Welcome to Quintessentially Qrious. This site is dedicated to providing food for thought for all avid quizzers. Enjoy!

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Good bye Baby!

This is a very well-known word, in fact, too well-known word. However we know the word in a context entirely different from what in which it was originally used. According to some, it is of Aramaic origins, meaning "I will create as I speak". Some sources posit that it derives from a conflation of a Hebrew word meaning "the blessing" (used in this sense as a euphemism for "the curse") and an Aramaic form another Hebrew word  meaning pestilence. One of its earliest recorded instances is in the poem De Medicina Praecepta written by Serenus Sammonicus (royal physician of Roman emperor Caracalla), where he suggests that people suffering from malaria should wear an amulet bearing the word in the form of an inverted Pascal Triangle. It was later used by certain gnostics to invoke beneficent spirits for combating evil spirits. Its Greek roots suggest that it is a cabalistic word for the supreme god. Which word am I talking about?

2 comments:

View answer