From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Msuck: nntp://news.gmane.io/gmane.science.mathematics.categories/7435 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: selinger@mathstat.dal.ca (Peter Selinger) Newsgroups: gmane.science.mathematics.categories Subject: Re: Terminology; categorical versus categorial. Date: Fri, 7 Sep 2012 16:57:56 -0300 (ADT) Message-ID: References: Reply-To: selinger@mathstat.dal.ca (Peter Selinger) NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1347110598 13643 80.91.229.3 (8 Sep 2012 13:23:18 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 8 Sep 2012 13:23:18 +0000 (UTC) Cc: categories@mta.ca To: peasthope@shaw.ca Original-X-From: majordomo@mlist.mta.ca Sat Sep 08 15:23:21 2012 Return-path: Envelope-to: gsmc-categories@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from smtpy.mta.ca ([138.73.1.128]) by plane.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1TAL0K-0001qz-D6 for gsmc-categories@m.gmane.org; Sat, 08 Sep 2012 15:23:20 +0200 Original-Received: from mlist.mta.ca ([138.73.1.63]:46091) by smtpy.mta.ca with esmtp (Exim 4.77) (envelope-from ) id 1TAKzI-0007GG-Ds; Sat, 08 Sep 2012 10:22:16 -0300 Original-Received: from majordomo by mlist.mta.ca with local (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1TAKzf-0004DI-Og for categories-list@mlist.mta.ca; Sat, 08 Sep 2012 10:22:39 -0300 In-Reply-To: Precedence: bulk Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.science.mathematics.categories:7435 Archived-At: 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/ ]