From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Thu Sep 13 2001 - 07:30:30 EDT
At 10:11 PM -0700 9/12/01, Glenn Blank wrote:
>The meaning of an idiom is by definition not reducible to its component
>parts, although one might speculate that the rationale for how ECEIN CARIN
>gets to be "give thanks" follows these lines: CARIN is "undeserved favor."
>One of the senses of ECEIN is to hold as an opinion, with both the object
>being regarded and the opinion held of that object in the accusative (e.g.,
>hWS PROFHTHN AUTON EICON "they were regarding him as a prophet.)
The only little item I'd add to this is that Greek CARIS, like Latin GRATIA
seems fundamentally to involve a notion of reciprocity: it is on the one
hand "a favor received" and on the other "responsive
graciousness/gratitude." The older Greek idiom for "be thankful" was
EIDENAI CARIN, "acknowledge graciousness/gratitude" but one also finds
GNWNAI CARIN. CARIN ECEIN is already found as well in older Greek, and it
seems to be a fairly common expression, as Glenn has noted in NT Koine.
--
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
Most months: 1647 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu OR cwconrad@ioa.com
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/
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