Remove ads
"Uncleftish Beholding" is a short text by Poul Anderson, first published in the Mid-December 1989 issue of the magazine Analog Science Fiction and Fact (with no indication of its fictional or factual status)[1] and included in his anthology All One Universe (1996).[2] It is designed to illustrate what English might look like without its large number of words derived from languages such as French, Greek, and Latin,[3] especially with regard to the proportion of scientific words with origins in those languages.
| Uncleftish Beholding | |
|---|---|
| Presented | 1989 |
| Author(s) | Poul Anderson |
| Subject | Atomic theory |
| Purpose | Linguistic purism in English |
Written as a demonstration of linguistic purism in English, the work explains atomic theory using Germanic words almost exclusively and coining new words when necessary;[4] many of these new words have cognates in modern German, an important scientific language in its own right. The title phrase uncleftish beholding calques "atomic theory."[5]
To illustrate, the text begins:[1]
For most of its being, mankind did not know what things are made of, but could only guess. With the growth of worldken, we began to learn, and today we have a beholding of stuff and work that watching bears out, both in the workstead and in daily life.
It goes on to define firststuffs (chemical elements), such as waterstuff (hydrogen), sourstuff (oxygen), and ymirstuff (uranium), as well as bulkbits (molecules), bindings (compounds), and several other terms important to uncleftish worldken (atomic science).[6] Wasserstoff and Sauerstoff are the modern German words for hydrogen and oxygen, and in Dutch the modern equivalents are waterstof and zuurstof.[7] Sunstuff refers to helium, which derives from ἥλιος, the Ancient Greek word for 'sun'. Ymirstuff references Ymir, a giant in Norse mythology similar to Uranus in Greek mythology.
Remove ads
| Term in "Uncleftish Beholding" | Term in English | Origin In English |
|---|---|---|
| uncleft | atom | from Greek atomos 'uncut, unhewn; indivisible', from a- 'not' + tomos 'a cutting',[8] |
| uncleftish | atomic | as above |
| beholding | theory | from Greek theōria 'contemplation, speculation; a looking at, viewing; a sight, show, spectacle, things looked at', from theōrein 'to consider, speculate, look at', from theōros 'spectator', |
| worldken | science | from Latin scientia 'knowledge'.[9] World + ken means "knowledge of the world". |
| stuff firststuff |
matter element |
from Latin materia 'substance from which something is made',[10] from Latin elementum 'rudiment, first principle, matter in its most basic form'[11] |
| workstead | laboratory | from Latin laboratorium 'place for work',[12] |
| forward bernstonish lading | positive electric charge | from Greek ḗlektron 'amber',[13] in German bernstein ('burn-stone') from Late Latin carricare 'to load a wagon or cart'[14] |
| backward bernstonish lading | negative electric charge | |
| forwardladen | positively charged | |
| backwardladen | negatively charged | |
| waterstuff | hydrogen | from Greek for 'water'.[15] Its cognate in German is Wasserstoff and in Swedish väte. |
| sunstuff | helium | from Greek for 'sun'[15] |
| stonestuff | lithium | from Greek for 'stone'[15] |
| coalstuff | carbon | from Latin for 'coal'.[15] Its cognate in German is Kohlenstoff. |
| chokestuff | nitrogen | Name from niter, from the Ancient Greek νιτρων nitron from Ancient Egyptian netjeri, related to the Hebrew néter, for salt-derived ashes (their interrelationship is not clear).[16]
Chokestuff is inspired by chokedamp, a term for oxygenless air found in mines and other confined spaces. Chokedamp is composed mostly of nitrogen. The cognate in German is Stickstoff and in Swedish kväve, both bearing the meaning "choke". |
| sourstuff | oxygen | from Greek for 'sharp' or 'sour'[15] Its German cognate is Sauerstoff and Swedish syre. |
| glasswortstuff | sodium | Glasswort was used as a source of soda for glassmaking |
| flintstuff | silicon | from Latin for 'flint'[15] |
| potashstuff | potassium | Latinised form of potash[17] |
| ymirstuff | uranium | from Uranus (Norse equivalent is Ymir) |
| aegirstuff | neptunium | from Neptune (Norse equivalent is Ægir) |
| helstuff | plutonium | from Pluto (Norse equivalent is Hel) |
| roundaround board of the firststuffs | periodic table of elements | from Latin periodus (“complete sentence, period, circuit”), from Ancient Greek períodos (“cycle, period of time”) |
| farer | ion | from Greek neuter present participle of ienai, meaning "to go". |
| samestead | isotope | Greek roots isos (ἴσος "equal") and topos (τόπος "place"), meaning "the same place" |
The vocabulary used in "Uncleftish Beholding" does not completely derive from Anglo-Saxon. Around, from Old French reond (Modern French rond), completely displaced Old English ymbe (modern English umbe (now obsolete), cognate to German um and Latin ambi-) and left no "native" English word for this concept. The text also contains the French-derived words rest, ordinary and sort.
The text gained increased exposure and popularity after being circulated around the Internet,[18] and has served as inspiration for some inventors of Germanic English conlangs. Douglas Hofstadter, in discussing the piece in his book Le Ton beau de Marot, jocularly refers to the use of only Germanic roots for scientific pieces as "Ander-Saxon."
Remove ads
Remove ads
Wikiwand in your browser!
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.
Every time you click a link to Wikipedia, Wiktionary or Wikiquote in your browser's search results, it will show the modern Wikiwand interface.
Wikiwand extension is a five stars, simple, with minimum permission required to keep your browsing private, safe and transparent.
Remove ads