Benign

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Dr. Goodword
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Benign

Postby Dr. Goodword » Mon Jun 24, 2019 8:08 pm

• benign •


Pronunciation: bê-nain Hear it!

Part of Speech: Adjective

Meaning: 1. Harmless, causing no damage. 2. Gentle, mild, mildly pleasant, kind.

Notes: We are all familiar with the silent Es (gate) and GHs in English (night, though), but we also have a few silent Gs. Today's Good Word contains one; so do malign and several others: reign, sign, align, to mention just three. The difference between benign and malign, on the one hand, and the others, is that the G is pronounced in derivations. The noun for today's word, for instance, is benignity [bê-nig-nê-tee].

In Play: Senator Patrick Moynihan, while serving in the Nixon Whitehouse, stunned the nation by writing in a memo to President Nixon in 1970, "The issue of race could benefit from a period of benign neglect." The phrase has remained in the language ever since. Whenever we are diagnosed with a mysterious bodily growth, we always hope that it is a benign tumor rather than a malignant cancer. While such tumors are not kind, they do no irrevocable harm. We all, of course, prefer to live in a benign environment, not only harmless but kind to those living in it.

Word History: The vanishing G in today's Good Word is the work of French, where GN is usually pronounced [ny] and where English borrowed this word. In the case of French benigne, however, the G disappeared altogether in the masculine form so that French men today are bénin but women are bénigne [beninyê]. Both the G and the N were pronounced in Latin benignus "kind, friendly, generous", source of the French word. This word began as a compound of bene "well" + gignere "to beget, give birth", so the original meaning of the adjective was "well-born", hence "well-bred". Gignere came from Latin genus "birth", which English uses in a different sense today. That is it in generous, too. (We are grateful to the most generous William Hupy for so benignly suggesting today's Good Word.)
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janedoe
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Re: Benign

Postby janedoe » Tue Jun 25, 2019 10:02 pm

French came from Latin, but how do know it didn't come from a cognate long before this in Greek γίγνομαι? How do judge linguistic distance? thanks!

bnjtokyo
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Re: Benign

Postby bnjtokyo » Fri Jun 28, 2019 9:20 am

Although I think your question is a good one, it is a bit unclear. To what does "it" refer? Are you asking whether "benign" or "gignere" came from γίγνομαι? According to Wikipedia, the IPA transcription of γίγνομαι is /ɡí.ɡno.mai̯/ and the Greek word in both pronunciation and definition could be behind the Latin "gignere" cited the the good Dr Goodword.

However, if you are suggesting γίγνομαι is the immediate source of "benign," I have my doubts. Where did the initial syllable ("be") come from?

As the good doctor explained, first the Romans prefixed "bene" onto "gignere" to produce "benignus" that is reasonably well attested to in early Christian history (there was a St Benignus of Dijon who lived in the 3rd century AD). Then, after rumbling around for about a thousand years, the Online Etymological Dictionary (that this site links to) says that some variation on "benignus" entered the English language in the early 14th century, a time when the French and English had their hands in each others' pockets (Edward I had a French wife who may have murdered him and several English kings laid claim to the French throne).

George Kovac
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Re: Benign

Postby George Kovac » Sat Jun 29, 2019 10:17 am

I attended Catholic grade school in Chicago back in the day when the teachers were all nuns and the nuns all wore wimples.

Second City and other Chicago venues for sketch comedy always had an audience-pleaser with shows exaggerating the characters of those nuns, often giving them outrageous names. With so many nuns in the schools back then, the real nuns often strained to pick distinctive names for themselves: after all, you could not run a school full of "Sister Marys." In seventh grade, I was taught by "Sister Pancratia." But none of those fictional sisters on the comedy club stages could match my favorite name of this real life nun: "Sister Benigna." What an awful sounding and strange name. The "g" was not silent.
"Every battle of ideas is fought on the terrain of language." Zia Haider Rahman, New York Times 4/8/2016

Philip Hudson
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Re: Benign

Postby Philip Hudson » Sat Jun 29, 2019 11:28 am

A benign tumor seems to be an oxymoron to me. It is defined as one that does not metastasize. But they do grow and can kill a person. I have two friends who have had benign tumors that blinded them. Surgery cured the blindness. One of these friends had a series of such tumors. One is now with the Lord but one is my neighbor and he is still kicking out here in the hinterlands.
It is dark at night, but the Sun will come up and then we can see.


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