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norm
We might not be done with this *gno- just yet. Norm Many centuries ago in ancient Rome, a norma was a carpenter’s square, a tool used to measure out angles, especially right ones. Something normalis, then, was “made according to a carpenter’s square” (Klein). Even in antiquity, though, this norma was metaphorical, naming a “standard,” “pattern,” or “rule,” and hence we have the Read more.
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*gno- (part ii)
In Part 1, we studied the origins of the English know–cnaw–rooted in the Proto-Indo-European *gno-, “to know.” As we saw, down the Germanic line, this *gno– eventually parented the English can, could, cunning, couth/uncouth, canny/uncanny, a sense of the word con, and keen. In Greek, it produced gignoskein, with the derivative gnostos. This yielded diagnosis, prognosis, as well as good old gnosis, in all of its mystical and Read more.
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*gno- (part i)
Mid twentieth-century Objectivist poet George Oppen, known for his populist and phenomenological concerns, writes in section 31 of his masterpiece, Of Being Numerous: Indeed, there is a lot going on here. But there is more to Oppen’s connection between knowledge and nobility than a poetic, perceptual, and epistemological one. There is an etymological one. I’m not Read more.
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-lock
In a few short weeks, I’ll be married. So, naturally, wedlock has been on my mind. Literally, the word wedlock has been making my fingers flip through dictionaries. OK, I’ll admit this transition is a bit inelegant, but, rest assured, etymology does have its romantic side. Specifically, I’m interested in the second half of the word: Read more.
Mashed Radish 