Thread by @sentantiq

Quick #GrammarGeek #Punctuation thread for a Saturday morning

I was today years old when I realized that our words period, colon, and comma are just the Greek words for lengths of clauses used as signs for those things in English

sententiaeantiquae.com/2019/11/16/hey…

"The period is a statement which has beginning and an end."

περίοδός ἐστι λέξις ἀρχὴν ἔχουσα καὶ τελευτήν

#GrammarGeek #Punctuation

“…So too do things called kôla divide and clarify the language of prose”

οὕτω καὶ τὴν ἑρμηνείαν τὴν λογικὴν διαιρεῖ καὶ διακρίνει τὰ καλούμενα κῶλα

#GrammarGeek #Punctuation

“This kind of brevity of speech in writing is called a komma. A komma is defined as shorter than a kôlon.”

ἡ δὲ τοιαύτη βραχύτης κατὰ τὴν σύνθεσιν κόμμα ὀνομάζεται. ὁρίζονται δ᾿ αὐτὸ ὧδε, κόμμα ἐστὶν τὸ κώλου ἔλαττον

#GrammarGeek #Punctuation

Some takeaways from this:

1. I have a billion more things to learn

2. Any time some one criticizes your use of a colon, be like "is it longer than my comma clause? Demetrius rules, man."

#GrammarGeek #PunctuationMatters

3. If you are an octopodes person and not an octopuses chap, you should say "um, kommata" when people say "commas" or "I think you mean 'kola' " when people complain about your colons.

I don't make the rules, Demetrius does.

#GrammarGeek #PunctuationMatters

.@MykeCole @GreekEtymology

Also, a note

"Dear editor of collection to which my contribution is overdue,

I will be another week late. While editing my work, I found it necessary to reconsider the definition of sentences and spent some quality time with Demetrius' "On Style".

Yours,

J.

.@OConnellOCourse this may be useful for your next family gathering. After which, there may be no more.

PSA: Colon (punctuation) vs. Colon (Intestine) #OmegasMatter

Greek kôlon (κῶλον) can mean body part (as in segment, member), so isocolonic can mean having equal-lengthed phrases or equal-lengthed limbs.

#OmegasMatter

But our colon (as in the segment between intestines and anus) comes from Greek kolon (κόλον). To make matters more confusing, later Greek, influenced by the closeness of the two, does present kôlon for the body part.

I am grateful that I live in an era where "scholar" can mean learning random things and posting it online.