Re: Alairian Coronation

[Dick Eney <dickeney@access.digex.net>]

On Sat, 22 Jun 1996, Sallie Montuori wrote:

> On Sat, 22 Jun 1996, schenoweth@usa.pipeline.com wrote:
> 
> > On Jun 21, 1996 23:05:20, 'alairia@juno.com (Lisa Z. Morgan)' wrote: 
> >  
Keep straight who is speaking; it'll be on the quiz!

> > >Can anyone tell me what the Latin for "Prince" is? 
> >  
> > Prince Lyon, 
> >  
> > The Latin for Prince is Princeps - just one of those odd bits of
> > information the brain has stored. 
> >  
> > Sue the as-yet unnamed 
> 
> Are you sure that wasn't "principes?"  At least, I *think* I'm
> remembering that from a missa, not from Italian class...
> 
It sorts out like this: "princeps" does mean _in Latin_ "first one".  If
you have several classes, each with a first one, they are "principes" --
plural.  The original use as a ruler's title was by Augustus Caesar, who
had himself called "first citizen" because the Romans wouldn't stand for
the word "rex" (king) and he wasn't a military commander so he couldn't
well use the word "imperator" (emperor).  It was from this use of
"princeps" that we Northern Europeans took our word "prince", which is why
it means a political leader rather than just "first".  (But we also got
the word for "first in importance" principal, from "princeps", so it all
works out more or less fairly.)

|---------Master Vuong Manh, C.P., Storvik, Atlantia---------|
|Now, let's stop and think: how would Bugs Bunny handle this?|
|----------------(dickeney@access.digex.net)-----------------|


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