Mark J. Reed wrote:
> Speaking of the Hellatin words . . .
>
> In many scholarly works on chronometry etc I've run across the term
> "nycthemeron" for the 24-hour period of the Earth's rotation (to avoid
> the ambiguity inherent in the term "day"). It looks awfully Greek to
> me.
It is - tho not awful ;)
>My questions:
>
> 1. is it well-formed?
If it is spelled _nychthemeron_ it is. The word is attested in ancient
Greek and means 'a period of 24 hours'. It occurs also in the Greek NT
(2 Corinthians 11:25).
> 2. what's the etymology?
It is actually the neuter of an adjective _nykhthe:meros_ ("lasting 24
hours") which was used as a noun. The adjective is derived from the
stems nykt- "night" + he:mer- "day" with adjectival endings -os etc.
In ancient Greek /kt/ + /h/ --> /khth/ written khi-theta and Latinized
as -chth-
> 3. what's the plural?
_nychthemera_ (like criterion ~ criteria).
--
Ray
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