Genial: A Language Mystery

Mini-Linguistics Lesson:
Cognates: words in different languages that mean the same thing. Example: fish, poisson, and pesce are cognates in English, French and Italian. Ok, now we can move on. :)

Last night as I was looking at my newest Flickr contact's photos I realized that "genial" does not mean the same thing in Spanish as it does in English. In Spanish it means 'brilliant', but in English I have always known it mean 'agreeable'. If you meet a genial person, you probably will like them since they are easy to get along with- they're a nice person. I couldn't understand how the two words could be so much the same, but have different meanings. Why weren't they cognates?

Upon further investigation I discovered that the English word 'genial' has about five meanings, with only three still in usage:

Merriam-Webster Definition:
1obsolete : of or relating to marriage or generation genial bed — John Milton>
2obsolete : inborn , native
3 a: favorable to growth or comfort : mild <genial sunshine>
b: marked by or diffusing sympathy or friendliness genial host>
4: displaying or marked by genius
or
: of or relating to the chin

So the fourth one makes sense now, but I decided to find out where the roots lie. It comes from the Latin genialis which comes from the Latin genius which comes from the Latin root gignere...
So to make a long blog short, 'genial' came from these roots:

• 'beget, produce' (gignere)
• 'guardian spirit who watches over someone from birth, wit, talent' (genius)
• 'pleasant festive' (genialis) but literally it pertains to 'marriage rites'

It seems that there was a convergence in all of these root words when it came to the English language.

Here are the meanings for the word 'genial' in Romance languages:

Italian- genial = gioviale (sound like jovial to anyone?)
Portuguse- genial = brilliant
Spanish- genial = brilliant or great, pleasant, or in character
French- génial = brilliant or great
Romanian- genial = brilliant, great or gifted

English seems to be the language that made such a mess of it all. All the Romance languages but Italian takes on 'brilliant' as the only meaning. What I find interesting is that the spelling stayed the same for all of these languages.

In the investigation I was doing I found some English words that are related to 'genial'.
Congenial, genius, genuine, benign, indigenous. For more check out gignere.

Now, don't take this as the complete research for this word. This only took me about an hour! And I have only consulted online sources. This is a digression from what I should actually be studying. but it isn't actually that different. I should be writing notes about language families and genetic relations. So, I'm not that far off!

Slow Appearing Photos and "Quick" Time Units

With the impending death of Polaroid, much action is surrounding the brand. Some are trying to revive Polaroid by buying a factory that used to manufacture the film, while others are bring Polaroids into the digital age. Here is one such example: The Digital Polaroid Frame. It is just a digital frame like you see from Kodak and other brands, but this one's frame is the special part. Here is a "clipping" from the original article:

"The design incorporates retro features such as a “Classic” mode where the photos gradually appear over about a minute or so, just like a real Polaroid photo; while “Standard” mode functions like any other digital picture frame. The bottom portion of the frame features a dry erase surface, so you can write your own title for your slideshow by hand, using a dry erase marker."

I like that it has the option for "Classic" mode. Although the gradual appearance might be annoying. I think it would be neat if they could make the part on the bottom for writing digital too. So name of the photo file would show up in a handwriting-like font. Also, I am trying to find a price for this, but nothing is coming up.

Interesting fact for the Day: "Back in a Jiffy!"
A "jiffy" is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second.

Also, I was listening to Adele's "Make You Feel My Love" and it reminded me of Billy Joel. Then I realized that I had written about that before... I mustn't be too crazy, if I think of it twice! :P

Ohhh Creepy Facebook...

Ok, so remember how I said a few posts ago that someone on campus liked what I was wearing? I didn't get the info of where they were going to post the picture- whether it be for The Gazette (school paper) or a blog. Welllll the photo actually came up in my facebook news feed... What are the odds? Its sort of funny because the girl who posted the link is one of those fb people that you 'friend' after meeting and then never see again.

Types of 'Beauty'

Have you ever been with a friend and commented on something that is very beautiful? Has your friend utterly disagreed with you? Does it make you wonder about that thing called 'beauty'?

"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder", right? And beauty is "subjective", eh? Why can't we just accept that others have a different view of beauty? Well sometimes beauty to your friend is the most disgusting or hideous thing you've ever seen. -Completely revolting. How can we account for different types of beauty? This is what I have come up:

There are Two Main Types of Human Beauty:

• Natural Creation (including flaws)
  
• Human Expression (including fixes)

I have known people who cannot seem to understand why someone would want to change their looks. Whether it be a change of hair colour or another change to their physical self. From what I understand, these people don't see the beauty of human creation and human expression. While I understand the importance of valuing one's self, there must also be room for expression if the person so desires. For one person to say that another IS ugly because they colour their hair and for another to say a person IS ugly because they don't wear makeup is silly. It is a matter of opinion and what one sees as beauty.

I hope that in realizing that there is more than one type of beauty, those who are very narrow-minded can come to understand the dichotomy, or at least be aware of it when they are expressing their opinion - since it is opinion. Not fact and not law. Don't be so hard on people you disagree with. They probably disagree with you. But are they voicing their opinions loud and clear? Probably not.

Something to think about anyway.

The Sixth Sense