Theoasis?

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Theoasis?

Postby Aldus Marius on Tue Jan 13, 2004 4:05 am

Avete sodales (hope you don't mind being greeted in Latin; it's all I've got on me at the moment)...

I've heard this word a few times on my local jazz radio station in the last few days. I'm not entirely sure of the transcription, but it sounded Greek, so I thought I'd bring it here and let you good folk see what you can make of it. Here it is:

THEOASIS

Again, dunno if I wrote it down correctly. If I didn't, what might it be instead? And if I did...What is it?


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Postby Marcus Pomponius Lupus on Tue Jan 13, 2004 10:58 pm

Salve Mari,

"theo" will almost certainly come from "ho theos" meaning "the god", the short "theo" is often used in combination with other words, such as

theoprepon - fitting for a god
theomachos - the battle of the gods
theodotos - given by a god

Unfortunately I couldn't find "theoasis", Greek words ending in -asis are very rare. Do you know anything about the context ? Was it the name of a band, a song, ...?

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Postby Gnaeus Dionysius Draco on Tue Jan 13, 2004 11:26 pm

Um, could it not be that it actually was "the oasis"?

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Aww, mannnnn...

Postby Aldus Marius on Wed Jan 14, 2004 2:30 am

Salvete iterum..

If it was, mi Draco, I shall feel rather silly. Certainly the music on that station is much more relaxing (a la Oasis) than divinely-archaic (a la Greek words beginning with 'theo-'). Or is this just what happens when you've got one ear perpetually cocked for anything classical...and I don't mean Mozart, though I like him too? >({|:-)

Lupe, thank you so much for actually taking the trouble to pursue this, even a little bit.

That does leave me wondering, though. If there really was a Greek word 'theoasis', what would it mean?

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Postby Marcus Pomponius Lupus on Wed Jan 14, 2004 7:58 pm

Salvete,

Fortuna walks in mysterious ways, the first part of a task we have been given at university consists of making a short vocabulary, based on a text by Lucianos. We can't use our own humble dictionary for this, since it's far from complete, so we have to use the one and only standard work : the Liddel and Scott.

When I'll be working on my part of the text I'll do a quick search for "theoasis", if it's not in there, then it's not an ancient Greek word.

As for "the oasis", great suggestion :lol: if it were a Greek word ending on -is though, it would be pronounced as "theOasis" (a proparoxytonon if you want the proper name 8) ) and not "the oAsis". Of course, the one using this word might have had bad knowledge of ancient Greek accentuation, so that will lead us nowhere :wink:

going to rest now after two weeks of fighting against the clock to prepare for various tests, funny thing is, the clock is still ticking.

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Any luck...?

Postby Aldus Marius on Thu Jan 29, 2004 1:26 am

> the Liddel and Scott.
>
> When I'll be working on my part of the text I'll do a quick search
> for "theoasis", if it's not in there, then it's not an ancient Greek word.


Any luck yet...? >({|:-)


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Liddle & Scott

Postby Quintus Pomponius Atticus on Fri Jan 30, 2004 6:37 pm

Chairete,


It may be useful to point out that the Liddell & Scott (for Greek) and Lewis & Short (for Latin) can be searched in both ways at the Perseus-site :

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/resolveform

I have looked up 'theoasis', both with an omikron and an omega, but found nothing...

Talking about lexica, the Dutch-speaking among us may want to consult the Latin-Dutch dictionary I discovered today at http://www.latijnnederlands.nl/; still for free, even though the book is already in print.


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Postby Marcus Pomponius Lupus on Fri Jan 30, 2004 9:34 pm

Salve Mari,

I'm sorry, I looked it up last week, but I completely forgot to tell about it. Anyway, not much to tell about really, I haven't found it, not with omikron or omega, not with theta or tau, so it probaby won't be an ancient Greek word (perhaps modern Greek ?)

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Postby Quintus Pomponius Atticus on Fri Jan 30, 2004 9:45 pm

Lupus egrapse (wrote) :

(perhaps modern Greek ?)


I looked it up in a dictionary of modern Greek ... no result :(

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Postby Gnaeus Dionysius Draco on Sat Jan 31, 2004 12:01 am

A search on Google showed a few things and music bands named TheOasis or theOasis... so it's most likely the oasis. The speaker on the radio must have pronounced it in an odd way, thinking it was Greek of some sort.

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More purple prose

Postby Aldus Marius on Sat Jan 31, 2004 12:22 am

Salvete amici! (Attice, that's a verry nice avatar ye've got on ye!)

I never thought this bit of what-did-I-just-hear was going to attract quite so many of you! I shall certainly feel more comfortable in the Collegium Graecum henceforth.

Na, the DJ's have been pronouncing it "The Oasis", plain as can be to anybody but Marius. (Okay, they do tend to run the two words together so that they sound like just one.) I think it's becoming the catch-phrase for the radio station; only in my own mind, I think, would it ever have sounded remotely Greek. Shows you what I know...but you good people knew that I was severely Greek-deficient, too. >({|:-)

Which leaves only my remaining question: Now that we know that there is no such word at the moment...if somebody were to coin it from scratch, what would it mean?

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Postby Marcus Pomponius Lupus on Sun Feb 01, 2004 6:59 pm

Salve Mari,

egrapsas :

Which leaves only my remaining question: Now that we know that there is no such word at the moment...if somebody were to coin it from scratch, what would it mean?


Well, "theo" would most likely come from "theos" meaning everything related to the gods as an adjective or "the god" as a noun. Strangely enough "asis" exists as a Greek word...meaning "mud" though....

If you would combine those two words, you would have "theosasis" and there's a rule in Greek grammar saying that an "s" between two vowels disappears, so you could theoretically have something like "theoasis".

As for its meaning...well, "the divine mud" doesn't sound all that spectacular, but it's the best I can come up with. Then again, since we're making our own words here, we might as well see it as a metaphor for some incredibily advanced and noble concept :wink:

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An Advanced and Noble Concept

Postby Aldus Marius on Tue Feb 03, 2004 3:36 am

Heia!

Thank'ee(s) yet again for giving my slip o' the ear so much scholarly attention!

"Divine mud", eh...? How about...Divine Clay? Clay is just expensive mud [said this not-too-successful ceramicist]; but it has also long been a symbol of possibility, teachability, mold-ability, potential, and (as finished pottery) the power to contain and transport. Clay vessels are the staple of archaeology, as we know, and the designs on them are better than a roadmap for telling archaeologists where and when they are in a dig. Clay was how ancient peoples got things done, from international trade to fixing dinner. Nothing happened in a settled society without clay. I could well see someone, able to step away from its mundane aspect, assigning godly attributes to the stuff.

So...Theoasis: The Divine Clay, That from Which All Useful Things are Made!!

(Will that work?)

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