Hi, Peter (w/o any copy to categories@mta), Ah, the advantages of a Latein-Gymnasium education: you look in the right places for relevant answers :-) . Thanks for the breath of fresh air! Cheers, -- Fred --- ------ Original Message ------ Received: Sat, 08 Sep 2012 09:26:57 AM EDT From: selinger@mathstat.dal.ca (Peter Selinger) To: peasthope@shaw.ca Cc: categories@mta.ca Subject: categories: Re: Terminology; categorical versus categorial.
According to the Merriam Webster dictionary, the etymology of "categorical" derives, via Latin, from Greek kategorikos, which seems to be a Greek adjective derived from kategoria.
This seems to be consistent with other English words deriving from Greek adjectives ending in -kos, such as logikos (from logos) and graphikos (from graphein), explaining "geographical", "psychological", and so on.
I found one online source claiming "Greek adjectives that end in -kos do not describe the substance out of which something is made. They describe the force that is animating the thing in question", but I don't know if it's a reliable source. See also page 28 in this book (from 1772, copyright probably expired):
books.google.com.ar/books?id=o6EDAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA28
-- Peter
peasthope@shaw.ca wrote:
Apologies in case this story is in the archive. I failed to find it.
According to online dictionaries, categorical and categorial can be=20 synonyms. Almost everyone seems to prefer categorical whereas=20 categorial comes from the simple rule of replacing the last vowel of=20 the noun with "ial".
So, is the preference for categorical just an inheritance from early=20 authors? Is there a stronger reason to use it? Is the explanation=20 in the archive?
Thanks, ... Peter E.
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