From: Piotr Gasiorowski
Message: 2644
Date: 2000-06-14
----- Original Message -----From: Mark OdegardSent: Wednesday, June 14, 2000 3:14 AMSubject: [TIED] Diabetes.Sorry about the condition itself. As for the etymology of diabetes, it's a Greek (> Mediaeval Latin) word meaning 'syphon' (also, less relevantly, 'pair of compasses'), derived from diabaino: in the sense 'stand with one's legs asunder, straddle'. The syphon metaphor refers to excessive urination.I haven't come across mig before, but it could well be related to PIE *[h3]meigH- which occurs in Latin mingere, meiere, micturire in the physiological sense, but also metaphorically (piss > wet) in Greek omikhlE, Polish mgła 'mist, fog', mżyć < *migH-j- 'drizzle' etc. The final g in mig would betray a Northern, probably Norse, word. The root has quite a number of unexpected cognates in English, from mist < *migH-s-tu- to mistletoe < OE mistel-ta:n 'mistle-twig' < *migH-st-elo- (probably because the mistle thrush's droppings serve as the vehicle for the seeds).Piotr
The occasion of this post is me just being diagnosed with diabetes mellitus.Mellitus, of course, is a reflex of the IE honey word, as in English mellifluous, honey-flowing.Diabetes is a little beyond my skill. I remember that the meaning of the Greek preposition dia depends on case; here, I don't think it means 'through'. The Perseus site gives a number of definitions, most of them relating to 'straddle', including a carpenter's tool (something like a compass or caliper).My most obvious symptom -- the one that sent me running to the doctor, and the symptom the ancient physicians speak of -- is honey-like urine, honey-like in sweetness (yeah, Hippocrates, Galen, or one of those guys says the physician is to taste the urine), and honey-like in consistency. No matter how much you jiggle and dance, a few drops end up in your pants -- and those drops dry to an appalling crust. No, it's not really like honey, but it's thicker than normal urine. Trust me in this. I know.I have a suspicion that 'diabetes' in the sense of 'straddle' is an ancient term for what men do at the urinal. As to why it's a straddle, I don't know. It's lift you himation and do your business. What's being straddled?'Diabetes' is the actual Classical Greek word for what we today also call diabetes.On another forum some time ago, I learned there is apparently a dialectal word in British English (a 'country word', as Dr. Johnson would have called it) that refers to animal wastes: 'mig'. If this is true (I don't have access to OED, Partridge, etc), then this is a reflex of the PIE 'to urinate' word, *mig, as I recall. This word is behind the latinate 'to micturate', 'to urinate'.'Urine', of course, is a reflex of the water-word.Mark.