Monday, June 17, 2013

James Massey RIIP

The Deaths in 2013 site lists under June 16th:
James Massey, 79, American information theorist, cancer
The surname Massey certainly grabs the attention, considering that it's phonetically similar to "massy"-- adjective of "mass"... AND, considering my recent posts that involve words following a similar theme ie: long, big, top, strong, most.  Note the following etymology:
 mass (n.1) Look up mass at Dictionary.com"lump, quantity, size," late 14c., from Old French masse "lump, heap, pile; crowd, large amount; ingot, bar" (11c.), and directly from Latin massa "kneaded dough, lump, that which adheres together like dough," probably from Greek maza "barley cake, lump, mass, ball," related to massein "to knead," from PIE root *mag- "to knead" (cf. Lithuanian minkyti "to knead," see macerate).
 macerate (v.) Look up macerate at Dictionary.comlate 15c., a back-formation from maceration or else from Latin maceratus, past participle of macerare "soften, make soft, soak, steep," related to maceria "garden wall," originally "of kneaded clay," from PIE *mak-ero-, suffixed form of root *mag- "to knead" (cf. Greek magis "kneaded mass, cake," mageus "one who kneads, baker;" Old Church Slavonic mazo "to anoint, smear;" Breton meza "to knead;" Middle Irish maistir "to churn"), also "to fashion, fit" (cf. make (v.))
The prefix in the middle Irish maistir is the same as the prefix in the French word, maison (house)... mai happens to be another way of spelling my name May, note the etymology:
  may (v.1) Look up may at Dictionary.comOld English mæg "am able" (infinitive magan, past tense meahtemihte), from Proto-Germanic root *mag-, infinitive *maganan (Old Frisian mei/muga/machte"have power, may;" Old Saxon mag/mugan/mahte; Middle Dutch mach/moghen/mohte; Dutch mag/mogen/mocht; Old High German mag/magan/mahta; German mag/mögen/mochte; Old Norse ma/mega/matte; Gothic mag/magan/mahte "to be able"), from PIE *magh- (1) "to be able, have power" (cf. Greekmekhos, makhos "means, instrument," Old Church Slavonic mogo "to be able," mosti "power, force," Sanskrit mahan "great"). 
I get the sense that the inner twin world's intent is to "come out" and "communicate" to nott just me alone, butt to the masses. 

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