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Word Origin: Parasite
I love looking at etymology and where words come from. Maybe I’m just a dork, but I’m totally cool with that. Anyway, today I discovered a fun word origin to a word I’d never really given much thought to: parasite. The classic biological definition of it is: “An organism that grows, feeds, and is sheltered on or in a different organism while contributing nothing to the survival of its host.” The original meaning of it dovetails in what I think is a pretty hilarious way:
Latin parastus, a person who lives by amusing the rich, from Greek parastos, person who eats at someone else’s table, parasite : para-, beside; see para-1 + stos, grain, food.
They even also mention that the term can be used to describe “A professional dinner guest, especially in ancient Greece.” I like it because it sort of humanizes a term which otherwise has a pretty much entirely negative connotation. It must be wild being a professional linguist, and knowing the original meanings of words that get thrown around casually today, and looking at all these overlapping levels. Totally trippy. I love it.
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November 29th, 2005 at 6:23 pm
I totally got off on this essay and you might as well
http://www.dhalgren.com/Doom/ch10.html
sample:
November 29th, 2005 at 7:56 pm
As a professional linguist I can tell you first hand there is too much hype and a lot of big ego’s in the profession. Excuse me while I go read some Foucault
“Chance does not speak essentially through words nor can it be seen in their convolution. It is the eruption of language, its sudden appearance. It’s not a night twinkle with stars, an illuminated sleep, nor a drowsy vigil. It is the very edge of consciousness.”
Whatever that means.
disclaimer-
November 29th, 2005 at 8:39 pm
I’m surprised the dictionary didn’t just list the definition as “Noam Chomsky” lol
Parasite = Noam Chomsky, ie leech, freeloader, barnacle, nuisance, satellite, and sponge.
oh yeah, for the internet illiterate lol = laughing out loud
November 29th, 2005 at 8:39 pm
well, language tends to refresh it`s self with each passing generation. the contraction of words in e-mails will eventually enter the spoken realm and will contribute to the shift. words are maps, nontheless, and the actual territory still remains the same. the bed post will still find your big toe, no matter how you describe the process.
November 29th, 2005 at 9:30 pm
Mark, what’s your goal here? If spouting off without contributing to conversation is it, then I’ll politely request that you play your game of self-gratification elsewhere. If not, you’re absolutely welcome to share in what I think are some really interesting and worthwhile conversations that we have. In any event, I don’t know anything about Chomsky nor do I know his work, so consequently I don’t care if he is maligned or not. But I think everyone’s time and effort is wasted by comments that don’t add anything to the discussion and which are merely designed to elicit irate responses. I only mention this because it has very much been your M.O. so far on my site - with a couple exceptions.
November 29th, 2005 at 9:50 pm
you see mark, what Tim’s too nice to say is:
YOU ARE A DOUCHE NOZZLE!
Surely you can find a more stimulating place to vent your little frustrations. And probably feel better afterwards too!
happy trails!
November 29th, 2005 at 10:32 pm
I agree. My comments are pointless and offers no real contribution, but they are not negative.
I honestly love this site and think a lot of amazing work, thought, and energy comes across really well through is diversity and multiplicity…..
Anyways Daily Kos and Pop Occulture are my two absolute favorite places to visit on the web. I found this site inadvertently through daily kos.
November 29th, 2005 at 10:34 pm
I don’t find Marks’ comments a waste of time. They’re a window into the mind of the very idiocy I wage war against daily. Know your enemy, I always say.
Back to the topic at hand: I am impressed by the lineage of that word. From ages 18 to 20 I was a professional parasite: everyone always had to buy me food, cigarettes, drugs, alcohol and whatnot. I didn’t have a car, and I bummed rides and borrowed bus fare. No one really complained, however, because I was good company. I amused the rich (or at least those with more money than me, which was almost everyone) and ate at many tables.
People liked having me around, perhaps because it made them feel better about themselves. I was never seen as a burden because I knew when to “leave on a high note”, as George Costanze attempted once. I also practiced gratitude for their generosity, which made my leeching tolerable.
I think that those who fed my parasitic ways were having their own emotional needs met by virtue of my helplessness and vulnerability. I often joked that I needed a pager to keep track of all the people who wanted me to be attached to their mental intestines. I felt like a drug dealer, but the drug I was peddling was my free time.
Weird, yet true.
November 29th, 2005 at 10:37 pm
Linguistic note: my favorite transformation of a word’s meaning is “awful”: it once meant “full of awe” (as in “awesome!”) but now it means “terrible”.
When did THAT happen and how long did it take?
November 29th, 2005 at 10:37 pm
Oh I forgot to defend Noam Chomsky. He’s quite methodical in his criticism. For good info visit www.chomsky.info
November 29th, 2005 at 10:44 pm
chomsky would be bugger all without george w., he goes into the one-trick-pony bin with michael moore, speaking of parasites with clear intentions of harming the host.
November 29th, 2005 at 10:45 pm
Yeah, James… I can totally relate. That’s why I appreciated the word origin of parasite, because I’ve spent many a night eating at other people’s tables and sleeping on their couches. But it’s all good cause when the tables are turned, I will do the same for others .
November 29th, 2005 at 11:08 pm
Alistair, I thought Canadians loved Noam Chomsky and Michael Moore! At the vert least I know supporters of the National Democratic Party likes them. Well, at least the 2 I have spoken to. Go NDP!!!
Anyways I’ll never bring his name up again. I find his critic of state power intriguing.
November 29th, 2005 at 11:21 pm
Umm, Tim I’ll politely tell you to go fuck yourself and your wannabee wind waker artwork. Seriously dude this is internet, if you don’t like what I have to say or feel threatened by my real comments then ban my IP or delete them or do whatever your nazi inspired intentions tell you to do. lol seriously
November 29th, 2005 at 11:45 pm
I’m sorry to hear you’re so frustrated with me, Mark. I hope you find whatever it is you’re looking for - on this site, in life, wherever - and you’re more than welcome to stay and enjoy our conversations.
November 29th, 2005 at 11:47 pm
Umm, I was the one who merely suggested that you try a different website, not Tim. He has been a master mediator here, buddy. I won’t try to speak for anybody else, but I personally am tired of your little cry for help. LOL, seriously!!
November 30th, 2005 at 12:58 am
Tim, what got you interested in looking at the linguistics of a parasite? LOL, and yes Mark, we know what it means
.
The one thing I would really love to know, is what Mark would write about if he had a website. Would you just spew hate and bash anything you disliked, Mark? Or is there something in the world that inspires awe or wonder, or just plain love? If there is, then please, tell me.
November 30th, 2005 at 1:05 am
the answer to that question is yes… my pet turtle
actually I want to create my own turtle forum because I’ve been banned from most turtle forums on the web. If I could have it my way I would hunt down every single moderator, admin, whatever that has banned my IP from these turtle forums, in person and bash their heads into the cement like Ed Norton did on American History X.
November 30th, 2005 at 1:19 am
Turtles are welcome to come out of their shells here, Mark.
November 30th, 2005 at 1:41 am
American History X, very good movie, modern day classic almost, but why the obsession over negativity, anger, violence, and utter hatred?
November 30th, 2005 at 6:26 am
The Internet is a free place. The world however is not. For instance the extreme fear of being curbed by an Ed Nortonesque skinhead. It just happens. There is nothing we can do about hate. We must love those who do and not take pity, but instead, have mercy for their souls. It is what God wants.
It is also what we want as humans. To be cruel is to obliterate the point you are trying to make — thus being fully human. Therefore if your point is fear, then we will prepare ourselves likewise. I don’t quite understand what you’re after Mark. Even though I do have a good idea.
Shine a light on a void and you have nothing more than the void you began with, only now you’re concentrating on it. Why believe in a void of hate and dischord? I do not get it.
November 30th, 2005 at 7:27 am
Well said, JK, well said.
November 30th, 2005 at 2:06 pm
Tim, if you’ve never done this go to any good local university library and find the Oxford English Dictionary, 2d Ed. It is 20 volumes long and traces the etymology of the words it contains back to their first known written usage.
I have a “compact” version of OED2, which is a photoreproduction of the original work made to fit in one volume, with 9 pages of the original displayed on each page. Comes with a magnifyng glass.
Anyway, the entry for “parasite” includes this gem, from 1542:
“Parasites, were called suche smellefeastes as would seeke to be free geastes at riche mennes tables.”
Interesting aside, the word “church” has the longest etymology in the entire work, running about 4 pages in the original.
November 30th, 2005 at 2:30 pm
Oh thats awesome. I think I actually remember seeing that book when I was at your house Paul.
I wonder what the heck a smellefeastes is?
November 30th, 2005 at 3:15 pm
“One who scents out where feasting is to be had; one who comes uninvited to share in a feast; a parasite, a greedy sponger. Now arch. (very common c 1540-1700).”
From 1566, would make a great email *.sig today:
“I am a smelfeaste belly-god, idle and full of slouthe.”
November 30th, 2005 at 3:23 pm
Man, that’s hilarious to see the way people used to think and concoct words like that. I love it.
November 30th, 2005 at 9:48 pm
Am I the only one to notice the serendipitous irony of the topic of parasites and Mark S.’s comments?
He needs this more than it needs him. He’s a leech.
American History X was a bad made-for-TV movie wrought large for the silver screen. The fact that he cites it is quite revealing. I thought the Angry White Man thing died out in 1998.
Backt o the topic of word menaings: I found out from an old slang dictionary that the word “occupy” used to be a euphemistic way of talking about sex, about 200 or 200 years ago. It went on to list three full pages of synonyms, some of which are hysterical. I’ll submit some at a future date, just for a laugh.
November 30th, 2005 at 10:17 pm
No, I noticed it as well, james, but I didnt feel right saying anything when he was still active on the site. Didn’t want to add to his fire.
November 30th, 2005 at 10:22 pm
Finally! I hated that movie too.
November 30th, 2005 at 10:30 pm
I have an old slang dictionary: “A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English,” Macmillan 1961, and was intrigued by your post.
That book says that “In consequence of its vulgar use in this sense, this verb was little used in literaure in the 17th adn 18th century.”
Apparently beginning in the late 16th century an “occupying-house” was a brothel.
(!)
Would love to hear some quotes from your book!
November 30th, 2005 at 10:32 pm
So then, what does that make your occupation? Or for that matter, the occupying forces in a country like Iraq?
November 30th, 2005 at 10:33 pm
please forgive typos, obviously “literature” and “and” are the correct spellings.
November 30th, 2005 at 10:38 pm
Great questions, and I’m sure much hay could be made of this, but I think the answer lies in the fact that we don’t use those words today to express their meanings of 200 years ago, of which most of us aren’t even aware, of course.
November 30th, 2005 at 11:25 pm
Occupation might have something to do with barbaric raping and pillaging
Oh, and personally, I liked American History X, for the relationships and the cinematography (being that I am an aspiring filmmaker), but I seem to be in the minority here with that opinion. Oh well.
November 30th, 2005 at 11:59 pm
serendipitous irony? lol@whoever said that. Yup you’re definitely a minority Ktulu, I’ll agree with that. I guess the retards haven’t figured out that I hated the movie too, probably far worse than any of them. I just really liked that particular scene, to use it a vivid mental example. I don’t really know too many black people who are moderators of turtle forums, but maybe the happy idiot genius “JK” can tell me of some. I’m guessing the JK stands for Joke, which his life and existence pretty much is. Serendipitous irony, lol that’s a good one. It’s like yeah duh, obviously this entry was created in honor of me. Gotta love the fake mensa morons trying to figure things out in here. And I guess you’re ok Ktula, as long as that’s the last time you mention Chowsky (i like the W better) Call of Ktulu is a great song, doesn’t even really sound like a metallica song, I guess that’s why I like it
December 1st, 2005 at 12:40 am
Actually Mark, I really hate to burst your bubble of self-importance, but I have moved on with my life and no, this post wasn’t even remotely inspired by you or anyone else.
It instead came about because I was researching another term “xenology” which I guess one of its uses in medical lingo is roughly equivalent to parasitology
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=xenology
The reason I was researching that was because I’m looking for a good name for a new side project, which I posted about before you reared your head on my site:
http://www.timboucher.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=156
December 1st, 2005 at 1:14 am
I suggest “Parasite Rex” by Carl Zimmer. Pretty good read, that guy is really into parasites.
“Single-celled Toxoplasma gondi has an even more insidious role, for it can invade the human brain. There it makes men distrustful and less willing to submit to social mores. Women become more outgoing and warm-hearted. Why would a parasite cause these particular personality changes? It seems Toxoplasma wants its host to be less afraid, to be more prone to danger and a violent end — so that, in the carnage, it will be able to move on to another host.”
On a personal note, I’m not quite at the Toxoplasma stage yet, but I’m getting there! lol
also I think Hillary Clinton could use a good dose of Toxoplasma, what are your thoughts?
December 1st, 2005 at 11:32 am
Back in entomology class* I learned that the term “parasite” applies only to things that parasitize vertabrates. Something that does the same thing to a critter without a spine is a parasitoid. There is a lot of that sort of thing among insects. Enough that parasitoids that do their thing to other parasitoids are common - we had a whole chapter on wasps that lay their eggs on the larvae of other species of parasitic wasps. Such a creature is called a hyperparasitoid, which is the single coolest word I learned in college.
* I was called into the dean’s office the following semester and asked why I hadn’t taken my mandatory biology class yet. The dean thought the class was etymology. There was no etymology class offered - I checked, because I would have taken it.