Information Finding Championship - Season 1 : Round 24 entry

Information Finding Championship
Season 1 : Round 24
Etymology

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This round is all about one of my favorite side-hobbies: Etymology, or the origins and meanings behind words.
If you haven’t checked out the original post be sure to visit it and join in with the fun! This is a catch up round so if you’re new to IFC now is a perfect chance to swoop in and take a win!

My Entry

I first thought about coming at this round from a purely academic avenue and I was going to take a word and break it down like a live example of etymology. While studying for my bio degree I spent a lot of time working with anatomy & physiology. Understanding how words are constructed helped me greatly in remembering where everything is and what it does.

However, I would only be denying my creative, curious, spiritual side if I just left etymology as the study of dead words on flat paper. Discovering why words are crafted in the way they are is so much more than just a working model - placing historical landmarks on root words and compare prefixes with suffixes to simply see how words have changed over time.

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Etymology can be so much more - it ties into spelling and the occult, into hidden meanings and legends of magic. It encompasses the power behind words, spoken word and song.

There are all types of curious topics to be explored and examined when you start to [QUEST]ion where words and written language come from. If you’re not ready for the quest then don’t start asking questions because once you ask there’s no turning away. You cannot unsee, forget or even dismiss the eerie connections and “coincidences” that will be pointed out.

Remember those creepy 3D picture books from the 90’s - the optical illusion ones? It’s a bit like that..
You see this crazy picture that you can’t figure out then you learn how to cross your eyes a bit and like magic the 3D image pops out..

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Once you master the trick though - you begin to be able to see that 3D pop out even without crossing your eyes first. You can see through the matrix - your brain makes the connections and you see what you couldn’t perceive before.

Kind of like seeing one of these pictures:

Is it the old lady or the young woman turned away? Both? Neither? It is what you perceive - based on the background information you’ve been given - just like words.

Imagine you’d be shown this picture as a child and told it was an old lady. When asked if you wanted to grow up to be her you would immediately say no. You would make up stories of witches and old maids and this image would turn into meaning ugly, old BUT in reality -if the young women was the actual intended vision for this portrait but no one knew and the picture was meant to symbolize youth, material wealth..now that means what the child is saying no to is being young and wealthy.

My point is the true meaning has been warped with background information and preconceived opinions from others - this is what happens to word meanings, this is how language gets tampered with and constricted. But why? By who? How?

It's time to start asking the philosophical QUESTions

What do our words really mean?
What are we saying?
What types of systems are we immersing ourselves in willingly?
Do you leave lasting impressions?
Can words cause harm?
Why do we spell out our words?
What is the alphabet and where did it come from?

By opening your mind to these thoughts you simultaneously open the ancient gate of language and embark on a quest for truth. This truth-seeking path cannot deserted it will follow you through life - don't bother leaving breadcrumbs cause there's no turning back.

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Ways to dissect and examine word meanings

The word inside a word breakdown

Words like the [Quest]tion example I gave earlier or :

• Television : [Tell-a-vision] : Tell A Vision to you : Tell as is forced, predetermined, directions, orders : a vision - how to see the world.

Classic Version

We use this exact set up for for all words across all languages - you can't cherry pick which words this crunching together of prefixes/suffixes is significant and which you should dismiss as coincidence. Language is planned and has many rules.. all words fit the structure.

Like I mentioned earlier etymology helped me breeze through A&P - words like bilateral (both sides), proximal (near), distal (distant, further away), dorsal (back) and ventral (front or belly side) so when we started naming pieces of our anatomy these words are like directions to finding this bone, muscle, organ or whatever. Like posterior articulate facet tells us its on the backside, jointed or knotted and small, smooth and flat surface. Which makes sense because it is a weird knobby outjetting on a vertebrae.

Now breaking away from the common academia.

How about other simple words we use all the time:

• Mortgage: [mort]gage : Mort - from the Latin mortuus = die, death ex: mortuary, mortal - to die and Gage - hold or grip death grip? sounds about right..
• Nice: derived from Latin nescius - ignorant
• Contract : [CON]tract: Con : ancient root means together, jointed / however when you take the homonym game into play we see that Con also means a trick, fallacy or negative. Tract : webster dictionary : pamphlet or leaflet of political or religious propaganda; also : a piece of writing that is suggestive of such a tract

Now, whether you choose to accept CON as with or jointed or use choose to take on the negative connotation the word tract is sketchy.. it has propaganda centered in its definition.

The Homonym Game

• Currency : [Current-sea] : money -like water, is a river which flows to the sea and is surrounded, protected, kept in line by the river banks : banks that hold out fiat currency
• Morning / Mourning - good morning ? A wake / Awake ? Coincidence ?
• Light - energy, white, lighter color, good vs. Dark - empty, black, darker color, night, scary

*Why do we have homonyms and similes - to confuse and trick us into speaking certain words?

Awesome Videos I have Watched a Few Times

I basically wanted to just share these videos but I've added in some of my own thoughts just to bring myself into this round. These videos all talk about different levels of etymology. Some areas are deeper than others so swim at your own risk!

Disclaimer: this is all conjecture. All these ideas are meant to be for fun and for the curious of mind. Nothing in this life is 100% truth; except for your own perspective.

Infinite Waters

I like Ralph a lot. Whenever I need a pick me up/energy lift I watch one of his videos. He is a great soul, in my opinion obviously lol I don't really even know this guy but that's beside the point.

This one is a great warm up for people who aren’t into these types of “hippie” ideas. It’s fun, witty, quick but informative and it talks all about choosing the words you use more carefully, what types of words we use today and the power in word’s meanings.

"Words are the commands that govern the subconscious mind."

Magic Words by Gary Lite

I stumbled onto this video last year at the end of summer. I actually remember the first time I listened to this, it made a ton of questions pop up in my mind. The video contains a lot of speculative and weighted information that takes a person a few listens to really being to decipher, understand and decide whether or not they want to take these ideas on. I have done side quests into a lot of separate subjects but I have come back to this video numerous times and each time I discover more puzzle pieces are fitting together.

It’s only 15 minutes long but it’s loaded with presumptions that, if you are too close-minded you won’t be able to sit through even 2 minutes of it. However, if you listen to the claims, don’t take the examples and ideas as truth immediately, look into these things yourself. Try to stay level and neither fully jump into magic or scoff at it and dismiss it as nonsense.. You have to approach it with an inquisitive, curious mind of an eleven year old.. Judgement free - if you can even imagine that anymore.

Sevan Bomar

This is another guy I can’t get enough of. He has a lot of starting points. I use talks like this to look into the ideas a bit more.

Sevan Bomar is an etymology enthusiast and has a lot of videos/talks on the topic. I chose this one as it's short (most of his lectures are well over an hour long) and also because he breaks down the word CABAL, talks about geometry and numerology. There are some interesting ideas explored in this 9 min video - if you like it check out his longer talks - all free on youtube.

MrPaulVickers - The Hidden Meaning of Words pt1

The last video I will share here is a long one. This is a podcast which I stumbled on just last night. I have recently been diving into legalese, maritime laws and how the word of the law changes over hundreds of years. This one fit my list of requirements and I thought it was informative but fun. The host had on a specialist and it is a bit of an interview type of set up to the video. They show some clips of quotes to go along with the voice recording. This is only part one and I haven't listened to part 2 yet, will be doing that tonight. I have no real opinion of this one yet but it did highlight a lot of connection points and synchronicities.

I'm just breaking into legalese so I don't have a leg to stand on but I imagine it to be much like anatomy where once you learn the make up of the language it can be spoken with ease. (I hope)

Lifting the Veil - Occult Language

This video is a poetic play on words but also gets you thinking about where words come from. It's a bit hippie-dippie and I'm sure many people won't vibe with it but I thought it was so unique and spoken beautifully I wanted to share it.
If you vibe with this kind of thinking you will probably enjoy listening to this video.

Thanks for checking out my entry!

This is just a short introduction from my Etymology section at the Studio Drac Torät.
I want to leave you all with one thing to think about - in case you didn't have the time to watch the videos.
Words have a special power, which we give them. You create your WORLD with the WORDS.

I could dive deeper into so many aspects of words but this post is long enough as is.
Quick reference to other word power topics to think on:

• manipulation of our current language - things we say automatically

• slang, ebonics, misuse turned into common misconception of usage

• where do these manipulations come from - they happen over the long term not from a single reaction

• magic of words and the spell cast with spelling

• "Your words are your Wand" - Florence Shinn

• speaking things into existence

• curse words

I hope to hear your opinion on these ideas - do you know any commonly misused words, root meanings that are interesting, how spells work, where the Phoenicians got their alphabet. Or just your take on this - do you think your words leave a lasting impression? Can you curse someone just by a spell? Comment Below :)