Wordcraft Community Home Page
"nemesetic"
March 14, 2004, 14:04
shufitz"nemesetic"
jheem: the Greek word nemesetikos which LSJ glosses as "disposed to indignation at any one's undeserved good or ill fortune". Derivation of nemesetos "causing indignation or wrath, worthy of it".
I think I'll coin the word: nemesetic. Want to champion my neologism?[PS: What is "LSJ"?]
Yes, an excellent word. Even better than
schadenfreude, because their's no word already available for the concept.
You've given us the adjective form, jheem. What would be the noun form?
March 14, 2004, 15:17
jheemLSJ is Henry George
Liddell, Robert
Scott, and Henry Stuart
Jones,
Greek-English Lexicon, is the best classical Greek dictionary in English. It's also online at the Perseus Digital Library site (see below). H G Liddell was Alice (in Wonderland) Liddell's father.
http://perseus.uchicago.edu/Oh, the nominal form is:
nemesete /'nEm@,sit/. Ex. "Fred was a nemesete from puberty on."
March 14, 2004, 17:21
shufitzSorry, jheem. I was unclear when I asked, "What would be the noun form?" Let me clarify.
The words for many "-isms" and the like come in three forms: the general noun, the adjective form, and the person who is an adherent . For example:
Jud
aism means the Jew
ish religion practiced by a Je
w.
Claustrophob
ia means the claustrophob
ic feeling suffered by a claustrophob
e.
Democra
cy means the democra
tic system espoused by a democra
t.
In that spirit, what would the form be here?
Nemes_____ means the nemes
etic feeling suffered by a nemes
ete.
March 15, 2004, 08:22
jheemAh,
nemesecy, I suppose.
March 15, 2004, 09:08
shufitzYou've been set up, jheem.

Let's review:
Demo
cracy means the demo
cratic system espoused by a demo
crat.
Advo
cacy means the
advocative work of an advo
cate..
So on that basis, the word
"epicaricacy" would lead naturally to the other forms. One could say either:
..........Demo
cracy means the demo
cratic system espoused by a demo
crat;
hence
Epicaricacy means the epicaricatic feelings of an epicaricat,
....................or
..........Advo
cacy means the advo
cative work of an advo
cate;
hence
Epicaricacy means the epicaricative feelings of an epicaricate..
On the other hand, does
"shadenfreude" give those forms? Is there any natural way to complete the idea that
"Schadenfreude means the schaden
_____ feelings of a schaden
_____"?March 15, 2004, 09:13
jheemNice try, shufitz, but ...
nemesetic < nemesetikos
nemesecy < nemesetia (cf. democracy)
epichairekakia > epichaerekaky
This is one of the reasons I don't like the e-word, it looks like somebody unfamiliar with Greek heard somebody say the word and then tried to transcribe it.
We must preserve the original kaka, kakos sounds in the word. That's all, and besides I said that I was coining a new word for Kalleh to champion. Toodles.
March 15, 2004, 09:32
shufitz[Note to jheem: I was editing my post while you were responding.]
My point here is simply this. Because English uses many words from Greek and Latin, we are familiar with how modify their endings to make a related form. Those modifications come naturally to the tongue, even if the original word is new to us.
But we borrow relatively few words from German. So we have no easy, natural way to make alternate forms of a German borrowing.
To me this suggests that all else being equal, a Greek or Latinate borrowing or coinage is preferable to a Germanic one, simply because it provides more flexibility.
Of course, that's just one factor, "all else being equal".
March 15, 2004, 11:30
Richard EnglishOf course, it does depend on the German word.
Rucksack, blitz and kindergarten seem to have made the trip into English without too much difficulty.
Richard English
March 15, 2004, 19:29
jheemIt also helps that German is both written in the Latin alphabet and is a living language. Classical Greek, from which we get a large percentage of our scientific vocabulary is written in a different alphabet, and few people are familiar with how it was probably pronounced.