Erin's Wonderful Word--admit

[Wilson Gray]

On Jul 13, 2005, at 4:36 PM, sagehen wrote:

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> Poster:       sagehen <sagehen at WESTELCOM.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Erin's Wonderful Word--admit
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>> 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
> ~~~~~~~~
> I hadn't actually considered the consonance w/Greek.


> We do mix Greek & Latin bits together pretty freely

Isn't it the sad, sad truth! ;-)

-Wilson


> , anyway.  My feeling had more to do with
> the privative sense of *dis* versus the judgmental sense of *dys*.
> "Dysteleology" sounds like making a hash of it, rather than simply
> denying
> the existence of an underlying purpose.
> AM
> ~~~~~~~~~~
>> 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
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>>>> 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
>>>
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