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tessera-/tetra-

From:Muke Tever <muke@...>
Date:Thursday, May 15, 2003, 20:30
From: "Mark J. Reed" <markjreed@...>
> > I have never seen a "tessera-" prefix before in my entire life. > > Agreed. I've only seen "tessera" as part of "tesseract" - from > "tessares"="four" + "aktis"="ray", since fourspace has four > axes radiating out from the origin. > > Looking at semirandom Webster's etymologies, I find that > "tessares" and "tettares" appear to be alternate forms of > the Greek word for "four". The prefix "tetra-" comes to us > via a Latin adoption of "tettares", while "tesseract" is > a modern coinage built from roots borrowed directly from Greek. > > Anyone here know Greek? Was there a systematic alternation > between "tessares" and "tettares", or was it random, or > are they from different dialects, or what?
Well, as for the list of dialectal forms: G "four" Hom. téssares, písures Ion. tésseres Att. téttares Boeot. péttares Lesb. pés(s)ures Dor. tétores The form of the Greek word in bahuvrihi compounds is <tetra-> (qe-to-ro- in Myc.), e.g. in <tetrápous> 'four-footed', equivalent to L <quadrupe:s>... Basically { tessares : tetra- :: quattuor : quadru- }. I dont know why the word isnt *tetract. *Muke! -- http://www.frath.net/