What do epitome, circus, tribunal and congeries have in common?


I regularly use the Merriam-Webster online dictionary.  I just looked up Congeries which means aggregation, collection. Accompanying the definition is this interesting nugget of linguistic trivia. 

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/congeries 

What do "epitome," "circus," "tribunal," and "congeries" have in common? All are part of a relatively small collection of English nouns that made the transition from Latin to English unaltered in both spelling and meaning. "Congeries" joined this group in our language in the early 1600s. Latin congeries comes from the Latin verb congerere, which means "to carry or bring together" and which is also the source of our word congest. In English, "congeries" stands out because it is a singular word with a plural appearance - and its plural is also spelled "congeries."


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Letter from LCMS President Harrison about Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service and Recognized Service Organizations

  A Letter from LCMS President Harrison about LIRS and LCMS RSOs    FEB. 6, 2025 LCMS.ORG A letter from President Harrison about LIRS and LCMS RSOs Dear Saints of the LCMS, Grace and peace in Jesus! For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which He has called you, what are the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His great might that He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above ev...
Read more

Vigil of Easter

Image
The Lutheran Church of Our Saviour hosted the Vigil of Easter this year. We were joined by the congregations of St. John's, Rensselaer; St. Luke, Rensselaer; Trinity, Goodland; St. James, Reynolds; and St. James, Logansport. I was blessed to serve at the Altar with the pastors of these congregations. May the Lord continue to bless all of our ministries in the coming days and years! Here is my brief homily for the Vigil. Easter Vigil  O Lord, let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, my Rock and my Redeemer. Amen.  Not long ago I read the Odyssey. Book 14 relays how, after many challenges and delays, Odysseus finally lands on his homeland of Ithaca. Aware that he has been gone a long time and that he is walking into circumstances that are not as he left Ithaca to fight the Trojans, he comes disguised. His first human encounter is with his loyal swineherd Eumaeus. Eumaeus does not recognize him. He says to Odysseus.  Come, old soldier, t...
Read more

Lenten Preaching Workshop

Image
 Rev. Dr. David Petersen of Redeemer Lutheran Church in Ft. Wayne offered an informative, thoughtful, and excellent Preaching Workshop for us at Concordia Theological Seminary Fort Wayne.  He introduced us to the philosophical treatise The Four Loves by C S Lewis and led us into a fuller understanding of the two primary words for love that are used in the New Testament. He provided us with sample sermons so that we can use, edit, or inspire us.  This was a day well spent!  
Read more