From: selinger@mathstat.dal.ca (Peter Selinger)
To: peasthope@shaw.ca
Cc: categories@mta.ca
Subject: Re: Terminology; categorical versus categorial.
Date: Fri, 7 Sep 2012 16:57:56 -0300 (ADT) [thread overview]
Message-ID: <E1TAKzf-0004DI-Og@mlist.mta.ca> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <E1T9zy7-0007VB-Fg@mlist.mta.ca>
According to the Merriam Webster dictionary, the etymology of
"categorical" derives, via Latin, from Greek kategorikos, which seems
to be a Greek adjective derived from kategoria.
This seems to be consistent with other English words deriving from
Greek adjectives ending in -kos, such as logikos (from logos) and
graphikos (from graphein), explaining "geographical", "psychological",
and so on.
I found one online source claiming "Greek adjectives that end in -kos
do not describe the substance out of which something is made. They
describe the force that is animating the thing in question", but I
don't know if it's a reliable source. See also page 28 in this book
(from 1772, copyright probably expired):
books.google.com.ar/books?id=o6EDAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA28
-- Peter
peasthope@shaw.ca wrote:
>
> Apologies in case this story is in the archive. I failed to find it.
>
> According to online dictionaries, categorical and categorial can be=20
> synonyms. Almost everyone seems to prefer categorical whereas=20
> categorial comes from the simple rule of replacing the last vowel of=20
> the noun with "ial".
>
> So, is the preference for categorical just an inheritance from early=20
> authors? Is there a stronger reason to use it? Is the explanation=20
> in the archive?
>
> Thanks, ... Peter E.
>
[For admin and other information see: http://www.mta.ca/~cat-dist/ ]
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2012-09-07 19:57 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 11+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2012-09-06 18:39 peasthope
2012-09-07 15:12 ` Michael Barr
2012-09-07 15:39 ` Graham White
2012-09-07 21:48 ` Charles Wells
2012-09-07 16:18 ` Robert Seely
2012-09-07 17:58 ` Robert Dawson
2012-09-07 19:57 ` Peter Selinger [this message]
2012-09-07 17:35 Fred E.J. Linton
2012-09-07 23:37 ` Peter LeFanu Lumsdaine
2012-09-08 2:08 Fred E.J. Linton
2012-09-08 6:17 Fred E.J. Linton
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