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 #2 (permalink) Wed Feb 07, 2007 0:57 am Immortable: a word? |
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I think the word for this is "immortal".
Let's break it down:
mort = death
mortal (n) = something that can (will) die
mortal (adj) = fatal
immortal (n) = something that will not die
immortal (adj) = perpetual, never-ending (as in "the immortal soul")
I suppose you could use immortable, but you'd be adding unnecessary letters.
Other examples:
Apathic/apathETic
Empathic/empathETic
Sympathic/SympathETic
etc.
None of the verb/noun forms of these words include the "-et":
Empathety
Sympathety
Apathety
etc.
Someone, at some point, included the -et to the adjective forms of these words, and the rest is history.
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Prezbucky
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| #3 (permalink) Wed Feb 07, 2007 9:59 am Immortable: a word? |
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Hi Tom,
Thanks a lot for the et-explanation. This is really interesting!
| Quote: |
| Someone, at some point, included the -et to the adjective forms of these words, and the rest is history. |
In particular, Online Etymology Dictionary gives
| Quote: |
| Sympathetic "sharing the feelings of another" is from 1718. |
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=sympathy
About immortable – I just came across the word being referred as a name of a movie ("Immortable" (1988)) and wondered about it’s possible meaning.
Google 'provided' some (vague) links, from which I was unable to understand the current 'status' of the ‘word’.
That was why I asked.
Thanks again for your interesting answer.
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Tamara
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| #4 (permalink) Thu Feb 08, 2007 16:21 pm Immortable: a word? |
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In chess, we have a game played between Anderssen and Kieseritzky in 1851, which is called the Immortal. Many believe that this is one of the best games ever played, hence the name...
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| #5 (permalink) Thu Feb 08, 2007 18:29 pm Immortable: a word? |
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both of them would have beaten me in like five moves, or fewer.
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Tamara
Sympathetic is the "-et" adjective I'm inclined to accept. "Sympathetic" is so widely used (way more than empathic/empathetic, for instance) that my ear is used to hearing and saying it.
This raises a neat question:
Which came first, the noun or the adjective?
sympathy, empathy, apathy OR sympath(et)ic, empath(et)ic, apath(et)ic?
If the nouns came first, then whoever decided to include the -et was off, IMO, as the -et does not seem necessary in any of them. If, on the other hand, the adjectives came first, then we have to accept them as they are, I suppose.
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Prezbucky
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| #6 (permalink) Thu Feb 08, 2007 21:07 pm Immortable: a word? |
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| Quote: |
| Which came first, the noun or the adjective? |
Tom, unfortunately my current level in English does not allow me discussing the topic you started… :(
but… even I can dig up… :)
and it’s really surprising (for me) to have found that empathy and sympathy actually have come different ways before getting English words:
sympathy
1579, "affinity between certain things," from M.Fr. sympathie, from L.L. sympathia "community of feeling, sympathy," from Gk. sympatheia, from sympathes "having a fellow feeling, affected by like feelings," from syn- "together" + pathos "feeling".
(I already quoted that sympathetic is much older.)
empathy
1903, translation of Ger. Einf?hlung (from ein "in" + F?hlung "feeling"), coined 1858 by Ger. philosopher Rudolf Lotze (1817-81) from Gk. empatheia "passion," from en- "in" + pathos "feeling".
Empathize (v.) was coined 1924; empathic (adj.) is from 1909.
(c) Online Etimology Dictionary
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| #7 (permalink) Thu Feb 08, 2007 22:51 pm Immortable: a word? |
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YES! EMPATHIC!
I'll emphatically use empathic henceforth.
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