Erin's Wonderful Word--admit

[Wilson Gray]

A., Erin has her etymology on. She's adding a Greek prefix to a Greek
stem. However, I agree with you that it still appears to be, somehow,
not quite right. It seems to me that the opposite of "dysteleology"
should be "euteleology" and not the semantically-neutral "teleology."
Unless, of course, you're willing to accept, e.g. "phony," and not
"euphony" as the opposite of "cacophony." ;-)

-Wilson

On Jul 13, 2005, at 9:53 AM, sagehen wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       sagehen <sagehen at WESTELCOM.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Erin's Wonderful Word--admit
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
>> Did anyone else find the use of the verb "admit" in this definition
>> just a
>> little bit, well, presuppositional (which is not the same thing as
>> pre-suppository)?
>>
>> Erin's Weird and Wonderful Word of the Day:
>>
>> dysteleology
>> [dis-tell-ee-AH-luh-djee]
>> the study of the organs of plants and animals without admitting that
>> there
>> is any purpose to their design. The antonym is teleology, studying
>> things with
>> the idea that there is a purpose for everything in nature. Someone
>> who is
>> unwilling to admit the existence of design in nature has teleophobia.
> ~~~~~~~~~
> Looking again at this, it occurs to me that to fit this
> definition,*dis*
> might be a more appropriate prefix than *dys*.
> A. Murie
>