What rules govern the romanisation of Greek υ

English is troubled by what appears to be an unsystematic plethora of spelling rules, not to mention the rules for pronunciation. In general, there seems to be a consensus on how Greek and Latin is romanised in English, but now and then something pops up to remind us that it is not so simple. Greek … Read more

In search of the origins of term censor, I hit a dead end stuck with the greek term, to censor, λογοκρίνω

I have been looking in OED for a history that makes sense, yet, I just find crumbs, and I can not piece the history of this term. I am hitting a dead end researching the greek term to censor, named λογοκρίνω According to Oxford English Dictionary the word censure, n., is first documented in use … Read more

What is the opposite of “eschatology”?

Eschatology is the study or philosophy of formation of ideas about the end of things, apparently derived from the Greek ἔσχατος meaning "last" and -λογία meaning "study of". What is the word for "the formation of ideas about the beginning of things? Edit: I’ve accepted "cosmogony" as the answer, but I also really liked "protology". … Read more

Shouldn’t “some of the phenomenon” be plural?

The paragraph: Our team conducts fundamental research in Philosophy, trying to push the boundaries of what is possible with new techniques, and also trying to understand and formalize some of the phenomenon observed in practice. Source My Greek instinct read phenomena instead of phenomenon… Am I correct? Or, in English it’s OK to use it … Read more

‘Androcracy’/’gynocracy’ are hyponyms of, and ‘oligocracy’/’oligarchy’ is a hypernym of, what term?

What is the term for an oligocratic/oligarchic political system—one in which power is held by a subset of the overall population—where the power allocation is based on one’s sex? A society run by men is an ‘androcracy’, and one run by women a ‘gynocracy’. I am looking for the hypernym of these terms, which would … Read more

Status of ‘hypophora’ as a word

I participate in other SE forums where it’s common practice for experienced or knowledgeable participants to simultaneously submit both a question and an answer. This can be very helpful in technical forums frequented by inexperienced users who tend to ask the same questions, but word their questions very differently. This practice is encouraged for all … Read more

Is there an etymological explanation for the silent ‘g’ in “paradigm”?

Whenever I come across the word paradigm, I have to make a small conscious effort not to pronounce the letter ‘g’. In Italian, it is spelled paradigma and each letter is individually pronounced i.e. /pa·ra·dìg·ma/. But in English, paradigm is pronounced paradime, which is written phonetically as /ˈparədʌɪm/ (You can hear its pronunciation in this … Read more