April 08, 2005, 21:23
KallehSatrapies
Satrapies is a new word for me, though I am sure it's not for most of you. I see from OED online that it comes from the Book of Daniel, coming from
satrap, a governor of a province in ancient Persia.
I saw it being used to describe the former Soviet
satrapies that surround Russia. Is it commonly used, and I have just missed it? It's used to mean ruler?
April 08, 2005, 23:09
<Asa Lovejoy>While I recognized it from
Satrap, I had never seen it. Makes sense, though.
April 09, 2005, 00:12
aputI can't swear to this, but I think I've seen it around in the modern political sense for some while.
As a child I learned 'satrap' from Xenophon; I remember this because someone else expressed surprise at it and said they knew it as one of the evil hench-lords in 'The Man from UNCLE'. So that's going back a bit.
April 09, 2005, 00:54
Doad'Satrap' is not one I'd come across before so there's at least two of us. Part of its history seemes to relate to 'A governor of a province under the ancient Persian monarchy' and as such has come to refer to a subordinate ruler with somewhat tyrannical powers. Hence you can be either a 'satrapal' or a 'satrapess'.
April 09, 2005, 07:39
jheemFrom Latin
satraps < Greek < Old Persian
khshathrapāvā 'protector of the province' (
khshathra-, 'realm, province' +
pāvā 'protector'. Kshatria 'princely' is one of the four traditional
varnas (lit. 'colors') castes (actually a categorization of castes) of Hindu ritual purity, along with Brahman 'priestly', Vaisya 'merchant', and Sudra 'untouchable' (now called
Harijan after a euphemism coined by Gandhi. It's also related to the English words
shah and
check(mate) also from the Persian.
April 09, 2005, 08:58
wordnerdquote:
Originally posted by aput:
As a child I learned 'satrap' from Xenophon.
Fascinating. You must have had quite a childhood. Could you expand on this, please?
April 09, 2005, 09:03
wordnerdquote:
Originally posted by jheem: ... Old Persian pāvā 'protector'.
Odd question here.
I recall that the surname of the last Shah of Iran was Reza
Palavi. In there any connection?
April 09, 2005, 09:28
jheem I recall that the surname of the last Shah of Iran was Reza Palavi. In there any connection?I don't think so, but I'll check.
April 09, 2005, 20:55
Kallehaput, this
"Man from Uncle?" Was the show seen in the UK too? I remember that my mother just loved that show.
April 09, 2005, 23:10
arnieKalleh,
That's the one. (Were there any others?) It was a spoof of the James Bond books/films. Good fun!
April 10, 2005, 17:04
Kalleharnie, the reason I asked was because "Man from Uncle" was American, and I doubted that it ever was shown in England. However, I guess I was wrong!