Sunday, April 21, 2024

The study of water

Yesterday, I saw a link on Synlogos to a John C. Wright post titled simply "Eautology," and I clicked just to see what the word was supposed to mean. On first seeing it, I mentally pronounced it as a homophone of otology, thinking the first element must be eau, the French for "water." I guessed the t was added for euphony, or perhaps in reference to Scientology (cf. Blaintology, the cult led by David Blaine in South Park).

No sooner had I thought that than I knew it was impossible. John C. Wright tends, as I'm sure he would be the first to admit, to be be a bit prissy on matters linguistic, and there is simply no way in the shades below that he would ever dream of coining a word by sticking a Greek suffix on a French noun and inserting a random t in the middle. That's just something that will never, ever happen. It's not the way the universe operates.

I skimmed enough of the post to find out that eautology is actually from the Greek reflexive pronoun εαυτός, which I suppose I should have been able to guess on my own. I left a comment, which you can see there, saying, "I thought it was going to be the study of water!"

Of course the proper term for the study of water, with none of that unseemly Graeco-French miscegenation, is hydrology.

Less than 24 hours after skimming "Eautology" and leaving that comment, I was reading -- such are my omnivorous habits -- The Remarkable Record of Job (1988) by Henry M. Morris, which is a young-earth creationist take on that book of the Bible and is perhaps most notable for its memorable theory that the Leviathan described in Job 41 was actually a fire-breathing duck-billed dinosaur. The picture below is not from the book -- other YECs have since picked up on it -- but I'm pretty sure Morris was the OG.

Chapter 3 is called "Modern Scientific Insights in Job," and I started it today. I was surprised to find this on p. 36:

5 comments:

WanderingGondola said...

As I woke up this morning, the word "honeycomb" came to mind, followed by "hydrocomb". Beats me what that's about.

Wm Jas Tychonievich said...

And Paul Kingsnorth has just posted something about wells shaped like beehives:

https://paulkingsnorth.substack.com/p/well-beehived

NLR said...

Perhaps tautology could be the study of rope.

NLR said...

Wright's post is quite thought-provoking. I definitely agree with this statement:

"Allow me to propose that there is something more fundamental than psychology, more fundamental than philosophy, which underpins one’s thought. Something more fundamental than psychology or philosophy influences or determines which worldview, one adopts, and to which one adapts oneself.

This most fundamental of foundations is one’s selfhood and one’s sense of self. It defines the basic anthropology and cosmogony of one’s sense of what man is and what is man’s place in the cosmos."

Here's a quote about a similar kind of analysis: (https://charltonteaching.blogspot.com/2022/08/what-provokes-someone-to-start-thinking.html):

"there may, in principle, be a deeper level below metaphysics, i.e. the assumptions of pure consciousness and the pure thought; that of which 'consciousness is conscious'!

Such might be expressed by analogy in a (metaphysical!) model; that we are living beings that have a kind of ultimate 'life' (with motivations) which Just Is; and this being also necessarily includes a (very variable) degree of consciousness of itself."

Definitely something worth thinking about, though I'd have to think more to really get a handle on what that is.

Ra1119bee said...


William,


You wrote :... "inserting a random t in the middle".
~~~~~~

My response: and speaking of adding random letters,
the letter i added to water is waiter.

Which takes me back to my previous comment about Pisces the Fish
being given the challenge to either serve or sacrifice for humanity.

I found this etymology definition for waiter interesting:

copy and paste:
waiter (n.)
late 14c., "attendant, watchman," agent noun from wait (v.). Sense of "attendant at a meal, servant who waits at tables"
~~~~
I also found the reference to 'Watchman 'and Wait interesting:
copy and paste:
wait (v.)
"Old High German wahten, German wachten "to watch, to guard;" Old High German wahhon "to watch, be awake," Old English wacian "to be awake".

and this:(asterisks mine )
late 14c. meaning "to stand by in attendance on" is late 14c.; specific sense of
"serve as an attendant at a **** Table****
~~~~~~~~~~
Recall when I first 'met' you in Oct of 2021, I shared why I had contacted you
which was because of a dream I had which I titled : Tulips.

In that dream the setting was a restaurant with TABLES.

After that dream and while researching Tulips,
a particular reference in wiki sparked me to google Oswald Wirth, Tarot, Magician,
which is how I found you.

Here is the reference in wiki:(see link)
: "The tulip occurs on a number of the Major Arcana cards of occultist Oswald Wirth's deck of Tarot cards, specifically the Magician, Emperor, Temperance and the Fool, described in his 1927 work Le Tarot, des Imagiers du Moyen Âge".
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I'm sure you are aware that the fish is the only sigil in the 12 astrological signs
that does not come upon land as to do so would be to sacrifice itself.

And last but not least, the tulip is also a member of the lily family, Liliaceae,.

Do recall my many many comments about my 2008 Suzy dream and what I believe
the dream's connection to the Golden Gate in Jerusalem also known as The Shushan Gate.
Shushan/Susanna/Susan/Suzy all meaning lily.

Also interesting the ancient Persian city of Susa/Iran
and the connection of the tulip and lily especially
given the current day events happening on the World Stage.

We live in VERY interesting times, no?


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulip
https://madainproject.com/shushan_gate
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susanna_(given_name)

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