Replying to LO28939 --
Dear At,
You shared fascinating word connections, about which I have always been
interested:
> Sanskrit has the word "dhyai" which means to contemplate something
> wonderful. Aha, so i went back to the ancient Greek to see what word it
> had for wonder. Guess what? "thauma". In Russian the word for wonder is
> "divo" -- hence the Diva on stage!
The Russian root "div" does in fact refer to wonder, amazement, marvel,
astonishment, amazement, wonderment, surprise. Russian is a language of
incredible infix, where a single word root is typically surrounded by
other elements to create rich meaning.
For example -- and I'm transliterating freely here -- 'divitsa' is an
intransitive verb meaning to wonder or marvel at. Now, -div- as in infix
appears in 'nadivitsa' , to admire sufficiently, wonder as in "I can't get
over his success";
in 'podivitsa', to wonder, admire, as in "I wondered greatly at this man's
strange ways";
in 'udivitsa', to astonish, surprise, amaze, as in "I am amazes at your
understanding of philology.
Russian has subtleties hard to appreciate and translate.
However, "divo" has nothing to do with the diva on stage. The word "diva"
exists in Russian, and means the same as the English word: an operatic
"standout"
The English word, of course, comes from the Italian, literally goddess,
from Latin, the feminine form of "divus," god.
So, there's no 'hence' here. the words are quite distinct between Russian
and English, for instance.
Best regards,
Barry
-- Barry Mallis The Organizational Trainer 110 Arch St., #27 Keene, NH 03431-2167 USA voice: 603 352-5289 FAX: 603 357-2157 cell: 603 313-3636 email: theorgtrainer@earthlink.netLearning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <Richard@Karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>
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