[NV Greens] Fwd: [usgp-dx] Philistine American Heritage Dictionary

[Paul Etxeberri]

>
>
>
>The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth
>Edition.  2000.
>
>Philistine
>
>SYLLABICATION: Phil·is·tine
>PRONUNCIATION:   fl-stn, f-lstn, -tn
>NOUN: 1. A member of an Aegean people who settled ancient Philistia
>around the 12th century b.c. 2a. A smug, ignorant, especially
>middle-class person who is regarded as being indifferent or antagonistic
>to artistic and cultural values. b. One who lacks knowledge in a specific
>area. 
>ADJECTIVE: 1. Of or relating to ancient Philistia. 2. often philistine
>Boorish; barbarous: “our plastic, violent culture, with its philistine
>tastes and hunger for novelty” (Lloyd Rose). 
>ETYMOLOGY: From Middle English Philistines, Philistines, from Late Latin
>Philistn, from Greek Philistnoi, from Hebrew Plitîm, from Pleet,
>Philistia.
>WORD HISTORY: It has never been good to be a Philistine. In the Bible
>Samson, Saul, and David helped bring the Philistines into prominence
>because they were such prominent opponents. Though the Philistines have
>long since disappeared, their name has lived on in the Hebrew Scriptures.
>The English name for them, Philistines, which goes back through Late
>Latin and Greek to Hebrew, is first found in Middle English, where
>Philistiens, the ancestor of our word, is recorded in a work composed
>before 1325. Beginning in the 17th century philistine was used as a
>common noun, usually in the plural, to refer to various groups considered
>the enemy, such as literary critics. In Germany in the same century it is
>said that in a memorial at Jena for a student killed in a town-gown
>quarrel, the minister preached a sermon from the text “Philister über dir
>Simson! [The Philistines be upon thee, Samson!],” the words of Delilah to
>Samson after she attempted to render him powerless before his Philistine
>enemies. From this usage it is said that German students came to use
>Philister, the German equivalent of Philistine, to denote nonstudents and
>hence uncultured or materialistic people. Both usages were picked up in
>English in the early 19th century. 
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-- 
Paul Etxeberri

"Forests precede civilizations and deserts follow"   ---Chateaubriand