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30-01-2007, 12:17 PM
WELL, MANY people have the habit of ending an explanation with “You see my point?” or “You get the idea?” Of course, the point the person is trying make or the idea you are supposed to grasp is all in the mind. It cannot be seen. It is an abstract concept. Every one of Man’s achievements is based on an idea, born as an idea. It then takes a concrete shape. Track down the word idea and you will see why it is the seed of all that we actually see. For the Greeks, an idea was a semblance, look or form. This is because idea comes from the Greek word id meaning to see. Over the years, from ‘form’, the meaning changed to ‘concept’.
From the word idea comes the word idealist — a person who has high principles and believes in living by those standards. An idealist is often a visionary — a person who has great foresight and visualises the future on the basis of an idea. That brings us back to seeing. An idea originally meant something you could see. Well, maybe with your mind's eye.
If you are an idealist or a visionary, you achieve something in life. But it takes a long time to do that. Similarly, tracing the history of the word achieve, too, is an extremely arduous task. Achieve originates from the Latin expression ad caput venire, which literally means to come to a head — to reach a conclusion or a particular point. The Romans used it in the sense ‘to die’. A part of the expression — ad caput — passed on to Old French, which meant ‘to head’. It then changed to the verb achever, meaning ‘to finish’ and was passed on to English as achieve.
Even till the time of Queen Elizabeth I, achieve could still mean ‘to die’ or ‘to kill’. In Shakespeare’s Henry V King Henry V says, “Bid them achieve me and then sell my bones.” (Act 4, Scene 3.) ‘Bid them achieve me’ here means “Ask them to kill me”. Over the years, the word achieve shed its negative connotation, and acquired a positive one, to mean to reach a particular point or reach a goal.
Strangely, mischief also has the same origin. Mis in Latin means bad, as in mismanagement. And that which is brought to a bad conclusion is mischief.
Believe it or not, mischief in English originally meant to create great destruction. Thus we even now speak of someone having a mischievous intent meaning ‘intention to destroy’, especially someone’s name or reputation. Also, when a child plays mischief and breaks a vase, it has destroyed the vase, right?
When you achieve something, you acquire fame. People talk about you. Well, you could be talked about for the wrong reasons, too. That’s what words famous and infamous mean. Fame comes from the Latin fama meaning report, which is related to the Greek word femi, meaning to speak. So fame is when they speak nice things about you. Add ‘in’ to it, and they speak bad things about you.
Fame is fleeting, but reputation lasts. That is because fame is what they say, while reputation is what they think about you. You see, in Latin puto means to think and re means again. When you are constantly in people’s thoughts, you have built a reputation. But beware, they could be thinking horrible things about you. That is when you have a bad reputation.
When someone is reputed, people know their address, like, No 10 Downing Street, or the White House. The word address comes from the Latin ad meaning ‘to’, and directus meaning ‘straight’ or 'right' (from which come words like erect, correct, direct....) An address, if correctly written, comes straight to the right person.
Address originally meant to make straight, set right or prepare. Even now, when we talk of addressing a problem or a grievance we use the word in this sense.
Address also means a speech. When a speaker addresses a gathering, he directs his ideas straight to the listeners. And here he might say, “You get my idea?” or “You see the point?” Well, you see, an idea, was once supposed to be visual.
From the word idea comes the word idealist — a person who has high principles and believes in living by those standards. An idealist is often a visionary — a person who has great foresight and visualises the future on the basis of an idea. That brings us back to seeing. An idea originally meant something you could see. Well, maybe with your mind's eye.
If you are an idealist or a visionary, you achieve something in life. But it takes a long time to do that. Similarly, tracing the history of the word achieve, too, is an extremely arduous task. Achieve originates from the Latin expression ad caput venire, which literally means to come to a head — to reach a conclusion or a particular point. The Romans used it in the sense ‘to die’. A part of the expression — ad caput — passed on to Old French, which meant ‘to head’. It then changed to the verb achever, meaning ‘to finish’ and was passed on to English as achieve.
Even till the time of Queen Elizabeth I, achieve could still mean ‘to die’ or ‘to kill’. In Shakespeare’s Henry V King Henry V says, “Bid them achieve me and then sell my bones.” (Act 4, Scene 3.) ‘Bid them achieve me’ here means “Ask them to kill me”. Over the years, the word achieve shed its negative connotation, and acquired a positive one, to mean to reach a particular point or reach a goal.
Strangely, mischief also has the same origin. Mis in Latin means bad, as in mismanagement. And that which is brought to a bad conclusion is mischief.
Believe it or not, mischief in English originally meant to create great destruction. Thus we even now speak of someone having a mischievous intent meaning ‘intention to destroy’, especially someone’s name or reputation. Also, when a child plays mischief and breaks a vase, it has destroyed the vase, right?
When you achieve something, you acquire fame. People talk about you. Well, you could be talked about for the wrong reasons, too. That’s what words famous and infamous mean. Fame comes from the Latin fama meaning report, which is related to the Greek word femi, meaning to speak. So fame is when they speak nice things about you. Add ‘in’ to it, and they speak bad things about you.
Fame is fleeting, but reputation lasts. That is because fame is what they say, while reputation is what they think about you. You see, in Latin puto means to think and re means again. When you are constantly in people’s thoughts, you have built a reputation. But beware, they could be thinking horrible things about you. That is when you have a bad reputation.
When someone is reputed, people know their address, like, No 10 Downing Street, or the White House. The word address comes from the Latin ad meaning ‘to’, and directus meaning ‘straight’ or 'right' (from which come words like erect, correct, direct....) An address, if correctly written, comes straight to the right person.
Address originally meant to make straight, set right or prepare. Even now, when we talk of addressing a problem or a grievance we use the word in this sense.
Address also means a speech. When a speaker addresses a gathering, he directs his ideas straight to the listeners. And here he might say, “You get my idea?” or “You see the point?” Well, you see, an idea, was once supposed to be visual.