Credo

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Dr. Goodword
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Credo

Postby Dr. Goodword » Mon Jul 25, 2022 10:35 pm

• credo •


Pronunciation: kray-do, kree-do • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun

Meaning: 1. A creed, a fixed if not formal belief or set of beliefs that determine behavior. 2. (Capitalized: Credo) A creed of the Church, usually in Latin. 3. The recitation of a creed or Credo. 4. A musical setting of the Nicene Creed.

Notes: Creed is a nativized form of credo, borrowed from Latin. Credo has a more serious, formal connotation due to its habituation in religions. Credulous and credulent are distant relations; otherwise, it is a lexical orphan.

In Play: People who devote themselves to their occupation tend to have credos: "The credo of the serious scientist is that the essence of science is the love of knowledge, and the utility of that knowledge is a minor if any concern." However, anyone can have a credo: "The fiery credos that drive young minds tend to fade as the mind grows older."

Word History: Today's Good Word is Latin credo "I believe", the first word of many creeds in the Church. It is the 1st person singular of credere "to believe", created from a metathesized version of PIE kerd-/kord- "heart". It is also the source of Sanskrit shraddha "belief", Irish creidim "I believe", Breton krediñ "to believe", and Welsh credaf "I believe". It occurs across a wider swath of IE languages, unmetathesized in the sense "heart": English heart, German Herz, Danish hjerte, Irish ceirtlín, Hindi hrday, Bangla hrdaya, Sinhala hadavata, Latin cor, cordis, French cœur, Armenian sirt, Russian serdce, Polish serce, and Serbo-Croatian srce. It also shows up in Russian seredina, Serbian sreda, and Breton kreiz "middle". (Let's send Lew Jury yet another kudos for spotting the interest in today's Good Word and bringing it to our attention.)
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bbeeton
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Re: Credo

Postby bbeeton » Tue Jul 26, 2022 11:30 am

Did you perhaps forget "credible" as a relation?

Incroyable!

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Dr. Goodword
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Re: Credo

Postby Dr. Goodword » Tue Jul 26, 2022 8:01 pm

Oops! Yes, I did. It's an age-related problem I have.

I may have forgotten more relatives.
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Philip Hudson
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Re: Credo

Postby Philip Hudson » Sun Aug 21, 2022 10:11 pm

Yes, my age-related problem looms large in what is left of my mind. At times I was unhappy with who was president of the USA. Nowadays I'm happy if I can remember who the president is. Since I can't remember if I voted for him, I don't know whether to be mad or glad. :D
It is dark at night, but the Sun will come up and then we can see.

David Myer
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Re: Credo

Postby David Myer » Tue Aug 23, 2022 6:52 am

Don't talk to me about age-related problems.

I was at the yacht club the other day and having finished the race last, we were still in the bar at the clubhouse when the three old regular bar-proppers were thinking about going home. One had a phone book on his knee and was straining to read the numbers - took off his glasses, squinted, put them back on again, moved the book further away and then in close. "I must be getting old," he said, "when I was a young man my eyesight was excellent - I could read the flag signals on the clubhouse from two miles out at sea. But now I can't even read the phone book." The old feller sitting beside him said "What's that you say? My hearing's shot. As a youngster I could be on the foredeck in a force ten gale and hear the skipper in the cockpit muttering under his breath. But now I am sitting right next to you and I can't hear a word that you're saying." The third bloke said "It's old age, guys. My problem's my memory. As a young man I knew all the flags by heart and could tie any knot. But now... Take last night for example. I got home from here and went upstairs to bed. My wife was already there and reading as usual. I took off all my clothes and she looked at me and said "You've had it." And do you know, I couldn't remember whether I had or I hadn't."


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