polyamory_tshirt

Comments (15)

15 Comments

Nicholas Frankovich
March 9th, 2010 | 12:26 pm

What about “polyvalent,” a Greek prefix and a Latin root? Then there’s the Latin prefix and the English root — “pre-owned,” for example. These kinds of intermarriage are legal in English. If you don’t see it that way, though, you might as well add that “monogamy [Greek prefix, Greek root] is right” and reinforce the message.

Russ Pearson
March 9th, 2010 | 1:36 pm

Having studied only Spanish and German, I can truthfully say that it is all Greek to me.

stephen dreher
March 9th, 2010 | 3:53 pm

Oedipus Rex.

Petellius
March 9th, 2010 | 6:06 pm

The conjunction of Latinate prefixes with English roots is generally considered acceptable because they have become thoroughly Anglicized, in several instances replacing their Anglo-Saxon counterparts. (Though if you wanted to start saying “foreowned” I’d support your decision.) The intermarriage of Greek prefixes with Latin or English roots is still controversial because the Greek prefixes are still not sufficiently “native.”

Most amusingly, the earliest attested instance of “polyvalent” in English is an 1866 condemnation of the word as an unorthodox conjunction of Greek prefix and Latin root. (OED, s.v., 1) The writer asserts the correctness of “multivalent.”

As for the Oedipus Rex, this is a translation on the part of the Romans of the original “Tyrannos.” It follows the typical pattern of Latin translations of Greek titles – so, for instance, editions of Plato will frequently use “Respublica” as the title.

Petellius
March 9th, 2010 | 6:10 pm

By the way…

Chamberlain: We belong to a sort of secret society, the Order of Chaeronea, like the Sacred Band of Thebes. Actually it’s more like a discussion group. We discuss what we should call ourselves. ‘Homosexuals’ has been suggested.

AEH: Homosexuals?

Chamberlain: We aren’t anything till there’s a word for it.

AEH: Homosexuals? Who is responsible for this barbarity?

Chamberlain: What’s wrong with it?

AEH: It’s half Greek and half Latin!

Chamberlain: That sounds about right….

(Tom Stoppard, “The Invention of Love”)

Pastor Spomer
March 9th, 2010 | 7:15 pm

Astronaut?

Petellius
March 9th, 2010 | 8:54 pm

“nautes” is Greek for “sailor”

By the way, I hope that I’m not sounding too much like a twit – I’m mostly joking about my insistence here. Hybrid Greco-Latin compounds are too well established in English to bother with now.

television
hypertext
neonatal
paleoconservative
antisocial
paramilitary
genocide
lots of things beginning in crypto-, neo-, paleo-, anti-, ktl.

(Though I do at times wonder if it’s necessary to hybridize when there is a perfectly good non-hybrid option available.)

Paul Adams
March 10th, 2010 | 12:07 am

I have to agree with Petellius–what ordinary mortal could not?–but I like the T-shirt. Where do I buy one?

admin
March 10th, 2010 | 12:19 am

Where do I buy one?

Click on the image and it will take you to the site that sells them.

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Pastor Spomer
March 10th, 2010 | 11:05 am

“nautes” is Greek for “sailor”
I was thinking of “astronaut” as oppose to “cosmonaut”. But you right it’s to late now. By the way, what about other hybrids? German/Greek, Hebrew/Latin?

Petellius
March 10th, 2010 | 10:40 pm

Oh. Well, both astro- and cosmo- are Greek as well, but I suppose we could make up Latinate versions too: stellanaut and mundinaut, or something like that. But it starts to get a little silly.

“Neanderthal” comes to mind as a Greco-German compound, but its origin is a bit inorganic. There was a trend among the Germans in the Early Modern Period to use Grecizing versions of their surnames. So there is a valley in western Germany named after Joachim Neumann called the Neanderthal (German Neu-mann = Greek Ne-ander; “thal” is German for “valley”). The Neanderthal hominid is named after the valley.

I can’t think of any Hebraeo-Latin compounds offhand. It doesn’t seem too likely, but I might be overlooking something.

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