Word of the Day: Giaour
'Giaour', quite apart from its usefulness in Scrabble (where it can dispose of four vowels otherwise quite hard to get rid of at once), is a word with deep connotations. It is found almost exclusively in the region between the Indus and the Eastern Mediterranean, which argues for its Indo-Aryan origin, possibly in some proto-Sanskrit language.
It's interesting to me because it means 'fire-worshipper' (i.e., Zoroastrian), 'man of strength', and sometimes 'infidel'. From a Persian term for a religious personage, to a cultural term implying 'heathen' or 'heretic', to a word implying 'most horrible kind of offender against our faith' seems to be a fairly short journey.
It is interesting to essay a journey in the opposite direction: Turkish giaour = 'infidel (Christian or Greek)' to Persian gaur (or gavr or gabr) = 'fire-bearer' to Hebrew gabr = 'man (young, strong as an ox)' to Bengali gaur = 'ox'. It almost corresponds with the symbolic transformation of 'fire' to 'horns' to 'power' to 'man of influence' found elsewhere.
What an odd little word!
It's interesting to me because it means 'fire-worshipper' (i.e., Zoroastrian), 'man of strength', and sometimes 'infidel'. From a Persian term for a religious personage, to a cultural term implying 'heathen' or 'heretic', to a word implying 'most horrible kind of offender against our faith' seems to be a fairly short journey.
It is interesting to essay a journey in the opposite direction: Turkish giaour = 'infidel (Christian or Greek)' to Persian gaur (or gavr or gabr) = 'fire-bearer' to Hebrew gabr = 'man (young, strong as an ox)' to Bengali gaur = 'ox'. It almost corresponds with the symbolic transformation of 'fire' to 'horns' to 'power' to 'man of influence' found elsewhere.
What an odd little word!
etched with acid at 9:10:00 pm
4 Comments:
I still think that 'euoi' is the best vowel dump.
I can totally come up with a theory as to why its meaning changed so quickly!
Boy meets girl, boy likes girl, but unfortunately neither are very bright:
Girl: What does "Giaour" mean?
Boy: Er, it means *makes something up on the spot*
Seriously, with a word like this, meanings can become rather arbitrary...
Every thing is hidden in the discourse of the text and context...but what theory Jenn!
JS
I have no idea what 'a word like this' means; that last statement of jenn's seems rather unhinged. I think more people should remember that being 'arbitrary' requires an arbiter, and that meaning can always be arbitrary whether or not words are involved.
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