Re: Why borrow 'seven'? (was: IE right & 10)

sorry for the empty message, before.

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Richard Wordingham"
<richard.wordingham@...> wrote:

> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "andrew_and_inge"

<100761.200@...>

> wrote:
> > ...But to turn this question into a linguistic and indeed
> > etymological question: Does anyone have a word for "Nature" (as
> > in "natural order", or a "law of nature", or "what is natural

for

> > man") from any language that was not influenced by Greek?
>
> How about Sankrit _dharma_, Pali _dhamma_ 'natural law'? There's

a

> Thai compound <dhrrmajaati> (transcribing it as Indic) /tham M ma

H

> chaat F/ that as an adjective means 'natural', even in the sense
> of 'without cosmetics'. (The <jaati> /chaat F/ part literally
> means 'race, decent; birth'.)

Interesting proposal. Of course dharma is one word which would come
to mind, but my Sanskrit is just what I can look up in a dictionary.
Nevertheless until now I found no certain evidence that the word
means what the greek philosophers, or indeed modern scientists, mean
by nature.

Of course the Greeks had words for order, including the order given
by gods. "Good by nature" for example could be taken as not yet the
philosophical term nature I am talking about because it could be
taken to mean "good by birth" or "well born". So have you got any
more clear examples?

Secondly, are you sure that later terms derived from dharma are not
influenced by greek thinking?

Best Regards
Andrew