the world

[James A. Landau]

In a message dated  Wed, 29 Sep 2004 15:38:58 -0400l  Laurence Horn
<laurence.horn at YALE.EDU> quotes and writes:

>  >Among adherents of several (generally conservative, in my observation)
>  >religions, the phrase "the world" is often used to mean something like
>  >"those who aren't part of our particular belief system", with a
connotation
>  >of "those sinners over there".
>  >
>  cf. also "gentile", or "goy"

Both "Gentile" (from Latin gens) and Hebrew "goyim" mean "the nations",
apparently short for "the nations of the earth" or "the [other] nations of the
earth."

(The word "goyim" appears a couple of times in the Jewish liturgy.  It still
strartles me to hear "goyim" suddenly appear in the middle of a prayer.)

I baffled a military-history-buff friend by translating "Volkerschlact" as
"the slaughter of the Gentiles."

In college I had a Mormon room-mate.  We never could decide which of us was
the Gentile.

The term for a non-Christian is different: "heathen", apparently originally
meaning "one who lives out in the heath".  Muslims are straightforward:
"unbeliever".

      - James A. Landau