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Who named things?
- Thread starter Rex
- Start date
Ceridwen018
Well-Known Member
Oh I know! Whoever did it must've been either very very smart or very very dumb...
Runt
Well-Known Member
Haha, you probably don't want this "in-depth" of an answer, but...
Once upon a time we were a fairly new species and were just developing language. The things in our worldview were few, and the sounds were probably very simple: things like "ah" for the sky and "oo" for water.
As we progressed gradually toward having cultures, our worldview grew, and with it the number of things we had to name. We started running out of simple sounds, and had to add more sounds (two syllables instead of one!!!
) to make more words. So words referring to TYPES of water perhaps because something a little more complex, and progressed from "ah" (water) to "ehah" for "lake" and "rah" for "river".
Eventually, there were all kinds of long, weird words: the English "antidisestablishmentarianism " (against removing the tie between church and state), Latin honorificabilitudinitas (honorableness), Gaelic cruimh-shionnachain (glowworm), and (my personal favorite) the Nipmuck chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg (Englishmen at Manchaug at the Fishing Place at the Boundary but commonly misunderstood to be you fish on your side [of the lake], I fish on my side, nobody fish in the middle).
Once upon a time we were a fairly new species and were just developing language. The things in our worldview were few, and the sounds were probably very simple: things like "ah" for the sky and "oo" for water.
As we progressed gradually toward having cultures, our worldview grew, and with it the number of things we had to name. We started running out of simple sounds, and had to add more sounds (two syllables instead of one!!!
) to make more words. So words referring to TYPES of water perhaps because something a little more complex, and progressed from "ah" (water) to "ehah" for "lake" and "rah" for "river".Eventually, there were all kinds of long, weird words: the English "antidisestablishmentarianism " (against removing the tie between church and state), Latin honorificabilitudinitas (honorableness), Gaelic cruimh-shionnachain (glowworm), and (my personal favorite) the Nipmuck chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg (Englishmen at Manchaug at the Fishing Place at the Boundary but commonly misunderstood to be you fish on your side [of the lake], I fish on my side, nobody fish in the middle).
Lightkeeper
Well-Known Member
Actually it's the Tooth Fairy. She didn't have much to do when dentistry improved.
Ceridwen018
Well-Known Member
Good lord, Runt! You need to take up knitting or something, m'dear!
(lol, j/k! everyone here has probably been told to take up knitting by their friends who are sick of hearing them talk about the forums!)
(lol, j/k! everyone here has probably been told to take up knitting by their friends who are sick of hearing them talk about the forums!)
Rex_Admin said:
In the beginning HaShem gave the job to Adam.
The inventer has the first try at naming his creation, but most of the time the brain that is creative is not always one of flowery rhetoric, so this falls to the wife or a friend with a gift of gab.
Since I was in Cable Televison, I will relate a story of the naming of a newly created fitting for a new type of aluminum clad cable. One morning an Engineer came into to his bosses office and tossed a fitting to the boss, he caught it, looked it over and said "That's a Very Sexy Fitting, what do you call it?" The Engineer said "That is a>>>>>>> VSF 412!"
Back to the Beginning, HaShem created Adam with full wisdom of the Aleph Beit. So he was fully capable of giving the proper names to all the creatures.
In the Torah concept, a name is not simply a convention, but reflects the the very nature of the of the creature and it role in the total scheme of the universe. (Chumash) Also interesting reading on this subject is "The Wisdom in the Hebrew Alphabet" bt Rabbi Michael L. Munk
painted wolf
Grey Muzzle
so Adam named the Kangaroo? The komodo dragon? The weta and the wa-le'-la (humming bird)
doesn't sound very Hebrew to me....
wa:do
doesn't sound very Hebrew to me....
wa:do
Bastet
Vile Stove-Toucher
Yes, perhaps you might want to try reading one...I believe the word you are looking for is the noun 'etymology', not the adverb 'etymologically'.HelpMe said:
Your sentence makes no sense...Now personally, I have always wondered who came up with the word 'singlet'. I mean really - say it out loud, slowly, drawing out the syllables. It is a very odd word lol. Not the oddest, of course, but it has always struck me as funny.
true blood
Active Member
painted wolf said:
The word Adam is the generic name for man. It kinda represents all people or earthlings, so, tis true, Adam named all those.
painted wolf
Grey Muzzle
what about Eve then... shurely the women of the planet have gotten to name a few things over the tens of thousands of years we've been around.
wa:do
wa:do
Ceridwen018
Well-Known Member
Painted Wolf, I believe it went a little like this:
Eve: (Sits up, yawns and looks around) Hey, this is a pretty cool place.
Adam: (eagerly) Um, hello.
Eve: Oh...hi. Would you mind showing me around a little? I'm new.
Adam: Sure! Follow me!
Eve: Oh wow look at that! What do you call such a beautiful animal?
Adam: (proudly) That's a 'poog'.
Eve: A...a 'poog'? Um wow, I do believe you're more retarded than your appearance initially led me to believe. No matter, I think I'll take things over from here if you don't mind. We'll start with your 'poog'. It is now a 'horse'.
...etc.!
Eve: (Sits up, yawns and looks around) Hey, this is a pretty cool place.
Adam: (eagerly) Um, hello.
Eve: Oh...hi. Would you mind showing me around a little? I'm new.
Adam: Sure! Follow me!
Eve: Oh wow look at that! What do you call such a beautiful animal?
Adam: (proudly) That's a 'poog'.
Eve: A...a 'poog'? Um wow, I do believe you're more retarded than your appearance initially led me to believe. No matter, I think I'll take things over from here if you don't mind. We'll start with your 'poog'. It is now a 'horse'.
...etc.!
painted wolf
Grey Muzzle
wa-le'-la is cherokee....
somehow though, if their were a 'progenitor' language and the Babel thing did happin I doubt that the 'progenitor' was Hebrew... It would seem to me that the 'progenitor' would be lost as all language was mixed.
Anyway, language evolves the language we speak is not the language of our ancestors. (English is especially notorious for this) Many languages die off, anchient Egyption for example.
wa:do
somehow though, if their were a 'progenitor' language and the Babel thing did happin I doubt that the 'progenitor' was Hebrew... It would seem to me that the 'progenitor' would be lost as all language was mixed.
Anyway, language evolves the language we speak is not the language of our ancestors. (English is especially notorious for this) Many languages die off, anchient Egyption for example.
wa:do
LittleNipper
Well-Known Member
It would seem that GOD made the 7 day week. Interestingly, there was never a time when there were not 7 days designating a week in any culture in all of history.
Let the atheists figure that one out. Also the weekends have always been as they are.
Oh, they might have had their own names for them but the seven day week with a weekend right where it is has been going on for all of recorded history.
Let the atheists figure that one out. Also the weekends have always been as they are.
Oh, they might have had their own names for them but the seven day week with a weekend right where it is has been going on for all of recorded history.
Green Gaia
Veteran Member
Humans did, as we saw a need to do so.Rex_Admin said:
LittleNipper
Well-Known Member
Humans are very inconsistant, as are their languages, as are their religious beliefs, as are the places they live. Over 5 thousand years of everyone agreeing on anything seems much more like a case for divine intervention...Maize said:
Green Gaia
Veteran Member
Hence the different languages and cultures. We don't all have to be alike, LN.LittleNipper said:
I would not call that inconsistancy.What words have the Chinese and European langauges agreed on? Seems to be they are quite different and it would be rather possible to have them call the exact same object by the same name. But if there is one, please enlighten us....
Lightkeeper
Well-Known Member
I took a philosophy class and we were supposed to prove that a chair was a chair. If you call a chair something else is it still a chair? It seems the name doesn't matter, it's the funcionality of the object that matters. Can anyone prove a chair is a chair? I agree with Maize. People name things and it varies from area to area.