Angel
Angel is not a word from Proto Indo European; it began as a term in some unknown Asian language, perhaps related to Sanskrit ajira, “swift”. This term was borrowed into Greek at some point — the Greeks had a great deal of commerce with southern Russia, Turkey, and the Middle East — and became both angaros, “mounted courier”, and angelos, “messenger”. When the Bible was written in Greek, angelos was chosen to translate the Hebrew term mal’akh yhwh, “messenger of God”. When the Bible was translated into Latin, instead of using a Latin term for “messenger”, such as cursor or nuntium, the word angelos was borrowed over as angelus. This then descended into English as angel.
The sounds of angel indicate an elastic, spread-out energy that narrows toward a troubled or difficult decision point, before relaxing into a liquid light/air state. The primary stressed syllable (”ang”) carries the focus of the meaning, which is the gathering of the energy to the decision point. Presumably this refers to the action of the angels in guiding their charges through difficult times.
June 25th, 2007 at 3:37 pm
I did not know of the connection with “cursor” — but it’s a rich one that resonates with me — the merging intersection of technology and creative spirit.
I’m so glad you are my Linguist.
Slade
June 26th, 2007 at 2:58 am
Hey, glad to oblige.
It’s interesting how the cursor represents the point of attention — the place where the human’s focus sits most strongly, the point where the person and machine are focusing their joint effort most tightly. (Cursor originally meant “runner”, and is a terminological holdover from the days of the slide rule. I’ll stick it on my list…)
June 26th, 2007 at 8:08 am
Lovely one, I’m rather relieved they chose “angelos” - I’d feel weird saying “Arch-cursor Michael” or “Guardian Cursor”. lol
June 26th, 2007 at 8:20 am
That would be funny! And it sounds a little too close to “curser” (one who curses), doesn’t it? How about nuntium? Guardian Nuntium? Archnuntium? –Sounds like it belongs on the periodic table…
June 27th, 2007 at 9:30 am
I hadn’t thought of the corsor-curser sound link. With that in mind, perhaps Lucifer was an Arch Cursor?
For some reason I can imagine planting Guardian Nuntiums in a hot house.
June 28th, 2007 at 9:07 am