words
One other historical touch point for the word itself comes from a term coined by J.R.R. Tolkien in the 1930’s: “mythopoeia.” Tolkien’s term expresses the etymological roots directly. Mytho- pertaining to story and -poeia , the root of the word poetry, meaning “to make.” As one can see, Tolkien was in the business of myth-making. His sweeping... See more
What We Mean When We Say "Mythopoetics" (The Long Version)
The word “romance” has nothing to do with love. Not originally.
It comes from Latin romanice, meaning ‘in the Roman manner.’ In medieval France, writing romanice meant writing in the language people actually spoke (Old French), as opposed to Latin.
Latin romanice became Old French romanz:... See more
Colin Gorriesubstack.com
Hookland holds the dialect word of holscad – a shadow cast by something that is patently not there, a shadow of something which was once there, but now no longer exists.
Hooklandsubstack.com
Philosophical Words from Around the World:
Chiaroscuro, Italian.
(With thanks to Matt Haig, who introduced me to this term during a conversation for an upcoming newsletter.)
Jonny Thomsonsubstack.com
Let us consider some terms. “Civilization” is a difficult word to define although the presence of cities seems etymologically necessary (consider Latin, civitas, “citizen; citizens united; a city”). J. M. Roberts writes: “Some have said that a civilized society is different from an uncivilized society because it has a certain attribute—writing,
... See more