the history of Greco-Roman hybridizing

[Matthew Gordon]

also 'bigamy' is a prefix and a stem and re-reading Arnold's message i see
he's interested in hybrids from 2 stems. Still, the quote is fun as are many
others in Bailey's book.


On 10/23/06 4:55 PM, "Charles Doyle" <cdoyle at UGA.EDU> wrote:

> And numerous "-logy" mongrel words came into English from Latin, already born
> and barking . . . .
>
> --Charlie
> ________________________________________________
>
> ---- Original message ----
>> Date: Mon, 23 Oct 2006 16:21:27 -0500
>> From: Matthew Gordon <gordonmj at MISSOURI.EDU>
>> Subject: Re: the history of Greco-Roman hybridizing
>> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>>
>> Richard Bailey in _Nineteen-Century English_ cites an 1881 complaint about
>> such violations of the "Law of Etymological Harmony": "...since bi is a Latin
>> prefix and gamy a Greek root, bi-gamy is a mongrel word, or which is the
>> Greek for 'mongrel,' a hybrid. The word should be, strictly, di-gamy."
>> (Abbott & Seeley _English Lessons for English People_).
>>
>> That gives you an earlier example too in "bigamy" though maybe this shouldn't
>> count since the hybridizing took place in Latin (according to the OED).
>
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