PELAGIC

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PELAGIC

Postby Dr. Goodword » Sun Jan 29, 2006 12:24 am

• pelagic •

Pronunciation: pê--jik • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Adjective

Meaning: Living in or over the open sea rather than along the coastline.

Notes: Pelagic does not have a large family but it is one of a set of fraternal triplets, including pelagial and pelagian with the same meaning. To indicate the main body of a lake or sea, as opposed to the littoral or riparian area, we simply use pelagial as a noun, as in a species that feeds in the pelagial.

In Play: This is another very lovely English word that focuses our discussions of the sea. It allows us to distinguish the shoreline, the offing from the pelegial: "The albatross is a pelagic bird that is often the first bird spotted by a ship approaching land." Unfortunately, not all the uses of this word are so halcyon: "Roger Jolly always sails his boat close to the shore to avoid pelagic pirates who lay in wait just beyond the offing."

Word History: Today's Good Word originates in Greek pelagikos "marine, sea" from pelagos "sea". The root of this word originates in the Proto-Indo-European root *plak "flat". We would expect the PIE [p] to become [f] in English and the [k] to become [h] or disappear, as it did in floe "a flat mass of ice". The [k] remained in flake because this word was probably was borrowed from Norwegian like flag, which came from Old Norse flaga "flat layer of stone". Apparently the seas are calm much of the time around Greece, since ancient Greek selected this root for their word for "sea". (Today we are grateful to Grogie of the Agora for another good Good Word suggestion.)
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Postby Brazilian dude » Sun Jan 29, 2006 9:04 am

Is there any word derived from θάλασσα?

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Flaminius
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Postby Flaminius » Sun Jan 29, 2006 9:05 am

thalassotherapy?


Apoclima
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Postby Apoclima » Sun Jan 29, 2006 4:48 pm

I used to jokingly call my 4 month sailboat trip "thalassic therapy." I had no idea there was really a thalassotherapy!

That is cool! I hope pelagic isn't jealous!

Apo
Last edited by Apoclima on Mon Jan 30, 2006 4:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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portokalos
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Postby portokalos » Mon Jan 30, 2006 3:04 am

:)
Last edited by portokalos on Thu Feb 09, 2006 5:46 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Apoclima
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Postby Apoclima » Mon Jan 30, 2006 4:18 pm

n the classical or hellenic period Greek existed in several major dialects, each of which has its own significance for the history of the language, but the most influential of these would ultimately prove to be the one spoken in Athens, called Attic. Well within the hellenic period, though, Attic and Ionic—the form of the language spoken mainly in the Greek city states directly across the Aegean Sea from Athens—exerted significant influence on each other as the preferred forms of the language for oratory and philosophical prose, eventually producing a dialect now called Attic-Ionic.
A Quick Overview of the History of the Greek Language

Apo
'Experiments are the only means of knowledge at our disposal. The rest is poetry, imagination.' -Max Planck

portokalos
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Postby portokalos » Tue Jan 31, 2006 4:42 am

:)
Last edited by portokalos on Thu Feb 09, 2006 5:46 am, edited 2 times in total.
"What is hell?" I maintain that it is the suffering of being unable to love.
Fyodor Dostoevsky-The Brothers Karamazov

Flaminius
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Postby Flaminius » Tue Jan 31, 2006 11:32 am

Oh, if I remember correctly, Aristophanes wrote a comedy on the plight of sigma.

portokalos
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Postby portokalos » Wed Feb 01, 2006 2:13 am

:)
Last edited by portokalos on Thu Feb 09, 2006 5:47 am, edited 1 time in total.
"What is hell?" I maintain that it is the suffering of being unable to love.
Fyodor Dostoevsky-The Brothers Karamazov

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Postby Brazilian dude » Wed Feb 01, 2006 9:53 am

Hahahaha, blissful ignorance :)

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Apoclima
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Postby Apoclima » Wed Feb 01, 2006 3:27 pm

I looked, but I couldn't find a sure reference. There was some stuff about the difference between the letter 'san' and the letter 'sigma' which appeared or was joked about in the plays
"Banqueteers" and "Horses" but nothing definite about the plight of sigma.

Apo
'Experiments are the only means of knowledge at our disposal. The rest is poetry, imagination.' -Max Planck

portokalos
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Postby portokalos » Thu Feb 02, 2006 2:05 am

:)
Last edited by portokalos on Thu Feb 09, 2006 5:48 am, edited 1 time in total.
"What is hell?" I maintain that it is the suffering of being unable to love.
Fyodor Dostoevsky-The Brothers Karamazov

Brazilian dude
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Postby Brazilian dude » Thu Feb 02, 2006 6:18 am

Hey, Porto (I may call you Porto, right?) blissful ignorance is something good. Blissful means full of happiness, so ignorant people (all of us, for that matter, because no one knows everything) live happily.

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portokalos
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Postby portokalos » Thu Feb 02, 2006 6:59 am

:)
Last edited by portokalos on Thu Feb 09, 2006 5:48 am, edited 1 time in total.
"What is hell?" I maintain that it is the suffering of being unable to love.
Fyodor Dostoevsky-The Brothers Karamazov


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