If you knew the etymologies of common words like nature and culture, you would know that these words are derived from Latin and have to do with "birth" (nature) and a farming tool (cultus). The buried metaphor in the etymological meaning of "nature" should be obvious. Nature refers to things as they were "born" -- that is, as they exist all by themselves without human cultivation. Culture, on the other hand, is a bit more tricky, but it refers to cultivation of nature, if you will. Its original meaning was "agriculture," but it has undergone what in my Pious Impostures and Unproven Words I call "intraverbal metaphoric growth." In other words, it grew from its original meaning to include any way of life or to refer to people who are cultivated by knowing things like literature, history, etc.
Exploring the etymologies of other words can also be highly revelatory. I am Hungarian by birth. I came to the United States over 50 years ago. In my second job (in a knitting mill), I was assigned to work with an older woman who was born in the United States but had Hungarian parents, so she spoke the language, to a point. In any case, the foreman thought that by having her show me the ropes, I would learn about the job quickly. At that time, 50 years ago now, my English was still on shaky grounds. In any case, one interesting thing that I remember about his woman is how she made fun of the Hungarian word for ventriloquist. The Hungarian word, translated literally into English, is "bellyspeaker." What this woman did not realize, of course, is that that's precisely what "ventriloquist" means as well - in its original Latin.
Another important word I want to look at is "spirit." It, too, comes from the Latin and really means no more than "breath" according to its etymological meaning. And, of course, we are dealing here with another word that has undergone tremendous intraverbal metaphoric growth. If you stop to think about it, though, you may realize the reason why "spirit" means so much more than "breath" in today's English. When a person dies, they stop breathing. So those who witness his/her death can say that the "spirit" ("breath") is gone. What's left behind is a dead body. Its spirit is gone. Since in many cultures and religions there is a firmly held belief in the immortality of the soul, you can easily see how the Latin word for "breath" became the modern concept of "spirit."
In this connection it would also be interesting to examine the etymology of "religion." It also comes to us from the Latin and its most accepted etymology is "re + ligare," which means being bound or tied down. Once again you can see the innate (born with) genius of the human mind. The original meaning is clearly a brilliant metaphor for "religion." When a person is religious and follows the "dictates" of his/her religion, he or she is tied down, in a manner of speaking, to those "dictates" -- dogmas, etc.
Since the English language as it exists today was born when Anglo Saxon (Old English) amalgamated with Norman French (after 1066), many of its words are Latinate in their origin. Greek words have also entered our vocabulary in fairly large numbers. Perhaps one of the most interesting common words you should know about is the word "school." Its original Greek meaning has to do with children's playtime. I, as a retired teacher, would in fact say that its original meaning should still apply to good teaching. Learning should be fun, and not some unseemly and at times intolerable chore.
I'd like to just touch upon two related words here. "Theory" and "theater." You are probably going to be surprised to learn that these words are cousins, perhaps even siblings. They are derived from the Greek stem that has to do with seeing. In other words, a theory is the way of seeing something. And as the word is used in science today, it doesn't mean idle speculation. It means something that has been empirically proven and verified. Since science is a highly self-correcting enterprise, theories stand as accepted facts as long as new evidence doesn't modify them.
Theater is a place where you go to "see" a play. It is a place for sight, for the spectacle of a play. Actually the word "drama" originally covered both tragedy and comedy. It was a collective noun. Actually, the original meaning of "drama" has to do with "action." Comedy and tragedy both have to do with singing; comedy's original meaning was "singer at the revels," whereas tragedy's original meaning was "goat-song." The metaphoric "carry over" (the original Greek meaning a the word "metaphor") is rather mysterious here. Why "goat-song"? Perhaps it has to do with plays originally involving something that reminded people of sacrificing a goat in some ceremony? I don't know. But isn't it interesting that our language is chock full of words that carry buried metaphors with them, which - when we unearth them, as it were -- reveal rather interesting things. So do look up the etymologies of words. You will more than enrich your vocabulary. You will gain extra understanding of how the human mind works with language.
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