--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Exu Yangi" <exuyangi@...> wrote:
>
>
> >From: "Âàäèì Ïîíàðÿäîâ" <ponaryad@...>
> >
> > >>>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?
> > >
> > >Latin natura and vir-tus existed before the arrival of Greek
influence.
> > >
> > >Peter
> >
> >
> >
> >Turkish <tabiat> (borrowed from Arabic).
>
> Perhaps you would look at almost any NON-IE language. You will
find what you
> seek in great abundance.
Natura comes from a root related to birth, and virtus from a root
describing a male. The Greek word physis comes from a root referring
to growth. All this is irrelevent to the question. Somewhere these
roots started getting used in a new way, which implied a particular
metaphysical worldview (the one which is now most widely accepted in
the world). For example "human nature" means more than "the way of
humans". "Human nature" implies the existence of "laws of nature" -
a type of existence which is something different from the
ways "things" exist. "The way of humans" just refers to what is
normally or most frequently seen.
It seems that different roots were recruited in different languages,
in order to express a new concept, the origin of which is a bit of a
mystery. For this reason, by the way, I suppose our moderator may be
correct to say that this goes a little beyond Indo European
etymology.
Best Regards
Andrew Lancaster
(it was my question originally)