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abderian / agelast
Jun. 28th, 2011 07:10 amA pair for you today:
abderian (ab-DER-ee-an) - adj., given to laughter, esp. to frequent foolish laughter.
agelast (AH-juh-last) - n., a person who never laughs, a mirthless person.
Both from Greek, the former from the town of Abdera in Thrace, the hometown of the philosopher Democritus, developer of the first atomic theory. But sources do not agree on whether the name comes from his tending to find folly amusing rather than enraging, or from how the rest of the town laughed at anything they didn't understand. The latter strikes me as later, ad hoc moralizing, though. Agelast, otoh, comes from Greek agelastos, not laughing, from a-, not + gelaein, to laugh.
---L.
abderian (ab-DER-ee-an) - adj., given to laughter, esp. to frequent foolish laughter.
agelast (AH-juh-last) - n., a person who never laughs, a mirthless person.
Both from Greek, the former from the town of Abdera in Thrace, the hometown of the philosopher Democritus, developer of the first atomic theory. But sources do not agree on whether the name comes from his tending to find folly amusing rather than enraging, or from how the rest of the town laughed at anything they didn't understand. The latter strikes me as later, ad hoc moralizing, though. Agelast, otoh, comes from Greek agelastos, not laughing, from a-, not + gelaein, to laugh.
---L.
