Monday, 11 April 2016

FAITH GROUP

 The “FAITH” group of words deriving from a * πιτ stem is interesting for several reasons whether you are a #biblical or# classical scholar or student.

Faith trust confidence and persuasion are all related in Greek deriving from a *pVdental stem

     πει(σ)      πειθ     ποιθ     πιστ

Cognate with Latin #Fides and English #faith which also comes from latin via ME feith OF feid also the origin of Modern French Foi .

Apart from the semantics issues of a wide group of words generated from one stem there's the sound changes aspects as this group also demonstrates the alternates of o / e and the dentals s t and the aspirated dental th that later became a fricative.

We have πείθω and πείθομαι and the related verbs πιστεύω and πιστόω along with the adjective πιστός and that adjective used to rebuke the Disciples ὀλιγοπιστίαν and faith itself, πιστις.

Back to semantics Faith is an action and a relationship as well as virtue.
One might obey rely upon trust believe or be persuaded because something or one is also allegedly and hopefully faithful credible and trustworthy.



Seeing πείθ- or πιστ- start a word is like a signpost helping one establish a possible meaning even if its a verb form or rare variant you are less familiar with.

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