Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by old geezer on June 14, 2003 at 12:45:50

In Reply to: Not pedant; just trying to be precise, and trying (as it seems, in vain) to explain myself posted by orejones on June 14, 2003 at 04:16:20:

It would have been unwarranted and disrespectful to address you in that fashion.

Your points asbout the film are well taken and valid, regardless of whether one agrees with them or not. My comments did not go the merits of your arguments; I just found the etimology a little weird, and reading Khan's text confirms that impression. He indulges in some fancy homophonic games, such as "per se una", to bring grist to his mill ;-)

Let me ratchet up the pedantics a notch or two..

If "persona" comes from "prosopon" (which has "face, countenance, appearance, facial expression" as its primary meaning, while a more specific word for mask is "prosopeion": see Liddell-Scott, Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon,OUP), it is because it latinizes the Greek phoneme (or the Etruscan "phersu", assuming the latter comes from "prosopon"), not because of any semantic association with "personare" (sound through). No Latin dictionary I know makes the connection between "persona" and "personare".

Also, the Latin language had the word "prosopopoeia" (personification), imported straight from the Greek without channelling it through "persona".

BTW, as far as I'm concerned your English is as good as it gets in this forum. Remarkable, considering how arduous it is to demodulate from the patterns (and related cultural mindset) of a Romance language.

Sincerely,
og