4 ms·

Yes. The "urge" part means "work:" Thaumaturgy is using magic to do work, and a demiurge was just a craftsman or artisan until Plato borrowed the term for theol

Yes. The "urge" part means "work:" Thaumaturgy is using magic to do work, and a demiurge was just a craftsman or artisan until Plato borrowed the term for theological purposes.

mrkgnao 10y ago
Huh, that's cool. I wonder if there's any way I can expand my etymology-fu apart from just picking stuff up randomly or learning Latin/Ancient Greek. (I did read Word Power Made Easy as a kid. It kicked off my interest in these things.)
- amyjess 10y ago
  One thing you can do is, if you come across a word you're curious about, plug it into Wiktionary and see what comes up. Wiktionary tends to be pretty good with etymology. For example, thaumaturgy: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/thaumaturgy https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/thaumaturgy Clicking on one of the links provided gives this: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ἔργον https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ἔργον which lists a number of derived forms. Did you know that the words "energy" and "lethargy" and the prefix "ergo-" come from a derivative the Greek root of "urge"? Neither did I until I started writing this comment. And looking up "demiurge" leads me to this: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Δημιουργός https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Δημιουργός where it comes from the Greek for "public worker". So that probably means the "demi" in "demiurge" comes from the same root as "democratic"! And going to the lowercase form gives https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/δημιουργός https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/δημιουργός And I just realized that referring to a divine entity as "the Demiurge" is just a fancy way of saying "the Creator" or "the Maker".
  - mrkgnao 10y ago
    That's very similar to what I do now. I was looking for something more systematic than "hope you stumble across cool words" :) I did not know that energy and lethargy come from the same Greek root, though, thanks!

Yes. The "urge" part means "work:" Thaumaturgy is using magic to do work, and a demiurge was just a craftsman or artisan until Plato borrowed the term for theological purposes.

mrkgnao 10y ago

Huh, that's cool. I wonder if there's any way I can expand my etymology-fu apart from just picking stuff up randomly or learning Latin/Ancient Greek. (I did read Word Power Made Easy as a kid. It kicked off my interest in these things.)

amyjess 10y ago
One thing you can do is, if you come across a word you're curious about, plug it into Wiktionary and see what comes up. Wiktionary tends to be pretty good with etymology. For example, thaumaturgy: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/thaumaturgy https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/thaumaturgy Clicking on one of the links provided gives this: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ἔργον https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ἔργον which lists a number of derived forms. Did you know that the words "energy" and "lethargy" and the prefix "ergo-" come from a derivative the Greek root of "urge"? Neither did I until I started writing this comment. And looking up "demiurge" leads me to this: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Δημιουργός https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Δημιουργός where it comes from the Greek for "public worker". So that probably means the "demi" in "demiurge" comes from the same root as "democratic"! And going to the lowercase form gives https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/δημιουργός https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/δημιουργός And I just realized that referring to a divine entity as "the Demiurge" is just a fancy way of saying "the Creator" or "the Maker".
- mrkgnao 10y ago
  That's very similar to what I do now. I was looking for something more systematic than "hope you stumble across cool words" :) I did not know that energy and lethargy come from the same Greek root, though, thanks!