2007/06/19

Etymology of Nemo

Another trip down ego lane.. A long time I ago, I threw up a page called the Etymology of Nemo... I am glad to report the first update since October 29, 1998, thanks to a very erudite Mr. Arthur Klein, who contacted me by email:

If I remember correctly, the Greek word used by Homer was 'medeis' where the first e is an eta and the word is pronounced may-dace. It is declined like the famous heis, mia, hen, meaning one (masculine), one (feminine), one (neuter). But it has been fifty years since I studied Greek and tried to read Homer. But you should be able to find it in a decent classical Greek dictionary under: mu, eta, delta, epsilon, iota, sigma. My little modern Greek traveler's dictionary has only 'meden' - mu, eta, delta, epsilon, nu - meaning nothing.

Arthur (Exalted one in Celtic)
Klein (Little in German)
How about that for an oxymoronic name.


While we're on the topic, I should also note my Chinese name
(self-selected with a little help from the web)

柠檬

Pronounced ne-mo. It has a meaning I like a lot, but which shall be left as an exercise for the reader (and I've already done it -- haha).

2007/06/13

Hanson & Drexler

I'd like to make a note on Robin Hanson who is really great. So is K. Eric Drexler. Or at least they have some really interesting ideas and ways of thinking.. I should look into what they've been up to since I last read their stuff way back in 90s.