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On Tue, Mar 04, 2003 at 01:08:29PM -0800, Tim May wrote:anarchy ("without a top authority" -- "an arch"). We pick our[...]Anarchy means "an arch" means free choice means responsibility for
I confess I haven't a clue what you mean by "an arch", though your first quote jives.
Anarchy comes from the Greek anarchos (that "ch" is a chi... but the Italians mudered that particular character for a diphthong along the way; a pity: it'd make fuck a three letter word). an- is a negative prefix, and archos means "rule".
So what's "an arch"? Like in St. Louis? Like in Noah? Or do you think all the illiterates who can't be bothered to read Rand spent that time reading Classical Greek instead (I mean, *I* did, but...), but they just can't get it unless you break it into particles for them?
My explanation of anarchy as 'without a top authority -- an arch" is clear to anyone who bothers to look up the etymologies. I was separating "anarchy" into the two parts, the negation and what it negates. This is precisely what my favorite etymological dictionary does when they write:
"an-, without; see a1 + arkhos, ruler; see arch."
If you dislike this way of separating, complain to them.
More:
http://www.bartleby.com/61/20/A0282000.html
The American Heritage. Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.
anarchy
SYLLABICATION: an7ar7chy
PRONUNCIATION: nr-k
NOUN:
Inflected forms: pl. an7ar7chies
1. Absence of any form of political authority. 2. Political disorder and confusion. 3. Absence of any cohesive principle, such as a common standard or purpose.
ETYMOLOGY:
New Latin anarchia, from Greek anarkhi, from anarkhos, without a ruler : an-, without; see a1 + arkhos, ruler; see arch.
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arch
SUFFIX: Ruler; leader: matriarch.
ETYMOLOGY:
Middle English -arche, from Old French, from Late Latin -archa, from Latin -archs, from Greek -arkhs, from arkhos, ruler, from arkhein, to rule.
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No connection with Noah's Ark, which probably comes from the Latin for chest, arca, or of course the Proto-Indo-European even further back.
The meaning of "arch" which is related to "arc," as in the geometric shape, comes from "arcus." it may have some connection with "-arch," but maybe not.
The connotation of "-arch" in a top, or most important, sense shows up in many of the words which use it:
Archduke, archetype, archdiocese, archangel, archenemy
--Tim May
"To those who scare peace-loving people with phantoms of lost liberty, my message is this: Your tactics only aid terrorists." --John Ashcroft, U.S. Attorney General
