched." Note that the mathematical term "integer," also comes via the Latin integer (an "integer" is any "whole" number that is not a fraction or "broken," hence an "untouched" number, including the positives from 1, 2, 3 onwards, the negatives, or -1, -2, -3 onwards, and 0). Other SAT-level words that derive from the Latin root word integer include: integral, integrity, integrate, disintegrate, disintegration, and entirety. Hence, Patanjali suggests very early on that the practioner new to yoga is in some sense "disintegrated," or has lost his or her spiritual "integrity," and must regain being "whole" or "entire."
Let's talk for a moment about the word "yoga." "Yoga" simply means a "yoking" back to one's origins by once again gaining "union" with our ultimate origin. The Sanskrit yogah, "union," from which English created "yoga," is that discipline by which the "yogini" tries to rejoin her spiritual origins via achieving a state of inner serenity by quieting the pestiferous sem, or "flea mind" (so called because our minds tend to jump around desultorily like ‘fleas,’ flittering about to the tune of about 60,000 random thoughts per day). Let us consider related Latin and Greek cognates of "yoga," and a few of the SAT and GRE vocabulary words that derive from them: Greek zygon, "yoke, pair:" zeugma, zygote, zygotic. Latin iungo, iungere, iunxi, iunctum: "to join:" adjunct, adjoin, juxtapose, joint, juncture, conjunction, maladjusted, conjoint, jostle, disjointed, subjunctive, subjunctive, joust, junto, junta, rejoinder, conjoin, conjunctive, disjunct, enjoin, etc. From the roots above and a discussion of the word "yoga," we can see that "yoga" has a deep relationship to "joining" its practitioners again with something profound, but with what? And how does one go about practicing this union? Stay tune for next week's entry which will discuss Aphorism 2: Yoga is to still the patterning of consciousness. In this entry, I will etymologically analyze the Latin root words of "pattern" (related to our word "father") and "consciousness," the latter an absolutely integral concept that is at the heart of what the yogini or yogi does. Fascinated with English vocabulary words? Want to pick them apart into their constituent Greek and Latin roots? Want to know even more SAT and GRE words that come from the Latin root words iungo, iungere: to join? Or the scientific, anatomical, and medical terminology that derives from the Greek root zygon: yoke, pair? Studying hard for the SAT or GRE verbal section, and just can't get a handle on all of those vocabulary words, which are truly legion? Check out www.wordempire.com, where you will find the most comprehensive Greek and Latin roots dictionary available today, and also the most beautiful...it's in full color, and artistically designed. There's even a Greek and Latin roots poster available, which nicely illustrates the full power of what Greek and Latin root words can do for you.

Nobel Peace Laureate--President Barack Obama

Welcome back fans of Latin roots as they relate to English vocabulary words, and great talks about life-changing books, with a focus on great literature! In this series that I'm offering, I am expounding upon books that have made an impression upon myself and many other readers, and the Latin root words inherent in their English titles. Today I drift a bit because of the moliminous announcement of President Barack Obama's reception of the Nobel Peace Prize, although I do quote Guy de Maupassant at some length. What could be more profound than that? I will discuss etymology vis a vis "peace" and "president," and then will provide a layman's disquisition on why this was an unbelievably great announcement for this world at this time.

Peace:
The English word "peace" comes from the Latin word pax, pacis: "peace." You may remember in your history classes the Pax Romana, or the "Roman Peace" under the august leadership of Augustus Caesar, the first emperor of Rome. Pax vobiscum is a favorite Latin phrase, meaning "peace be with you." Other SAT-level English vocabulary words that come from pax, pacis include:
pay: OK, this is obviously not an SAT word, but what does the word "pay" have to do with "peace"? Try not "paying" your bills, and you will see that your life will not be particularly "peaceful." Indeed, to "pay" for an item or a service is to make "peace" with the merchant who provided you with it.
pacify: To "make peace." To "pacify" another is to make her angst towards you dissipate.
appease: To "appease" another is to provide "peace" for him, especially if he is upset about an injustice.
pacific: Generating "peace." Balboa was said to have discovered and so named the Pacific Ocean on a "peaceful" day, and named it accordingly.
pacifist: A "peacemaker." A "pacifist" refuses to engage in warmongering of any kind. Wise idea.
pact: A "pact" or "compact," which is related to the word "pax, pacis," comes through the Latin root word paciscor, which means "to make a bargain" or "to agree." If you make a "pact" with someone, you come to a "peaceful" agreement about terms which are mutually agreeable to both sides. Hence, both "pact" and "compact" are synonymous for "covenant" or "agreement."
The Warsaw Pact, the Munich Pact, and the Mayflower Compact are all famous historical agreements or "pacts."
These are but a few of the more interesting English vocabulary words that are derived from the Latin word pax, pacis; check out more at www.wordempire.com, the central site for finding out why Greek and Latin roots are the core of the global English language.

President: What, etymologically, is a "President"? The prefix "pre" comes from the Latin preposition prae, "in front of, before;" the stem "sid" comes from the Latin verb sedeo, sedere, "to sit," and the suffix "ent," which is the stem ending for the Latin present active participle (a present active participle is simply a verbal adjective that ends, in English, in "-ing;" e.g.: I saw the boy consuming 50 purple twinkies..."consuming" modifies "boy," and describes an action that is taking place in the present tense); hence, etymologically, the "President" is that leader who is "sitting before" us all, as leader of the nation. Since the United States is arguably the only world superpower at this time, its President is also the leader on a global basis as well. How huge is that?

Well, I would say that it is immeasurably huge, especially in terms of potential. And that fact hasn't gone over the heads of the committee who chooses Nobel prizes either. I believe that President Obama, although some people believe that he "hasn't done anything yet," has the incredible potential of doing so much that no other President before him has been able to do, primarily because of his vast charisma and his incredible, well, fan base. He already has been mending fences through acts of incredible and peaceful good will...my hope is that he will not only bring the wars that plague us all to an end...

OK...so you're a supporter of the wars. And you believe that our society advances because of them. Please read the ff., written well over 100 years ago by the great French short story writer Guy de Maupassant in his novella "Afloat," which, other than a few anachronisms, could very well apply to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan:

"Those little infantrymen who are scurrying around over there are as doomed to be killed as that flock of sheep being driven along the road by a butcher. They'll collapse on some plain with their skull cut open by a saber or with a bullet hole in their chest; and they're all young men who could be in their homes, working, producing, doing something useful. Their fathers are old and poor, their mothers have loved them, adored them, as mothers will, for twenty years; and now, in six months' or perhaps a year's time, they'll learn that his son, her child, that big boy whom she's brought up with so much care, at such expense, with so much love, has been flung into a hole like a dead dog after he's had his guts torn apart by a cannonball, trampled on, crushed, reduced to pulp by a cavalry charge. Why have they killed her child, her lovely boy, her only hope and pride, her whole life? She doesn't know...Why? Why? War! Fighting! Slitting throats! Massacring each other! And now, in our day, with our civilization, our great scientific knowledge and high level of philosophy which we think human genius has attained, we have schools where you can learn to kill, at very long range and with great accuracy, a very large number of people with a single blow, kill poor, innocent devils with family responsibilities, and not be charged with any crime."

Now we see why the highly charismatic President who has 7.5 years left in the White House has been given the clout and the cachet of this laud: the Nobel Peace Prize.

May he use it well. To find a peaceful solution to the madness that goes on, and has continued going on, through the centuries that humans have graced this planet. I am a big fan of Star Trek, and hope that, as happened in that series, that our world will have banished such insanity in the 21st century.

Fascinated with English vocabulary words? Want to pick them apart into their constituent Greek and Latin roots? Want to know even more SAT and GRE words that come from the Latin root words sedeo, sedere: to sit? Or the prefix "pre," "before"? Studying hard for the SAT or GRE verbal section, and just can't get a handle on all of those vocabulary words, which are truly legion? Check out www.wordempire.com, where you will find the most comprehensive Greek and Latin roots dictionary available today, and also the most beautiful...it's in full color, and artistically designed. There's even a Greek and Latin roots poster available, which nicely illustrates the full power of what Greek and Latin root words can do for you.

Latin Root Word Origins of The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote de la Manch: Post II

Welcome back fans of Latin roots as they relate to English vocabulary words, and great talks about life-changing books, with a focus on great literature! In this series that I'm offering, I am expounding upon books that have made an impression upon myself and many other readers, and the Latin root words inherent in their English titles. My last post saw a thorough explication of Eca's The Relic, a hugely entertaining work by an author who deserves to be much better known. Today I will write concerning The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote de la Mancha, and focus on the etymology of the words "gentleman" and "ingenious," and related SAT vocabulary words:

Gentleman: Originally, if a boy was of gentle birth, he came from a good and wealthy ‘family;’ since he was therefore gentle, or a ‘gentleman,’ he treated others courteously, a meaning which later evolved into being ‘tender,’ which is a courteous way to treat others. 

Genteel: A "genteel" person is of "gentle" birth, and thus is supposed to act in a chivalrous fashion, although this certainly was and is not always the case!

Jaunty: Someone from a good ‘family,’ i.e., one of ‘noble’ birth, often acted with a ‘confident air’ due to her or his high social status. 

Ingenious: Ingenium—inherent talent, clever device Someone who is "ingenious" has an "inherent talent" in a certain aspect, or is able to "cleverly devise" "ingenious" solutions to thorny problems.

Ingenuous: don't confuse the word "ingenuous," which comes from the Latin Ingenuus—honest, generous, free-born, and "ingenious."  One who is "ingenuous" is an "honest, open, candid, or frank" soul, who is completely lacking in guile.

Disingenuous: the opposite of "ingenuous."  Especially don't trust the ingenious disingenuous ones...they can have you tied up in knots in no time at all.  I would have to say that Iago, Judge Holden (of Blood Meridian) and Satan (of Paradise Lost) fit into this category...and my seventh-grade, green-haired, "you have to do extra credit even if you have a 100% in my class to get an A, because A students all do extra credit" 7th-grade "teacher."  OK...I got a B+ in that class because I didn't do extra credit, but, for the record, I had a 100% average.   So you can keep on reading my blogs with confidence.

Note that all the above words ultimately stem from the Latin Gigno, gignere, genui, genitum—to bring forth, give birth, produce.  Can you see why??? 

Commentary on The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote de la Mancha

     Don Quixote, as Harold Bloom says in Genius, “plays a deep game with reality.”  I’m not really sure if he actually believes that the barber’s basin is really the Helm of Mambrino, or if the “peerless” Dulcinea is enchanted (throughout the entire 940 Grossman translated novel, DQ never sees Dulcinea except in her “enchanted” state as a rough peasant girl, and then I was unsure if this was even Aldonza), or if the magical potion to cure all ills really would work, or if the windmills are actually giants, or if the puppets in the play are actually real and must be vanquished because if they aren’t, then the dastardly Moors will seize the Christians.  Has he been completely bamboozled by his books on knight errantry, so that he sees a different level of reality than everyone else does, or is he choosing to create his world, irrespective of what everyone else perceives, and thereby forcing them to adopt his world vision?  In the Duke’s castle, do he and all his cronies trick him, or does he trick them into playing within the confines of his world?  Is Altisidora fooling DQ, or is DQ inveigling her to play along in his world?  Does Sancho Panza finally come around to the “sanity” of his master as he becomes governor, playing at that position until he no longer can stand it, simply because he is unable to convince others to play his game, as his master can so easily do?  Is that why Sancho gets beat up so often, because DQ is so believable to the point that people are drawn into his madness so that they do indeed begin to see another reality?  Or is the Duke and company simply having a lot of fun along the way?  How can DQ be so lucid except with regards to knight errantry?  Does he not create the last and the greatest knight of them all, living within his own book instead of simply passively writing one, as all other authors would do?  And is not that much more effective?  Just what kind of a game is he playing?  This reminds me in a way of Quantum Mechanics, in the sense that the observer creates reality, and precedes the existence of that reality.  If DQ “observes” Dulcinea as peerless, does she not indeed become peerless?  If he performs strange acts for her in the mountains, such as doing handstands or cartwheels with no clothes on the lower half of his body, do those acts not justify her unquestionable beauty that is above all others?  When Carrasco comes after him twice, has he not transformed him into both the Knight of the Mirrors and the Knight of the White Moon, as has he not become better the second time, as he defeats the greatest knight in the world?  Does not the charisma of DQ indeed transmogrify reality, not only of his own vision, but of all others, especially, eventually, of Sancho Panza, who does get his governorship and his highly coveted insula, not to mention his ducados?  What else, indeed, could be going on?

     I have never laughed so hard as in the first part of this novel; I think that my family thought I was crazy as I was sitting on the porch, guffawing until the tears came, especially when SP is drinking the potion which is supposed to cure his cracked ribs, and only makes him violently throw up.  Does SP go through so much and suffer the worst punishments because he doesn’t believe as much as his master does? 

     This novel is uninterpretable, and is the best that I have ever read in terms of just what Don Quixote is doing with his life.  And that brings me to my own life.  Can I, too, quixotically, create my own life, and influence those around me in a positive way?  Absolutely!  Belief is a strong, strong phenomenon, and that which one believes is one’s world, irregardless of “reality,” which, Platonically, is but a shadow, whereas how the mind perceives that reality, how it noetically shapes it, lies at the foundation of one’s world and how one views it; I, also, think that that consciousness can also transform it, but, like Sancho Panza, we will take many knocks along the way until we become the best knight errant of them all, the master of transforming this malleable because perceivable thing called reality…which is the stuff whereby we not only live, but can live happily or sadly.  How about creating the former, and if the latter happens along the way, surely it can be interpreted positively, such as an evil enchanter who is hounding one that one cannot foil because they are legion?  DQ does make it through all of his trials, never wavering from the code of the knight errant, and survives nicely intact, even though he goes through so many improbable and potentially fatal encounters.  Why worry when one cannot control these evil enchanters?  Live, try your hardest, don’t take anything personally, endure pain and suffering, and live true to oneself, and one’s reality will be transformed into something glorious.

    I feel like I could continue writing about the Don forever, but alas! Evil enchanters pursue me…off to the fight!

     Looking for a great edition of Don Quixote?  Go no further than Edith Grossman.  Her prose is as lucid and as faithful to the Old Spanish as I've seen to date. 

Fascinated with English vocabulary words? Want to pick them apart into their constituent Greek and Latin roots? Want to know even more SAT and GRE words that come from the Latin root words Gigno, gignere—to bring forth, give birth, produce? Studying hard for the SAT or GRE verbal section, and just can't get a handle on all of those vocabulary words, which are truly legion? Check out www.wordempire.com, where you will find the most comprehensive Greek and Latin roots dictionary available today, and also the most beautiful...it's in full color, and artistically designed. There's even a Greek and Latin roots poster available, which nicely illustrates the full power of what Greek and Latin root words can do for you.

Latin roots of The Relic by Eca de Queiroz

Welcome back fans of Latin roots as they relate to English vocabulary words, and great talks about life-changing books, with a focus on great literature! In this series that I'm offering, I am expounding upon books that have made an impression upon myself and many other readers, and the Latin root words inherent in their English titles. Last week I took a look at the word origins of Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace. This week I shall expound upon Eca's The Relic, a hugely entertaining work by an author who deserves to be much better known. I will focus on the etymology of the word "relic," and then move on to some commentary about certainly one of the more satirically funny novels of all time. Taking a look at the Latin roots of the word relic, we come to the following two Latin roots:

Linquo, linquere, liqui—to leave, abandon, forsake {lic, lict, liqu}

relic: A "relic" is something "left behind" as an artifact for other people to cherish. Saint's relics, for instance, were huge items in the Middle Ages...many of which were fakes, like pig's bones.

relinquish: To "leave back" for someone else. When you "relinquish" an item, you abandon it to another.

delinquent: If you are delinquent in paying your taxes, you have forsaken paying them on time.

derelict : A derelict ship is one that has been "left or abandoned" because it is not longer of service.

reliquary: A reliquary is often a highly-decorated vessel for holding sacred objects, such as relics, or things that have been "left behind" in the past that now have great intrinsic and usually religious value.

The Relic

Eca de Queiroz

The Relic was, in parts, hilarious and filled with wry, ironic humor, especially concerning the hypocrisy of Teodorico as he proclaims his religious fervor and abstinence in the presence of his rich Aunt Patrocinio, while he secretly is a debauchee, having numerous affairs with women, the sexual act of which his aunt abhors. Aunt Patrocinio reminded me of a dried, rancid leek, kind of like Chaucer’s reeve tripled. Aunt P was also highly hypocritical, as she cared very little for people or the message of Christ, of love and forgiveness, but rather only loved the specious worshiping of images of Christ. Eca and Teodorico cannot stand this, and so T goes about during the day concocting delicious fabrications of how holy he is, which are completely outrageous in their unctuous exaggeration, but Aunt P swallows them whole because she so wants to delude herself. Anyway, T is doing this simply because he wants Auntie to make her his heir, and thus must appear as chaste and fervent as possible while she is alive, all so that he can inherit all that money and move to the brothels of Paris which is where is really wants to live. He accedes to his Aunt’s wish to bring back a holy relic from Palestine, so off he goes, landing first on his travels to Alexandria, where he promptly has an affair with Maria, and before he leaves she gives him her red nightdress, which T keeps wrapped up in a package as a remembrance or relic from her. At this point, the novel turns into a phantasmagoria of sorts, as T witnesses Jesus’s interrogation, incarceration, and crucifixion (with even a mention of the crurifragio of the other two victims who had not died). This went on for some time, was quite interesting, but did not have the verve and ironic, humorous flair of the parts with T and his diabolical Auntie. During this time he finds and has fashioned for him a Crown of Thorns, which magically "becomes" The Crown of Thorns, the major relic which he is going to hand to his Aunt which will secure his rightful place as spotless heir (he needs to become like her conception of the Church, a walking, allegorical Church, as it were, because Auntie wants to give all of her money to that!). He also gets almost every other conceivable relic, including nails from Noah’s Ark, potsherds from the jug that Mary Magdalene carried, etc. etc. He cannot believe that his scholarly companion Topsius says that he can claim the Crown of Thorns to be the legitimate one, to which Topsius replies: “The value of Relics, Dom Raposo, lies not in their authenticity but in the faith that they inspire. You can tell your Auntie that it was the Crown of Thorns.” On the return home he wishes to deflower a certain nun he sees that he saw previously, whom he then sees again as her boat crosses his on the way back to Lisbon, but he declines, telling himself that it is silly for him to even think about it. He gives what he believes to be the dress to a poor woman, and then arrives trimphantly home, having had a rather blustery case of nikhedonia during the boat ride. Everyone lauds him, but when the unveiling of the Great Relic occurs, T and Auntie are both horrified to discover that it is not, after all, the Crown of Thorns, but Mary’s red nightdress! Completely befuddled and horrified by the dress of a prostitute, Auntie throws T out of the house. T ends up marrying fairly well, but never gains that vast richness that he could have had; he does get by by selling all of his paraphernalia from his journeys, and then simply concocts with materials at hand, at one point having sold 75 nails from the crucifixion. At the end of the novel, T laments that he did not have, upon the unveiling of the scarlet dress and Mary’s note, that he had not possessed the courage to lie, lacked the “shameless heroism to lie.” A couple interesting notes. T begins telling the truth after he has a visit, in the form of a ghostly Christ, of his Conscience, who tells him that he is the progenitor of all religious faiths; believing this, he ruthlessly does not lie again, even when he thinks that that act will not allow him to get what he wants (despite the fact that he does rue the fact at the very end of the novel that he had not had the courage to do the very thing that he refused to do now.). In his new telling of truth, he does end up being wealthy via Crispim, who appreciates his honesty. Then, after saying that he had not had the “shameless heroism to lie,” which “is responsible for creating all sciences and religions (cf. Joseph Knecht), he realizes that if he had said that the dress was the dress of Mary Magdalene, no one would have doubted him, and that religious scholars and scientists would have researched and culled legions of information from that dress, inferring all incorrect information that nevertheless would have been stamped with irrefutable authority (with the implication that much of what we believe today has undergone a similar process of ballooning from an outright but rationalized lie). Indeed, T knows that he would have been celebrated by the Universities and beloved by the Church, and would have been fabulously wealthy into the bargain. It is interesting to know that T is reformed, even though he does regret his lack of heroism, but that reformation seems to have no lesson and T never discusses why this is a good thing, it just seems to happen because he promised that it would, and that ironically if he had lied, then he would have been certain of his place in the Celestial City.

     The Relic is hard to find.  At this point in time it is not in print.  Probably Eca's two best works, however, are Cousin Bazilio and The Maias.  Find links to them below.  These are both adult reads, as is The Relic. 

Fascinated with English vocabulary words? Want to pick them apart into their constituent Greek and Latin roots? Want to know even more words that come from the Latin root words Linquo, linquere, liqui—to leave, abandon, forsake? Studying hard for the SAT or GRE verbal section, and just can't get a handle on all of those vocabulary words, which are truly legion? Check out www.wordempire.com, where you will find the most comprehensive Greek and Latin roots dictionary available today, and also the most beautiful...it's in full color, and artistically designed. There's even a Greek and Latin roots poster available, which nicely illustrates the full power of what Greek and Latin root words can do for you.

Latin Root Word Origins of Tolstoy's War and Peace

Welcome back fans of Latin roots as they relate to English vocabulary words, and great talks about life-changing books, with a focus on great literature! In this series that I'm offering, I am expounding upon books that have made an impression upon myself and many other readers, and the Latin root words inherent in their English titles. Last week I took a look at the word origins of Italo Calvino's book The Nonexistent Knight, which, next to Don Quixote, is one of the funniest books I've ever read, and most certainly one of the strangest. This week I shall expound upon Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace, focusing on the etymology of the word "peace," and then moving on to some commentary about certainly one of the great novels of all time. Taking a look at the Latin roots of the word peace, we come to the following two Latin roots:

Pax, pacis—peace {pay, peac, peas}

Paciscor, pacisci, pactus sum—to agree, make a bargain

Let's look now at some of the general, SAT, and GRE vocabulary words that come from these roots:

pay: To pay is etymologically to make ‘peace’ with a merchant after receiving a product; we all know what happens when we do not pay our bills!

pacify: to "make peace" with someone is to "pacify" him

appease: to "appease" someone is also to "make peace" with her, or to calm or soothe her

pacifist: a "pacifist" is a "peacemaker," that is, someone who does not want to war with anyone. She or he is a proponent of "pacifism."

pact: a "pact" is an agreement between two people; when you agree with someone else, you etymologically "make peace" with them

compact: an "agreement with: another person; note the Latin-based prefix "com," root word of such SAT vocabulary items as commiserate, compassion, compliance, and commensurate. For more English vocabulary words that come from this prolific Latin prefix, check out www.wordempire.com, a site where you can find the most comprehensive Latin roots dictionary of English vocabulary words available today.

Now on to Leo Tolstoy's seminal work, War and Peace.

Immense. This novel cannot and should not really be termed a novel, at least not in today’s sense of the novel, which can be practically anything that publishers think can make money. Rather, is should be denominated a “trans” or “supra” novel, because it almost, in parts, seemed more real than life itself, almost as if nature herself wrote it. So many insights into human nature are bruited with great wisdom and perspicacity; such complexities of every sort of human conduct and interrelationship are untied in a true Gordian knot fashion. It’s almost as if Tolstoy somehow knew all the secrets of human nature, and was able to expound upon them, bringing them to light. I was particularly struck by the meaninglessness of it all; the senseless slaughter of war, the silliness of the young men who want to go to war, caught up in an isopraxis of startling dimensions, only realizing what war was really like when they ineluctably pay a visit to the hospital. During Manichaeanistic glimpses in the novel, one saw the meaning of life among the poshlost of war (quite Gogolian, really)—one soldier, Prince Andrew, I believe, was shot, and is lying on the field after Austerlitz (I think). He opens his eyes and perceives the clarity of the sky above him, melting, as it were, into it, and becoming one with it, and is truly surprised at himself that he has never noticed that before (a great example of yogic attention, nearing samadhi). Somehow the approach of eternity via leaving this bardo brings him towards the revelation. Peacetime pursuits are just as inane for the most part as the bellicose undertakings, although the maturation and change of Pierre is one very noticeable and encouraging part; he becomes human, being able to throw off the dross of society (as Percival lost his humanity with Gornemant de Goort, thereby failing at the Grail Castle). Kutuzov, the supreme commander of the Russian forces, is an island onto himself, is ridiculed as doing nothing, but then his wisdom is later apprehended—sometimes the noetic convictions of true geniuses are not cognizable by the masses, such as in the instant when Kutuzov realizes that he need do nothing at all to defeat the retreating French—they are auto-destructing, and yet the soldiers about him feel, or are coerced by that “je ne sais quois” into doing something, when the doing should have been nothing at all. Sometimes doing nothing is the best policy, although this is not readily cognizable by the mediocre mind. Napoleon, the buffoon, is a Hitler of sorts, a monster who is directly responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands—or, as Tolstoy argues, was he really? Or was the power that moved the French and the Russians alike unknown, and indeed beyond epistemological rigor, making Napoleon a mere puppet, thereby making him more foolish than ever, since he doesn’t even realize it? And in his heart of hearts feels guilty causelessly? Sometimes the force that moves nations is beyond even the most charismatic.

War and Peace was an event. It taught me that much will happen during one’s life, warlike and tranquil, and to be prepared for almost anything, such as Natasha losing Prince Andrew because of her momentary madness over the popinjay Anatole, which then precipitates the Prince’s weltschmerz, which causes him to be wounded, which later causes the grief of Natasha and Princess Mary, which then allows Pierre to marry Natasha, the only woman he has ever loved (how could one love Helene?).

The best scene in the novel was the fatuous Pierre “observing” the war, much as the American Civil War was attended by picnickers, although he does become seriously transformed by this, especially after he is wounded, so his silliness transmutes to wisdom (was this his purification from fatuousity?).

I don’t know how Tolstoy did it. This was a simply gripping novel—some of the characters were alive in their own right, and are still alive (like what Shakespeare could do, especially with Hamlet, Falstaff, and Rosalind).

Pierre, in a moment of fulgurous insight, realized that, no matter how hard one might try, one can never convince another person to change his thoughts or his conduct (except a child). Hence, whenever he spoke with people, he simply observed them, smilingly, without trying to expostulate with them. This seems to me an excellent and non-aggressive way to live—Ryle Hira, or Buddhistic acceptance of others, with an ironic smile, of course!!

Take a gander at War and Peace, but get a good translation. I find that David Magarshack and especially the dynamic duo of Larissa Volokhonsky and Richard Pevear are nonpareil.

Fascinated with English vocabulary words? Want to pick them apart into their constituent Greek and Latin roots? Want to know even more words that come from the Latin root words pax, pacis and paciscor, and most especially the prolific prefix cum? Studying hard for the SAT or GRE verbal section, and just can't get a handle on all of those vocabulary words, which are truly legion? Check out www.wordempire.com, where you will find the most comprehensive Greek and Latin roots dictionaryavailable today, and also the most beautiful...it's in full color, and artistically designed. There's even a Greek and Latin roots posteravailable, which nicely illustrates the full power of what Greek and Latin root words can do for you.