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"δμοκρατια"

Posted: February 10th, 2012, 1:56 am
by NathanSmith
ειδον σημερον χαρτην επι ην το δημοκρατια ηνορθογραφη ως δμοκρατια.

A couple questions:
  • I used the neuter article in place of the feminine article to indicate that I was talking about the word democracy and not the concept. Sound right? Do I need to use ο λογος?
  • ανορθογραφω was found via Google and seems semantically correct, but appears to be on loan from modern Greek. Anyone have an alternate suggestion for "misspelling"?
I humbly thank you for corrections and suggestions.

(The flier was seen on a bulletin board at my church).

Re: "δμοκρατια"

Posted: February 10th, 2012, 8:43 am
by Stephen Carlson
NathanSmith wrote:I used the neuter article in place of the feminine article to indicate that I was talking about the word democracy and not the concept. Sound right? Do I need to use ο λογος?
Yeah what you did was fine. A good parallel is Gal 4:25 τὸ δὲ Ἁγὰρ Σινᾶ ὄρος ἐστὶν έν τῇ Ἀραβίᾳ. Here we have the neuter article τό with the feminine Ἁγάρ.

Stephen

Re: "δμοκρατια"

Posted: February 10th, 2012, 10:42 am
by Mark Lightman
Μᾶρκος ὁ Φώσφορος τῷ Ναθαν τῷ Σιδηρεῖ χαίρειν πλεῖστα.

I agree with Stephen that your usage of τό is spot on. I tend to add the Greek quotation marks just to make things more explicit. As far as “mis-spell,” this came up on another forum, but I forgot what we decided. There is nothing wrong with ἀνορθογράφω (I understood what you meant) but LSJ lists ἀνορθόω as “I set up straight, I correct,” where the alpha nu is not privative but is the preposition ἀνἀ. So there could be some confusion. Plus, I’m not sure, but I think this word would be augmented ἀνωρθογράφη, not ἠνορθογράφη, although the latter is not impossible. I would use the simpler κακῶς γράφω.
σήμερον μὲν οὖν ἐν τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ μου εἶδον χάρτην τινα ἐφ’ ἣν τὸ «δημοκρατία» κακῶς ἐγράφη ὥς τὸ «δμοκρατία.»
δμωκρατία would be government by female slaves (δμώς.) I say they couldn’t do worse than some of our politicians. :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

Re: "δμοκρατια"

Posted: February 10th, 2012, 11:33 am
by NathanSmith
Mark Lightman wrote:δμωκρατία would be government by female slaves (δμώς.) I say they couldn’t do worse than some of our politicians. :mrgreen: :mrgreen:
Maybe the flier was being cute or something, but when it comes to Greek, I am never surprised by mistakes in casual usage. ;) Thanks for the suggestions!