Meaning of responsibility

Doc, I asked my girlfriend who was top of the top of Cambridge
University's Classics dept. and she says that your breaking down of
responsibility is false etymology.

Responsibility is from the Latin, "respondere", and means to "repond
or answer for something."

The "re" prefix is inherent in answering or responding.

She says the mistake is common when laymen try to break down English
words. It is because Greek and Latin share some of the same root
words. The Greek stole somethings from the Roman and vice versa.
They also both stole from Egyptian and other unknown languages.

She said many things I don't understand but essentially "sponde"
doesn't mean what it appears to mean. Smething to do with syllabic
quantity's and long and short sounds in the Greek language.

It sure is complicated.

Yours Robert.

           
Received on Wed May 28 2003 - 14:08:15 BST