WORD! WordTree Word of the Week

Welcome to Runa's WordTree, where I explore words and their roots and go out on some pretty thin limbs to explore the outer branches too. I claim, like the popular website known as Cooljugator, formerly etymologeek, that "etymology is inherently speculative and uncertain," so know that you might be in for a wild ride. At the end of it all, don't take my word for any of it. I'm a speculator, a spectator, a speck of stardust finding my way around the cosmos.

For those of you who are lovers of Old Soul Alchemy, those topics will return again soon, too! I am just whetting my whistle in one of my other loves.

Join me as I journey down rabbit holes of etymological exploration.

The word of the week is word.

Word is of Dutch and German origins, with roots meaning speech, utterance, and talk. It is related to 1. the Proto-Indo-European *were-, and 2. our common word "verb."

1. *Were-, not to be confused with the were- of werewolf, comes from the Sanskrit vrata- meaning a command, or vow, and is related to the Greek rhetor - a public speaker, and rhetra, an agreement or covenant, roots from which we also get rhetoric, and rhetorical. When a rhetor of ages past made a rhetra, it was assumed it would be honored; his word was his bond. Many of us would question the bond of most prominent public speakers' promises these days. And many verbose documents use words to allow that bond to be broken. (See the double-edged sword reference below.)
2. A verb is a word that asserts or declares, and seemingly, the etymology suggests that every verb is a word, every word a verb, our modern grammatical understanding aside. Note my use of verbose in the above paragragh, meaning wordy.
   
   Etymonline says that a verb is a part of speech of which the office is predication (related to prediction), to say before, or fore-say. I find it incredibly interesting as an oracle lover, that a word is a verb is a prediction, but how dare anyone predict the future and be considered a rational thinker.

Words Have Power

We've often heard that words have power. Words, made of letters, or "spells," have the power to determine our world. What are you spelling today? Another way of putting it is that a verb, a word, is a command. With our words we command the world.

The Logos of It All

One of the most quoted Bible verses is John 1:1; In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. Of course, the Bible wasn't written in English or Dutch or German, but in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. John's Gospel is traditionally translated from the Greek, but historical evidence would suggest that John wrote in Aramaic, a sister language to the Old Testament's Hebrew.

Word in Hebrew, dabar, is translated as speech or utterance, and wasn't concretized in stone, at least not until the Hebrews demanded something in writing. Moses lead the way (twenty chapters before God agreed to give a written account of his law on tablets of stone), ultimately questioning the God of the burning bush at every turn when he was directed to speak to the children of Israel on God's behalf.

Apparently, the word of God was not His bond until it was in writing, either, and even then, it was (and still is) repeatedly questioned. We'll save more of this story for another day.

I want to use the Greek word for word we are so familiar with due to this Bible verse. Logos. Did you know that logos doesn't just mean word? It also means mind, reason, mental faculty of thinking, meditating, reasoning, and calculating. Derivatives of logos mean "the study of, student of, teacher of, and even device.

Logos comes from the Proto-Indo-European root, *leg-, which means to collect, or gather. We gather the world with our words, reining it in, in order to gain understanding. From this root, we also get our words lecture and lesson, college and delegate, legacy and sacrilege, logic and logical, lexicon and dyslexia, logistics, legible, legion, election and surprisingly coil.

Now you might even understand why Amazon's speech-driven app is called Alexa.

Final Thoughts

Bernard Haisch and Martha Sims, in their book "The Miracle of Our Universe," define logos as a Greek word that means the expression of a thought, perhaps the expression of a universal mind. Quantum physics and alchemy walked into a bar and discovered this was so over a couple of stiff drinks.

Unrelated? Logi (or Halogi), in Old Norse is a god who is the personification of divine flame, fire, or blaze, who was pitted against Loki, the god of mischief. Perhaps it's unrelated but it sounds a bit like a burning bush to me. I am that I am! Logi was also used in poetry as a synonym of 'sword' or 'blade,' which is reminiscent of a word being equated to a double-edged sword. Indeed, even the very Word of God, as stated in Hebrews 4:12.

Our WordTree journey has taken us from the roots of word to verb, with a detour to palabra, to logos and finally a visit with Logi.

Here are a few more esoteric associations to hang on our tree. Words as expressions of thoughts. Utterances of speech and their relation to air. Swords in Tarot representing the element of Air, and all things mental.

Food for thought. After all, what's in a word? More than bread alone!

♥ Runa