Re: From here to eternity [was: *y-n,W- "subordinate"?]

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Arnaud Fournet" <fournet.arnaud@...>
wrote:

>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Piotr Gasiorowski" <gpiotr@...>
> To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
> Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2008 7:30 PM
> Subject: Re: [tied] From here to eternity [was: *y-n,W- "subordinate"?]
>
>
> >
> > On 2008-11-20 19:10, Arnaud Fournet wrote:
> >
> >> It's quite strange that our anscestors : people with 35 years life
> >> expectancy could confuse youth, life-time and eternity.
> >
> > They used "a lifespan" as a unit of time. It then came to mean 'a long
> > time, aeon' (Gk. aio^n). Lat. aevum (with several close cognates) is a
> > thematic vr.ddhi derivative of *h2jw-: *h2-e-jw-ó- > *h2aiwó-
> > 'life-long' (> 'eternal'). Of course even in the Neolithic there were
> > people individually blessed with a long and healthy life. I

suppose they

> > were called *h2júh3ones.
> ===========
>
> I don't buy a word of this.
> They were obsessed with the fact they were mortal and unfortunately

very

> short-lived
> when the gods were immortal.
> This is indeed the main difference between the mrtos and the n-mrtos.
> Unfortunately people are in the short-lived part of it.
> I don't think they ever came to think their short lifes were a long

time.

> This makes no sense and conflicts with their culture and mythology.
>
> A.
>
> ========
>
> >
> >> This makes no common sense at all.
> >> I think it just has to be stated to be blatantly absurd.
> >
> > I see. It's blatantly absurd to say that a child's "age" (another
> > cognate of *h2aju) is, say, three years when "age" may also mean a
> > century or even hundreds of millennia (as in "the Ice Age").
> >
> > Piotr
> >
> ============
>
> That use of "age" in that meaning "period of"
> like in Middle Ages, Stone Age is about 150 years old.
>
> You're trying to sell that this modern meaning is relevant for the

far past.

> You're wrong.
> Try again. You provide better explanations in general.
>
> A.
>

Why do you reject the evidence of Latin 'aevum' which could mean both
"lifetime" and "eternity"? In English people say 'forever' in such
cases as "You'll be trying forever to get that promotion" or "I want
to be with you forever", when what is really or in practice meant is
"for the rest of your/my life, for your/my lifetime", even though
'forever' can also refer to eternity, infinity of time. The absolute
longest period of time any human being can experience is his or her
own lifetime, which is precisely what Latin 'aevum' means,
principally. The meaning 'eternity' is fundamentally just an
exaggeration of the idea of 'a whole lifetime', since again of course
no one can experience eternity, only his own lifetime.

Andrew