When reading Staring at the Sun: Overcoming the Terror of Death by Irvin D. Yalom, I was intrigued by the greek philosopher, Epicurus (341 BCE - 270 BCE). He believed that people should not fear death for death includes body and soul. What sparked me most though, was that these ideas have been passed on to modern times; how do we know that this is what Epicurus meant? I'm no expert on Greek language, nor philosophy, so I decided not to focus on Epicurus, but to focus on the change of words over time; Etymology. My resources were limited when doing this assignment, so I've resorted to using the Online Etymology Dictionary for the majority of my research.
I started my research with the word, "illness". According to the site, it's origin is ill + -ness, from the 1680s. I already knew that -ness is "a native English suffix attached to adjectives and participles, forming abstract nouns denoting quality and state (and often, by extension, something exemplifying a quality or state)" (Dictionary.com). So I continued on to the page referring to "ill". The oldest definition was recorded around 1200 meaning, "morally evil". Then, around the 15th century, the modern (current) meaning "sick, unhealthy, unwell " was recorded. It's intriguing to me, how a definition can change over a few centuries.
Next, I looked up the second word of our unit, "dying". The earliest definition is from the 13th century, defined as "death". Dying is a verbal noun originating from the verb "die". To be quite honest, the beginning of the definition didn't make sense to me, "Mid-12c., possibly from O.Dan. døja or O.N. deyja 'to die, pass away,' both from P.Gmc. *dawjanan (cf. O.Fris. deja 'to kill,' O.S. doian, O.H.G. touwen, Goth. diwans 'mortal'), from PIE base *dheu- (3) 'to pass away, become senseless' (cf. O.Ir. dith 'end, death,' O.C.S. daviti, Rus. davit' 'to choke, suffer')". But the next section caught my eye, "Languages usually don't borrow words from abroad for central life experiences, but "die" words are an exception, since they are often hidden or changed euphemistically out of superstitious dread".
The last line hung on to me; I wasn't expecting my research to directly relate back to any of the class readings, I was mistaken. "Religious leaders who, in an effort to increase their own power, increased the death anxiety of their followers by warning of the punishments that would be meted out after death to those who failed to heed particular rules and regulations" (Yalom, 80). In Staring at the Sun: Overcoming the Terror of Death, Yalom discusses religious leaders who convinced the followers of their religion to believe that death was negative. But the etymology of "die" shows that over time, humans have tried to make the idea of dying happier by "euphemistically" changing words.
Overall, I'm a bit disappointed that I didn't go into more depth with this assignment, but what I have found is still important because it can still be explored. I could keep looking up words that have been changed due to "superstition" or religion. Or I could find out more about specific religions etc.
1) Irvin D., Yalom. Staring at the sun: overcoming the terror of death. Jossey-Bass Inc Pub, 2008. Print.
2) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epicurus
3) Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. 16 Jan. 2011.http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/-ness>.
4) http://www.etymonline.com/
2) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epicurus
3) Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. 16 Jan. 2011.
4) http://www.etymonline.com/
My first impression of your post was that it was REALLY thorough (showed depth/insight). You explained every detail of your thinking, and what led you to your conclusion that people have tried to make the word die have less of a bad meaning.
ReplyDeleteOverall, I thought you were going to go further with it (for instance, asking people what they thought illness and dying meant), but the research you did was really interesting.
I thought your approach was well thought out. I think it's safe to say that the concept of death and dying is something we're all bound to examine every now and then. Hopefully one doesn't become obsessed with the concept. Not being the most religious of persons, I can see Epicurus' perspective as an healthy way to deal with what's inevitable.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting how you've examined the origins of words and the way they change their meaning over time. Kind of like children playing telephone, where each one whispers a message to the next and the final version is often quite different than what it started out to be.
you have gone into so much depth with this!
ReplyDeletei find it very interesting that the originally definition of ill was to be evil. in all this is very nice work
I really liked the research you did. It was very different from a lot of the things people did. My favorite line was "But the etymology of "die" shows that over time, humans have tried to make the idea of dying happier by "euphemistically" changing words. " Because it showed how humans in general try to soften the blow of harsh terms or events.
ReplyDeleteI like your post because it was an original idea to go back to the first meanings of the words. I thought it was interesting how the word illness meant evil. I think you should have gone into why you think they had these definitions and how it connects a little more.
ReplyDelete''The oldest definition was recorded around 1200 meaning, 'morally evil'"
ReplyDeleteWhen I read this it reminded me of how people used to think that if someone was sick that they were possessed by the devil or some evil spirits.