Name my Disease (Greek please)

Rachel Udin · Mar 3, 2011

Linguists preferred.

I have settled on "dys-" as in "Dyslexia."

But I need the second part which should mean "creativity" or "creative." I'd prefer ancient greek.

Anyone have a clue?

Note: I used a English to Greek dictionary, but the root meaning came out as "Public worker" which kind of works against the story idea--which is why I need a linguist.

Drachen Jager · Mar 3, 2011

I am not an expert, but since nobody has answered I thought I might chip in.

creō is Latin for 'create' and the root of the English word. All the translations from greek I could come up with were... well, Greek to me. The alphabet screws me up, I have no idea how to read it.

Here is a wiki dictionary that has all the ancient greek rooted English words.

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Category:Ancient_Greek_derivations

I hope that helps.

Skyler · Mar 3, 2011

Ooh, pick me! I can read Greek!

The Greek words for "creative"/"creativity"/"creator" come from the root "demiurg-" (rough Anglicization), from which we get the word "demiurge" (the creator of the universe).

Just for kicks I tried typing in ουργο, and the word that came up was "fessional". I Googled it: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=fessional

JayD · Mar 3, 2011

dysconciperous/aconciperous?

It's latin and it's mostly made up, but I figured I'd offer something up before I poked holes in your request.

Mainly, it's that the prefix dys- means bad/ill, which might not be what you're looking for. Dys + "creative" would probably mean "creating bad things".

The prefix a-/an- means without/lacking/not (such as in aphasia) and would be the better one if you were looking for a word that meant "uncreative". If you're not, then pay no attention to me =)

whimsical rabbit · Mar 4, 2011

Hi Rachel,

creative in Greek is δ η μ ι ο υ ρ γ ι κ ό ς. Creation is δ η μ ι ο υ ρ γ ί α.

What is the condition of the disease? The 'dys' conveys difficulty to do something. Are you looking for a somewhat more sophisticated made-up term for something like dyscreativity? A condition of having difficulty to create or of creating bad things?

Rachel Udin · Mar 4, 2011

I'm thinking of making the disease similar to Dyslexia and ADD. Slightly a political piece in which those who are creative have the best jobs in the made up society. And everyone else that can't achieve that are labeled with diseases.

So more along the lines of having trouble creating or being creative--not being able to keep up with the innovation around them.

So I'm thinking of symptoms as things like not being able to solve the box of tacks and candle problem at a young age. Not being able to cut a cake into four with just two cuts. Being able to only copy other people's art. Chronic compulsion to plagiarize and really being phobic of anything new. Those people would be forced into remedial classes.

So I thought I'd play with something like that. (I thought that it might be like autism, but I think the symptoms are kind of different from autism, which is the ability to read social signals in a horrid, boiled down way.) Basically dysfunctional creativity.

Since it's been shown that those with ADD tend to be better at creativity and those with dyslexia are better at spacial capacity, I want to do a reversal. So I need a disease name that sounds similar or evokes a similarity.

whimsical rabbit · Mar 4, 2011

Oooh, I see. Very interesting idea.

Please give me some time to think about it and ask a couple of people. I don't want to just start throwing Greek words your way even if they are semantically correct; I'd rather find something that sounds right.

It's almost midnight here and my brain is mush but I'll be back as soon as I think of something.

Xelebes · Mar 4, 2011

Dysmusia? (Foul-Muses?)

Rachel Udin · Mar 6, 2011

whimsical rabbit said:
Oooh, I see. Very interesting idea.

Please give me some time to think about it and ask a couple of people. I don't want to just start throwing Greek words your way even if they are semantically correct; I'd rather find something that sounds right.

It's almost midnight here and my brain is mush but I'll be back as soon as I think of something.

I'll wait for your results.

Xelebes said:
Dysmusia? (Foul-Muses?)

The root for muse is "Men think" and then you also have the muse of Astronomy--which really doesn't fit in with the scheme I'm going for...

I'm aiming for right-brained activity being treasured more than left.

KQ800 · Mar 6, 2011

"Name my disease"

That sounds like it would make an AWESOME gamehow.....

whimsical rabbit · Mar 23, 2011

Update

Hi Rachel,

so I've asked around, and the people I've asked looked into this a bit, but we can't seem to be able to come up with many alternatives. One option would be

dysdimiourgia, which frankly, doesn't sound as scientific as you'd probably want to. It's just a translation for dyscreativity.

I would suggest though that you asked a question here. It seems the perfect place to give you the info you're after.

Sorry it took me a while, and for not being able to help more. Another option would be our very own Medievalist (AW's admin). PM her, she may be able to help.

Deleted member 42 · Mar 23, 2011

Rachel Udin said:
Since it's been shown that those with ADD tend to be better at creativity and those with dyslexia are better at spacial capacity, I want to do a reversal. So I need a disease name that sounds similar or evokes a similarity.

Where on earth did you see that? That's wishful thinking bullshit. I really want a cite for that; that's at the level of asserting that blind people have magical hearing.

They don't.

Deleted member 42 · Mar 23, 2011

Rachel Udin said:
Linguists preferred.

I have settled on "dys-" as in "Dyslexia."

But I need the second part which should mean "creativity" or "creative." I'd prefer ancient greek..

1. Most medical terminology is actually Latin, and New Latin at that.

2. The reason you see Greek roots is because about 40% of pre-100 C.E. Latin roots are in fact borrowed Greek roots.

Skyler · Mar 23, 2011

Medievalist said:
Where on earth did you see that? That's wishful thinking bullshit. I really want a cite for that; that's at the level of asserting that blind people have magical hearing.

They don't.

Hey! Don't disillusion me. I like my wishful thinking b******t.

Name my Disease (Greek please)

Rachel Udin

Drachen Jager

Professor of applied misanthropy

Skyler

Ninja kid, be gentle!

JayD

Recovering Lurker

whimsical rabbit

Bunned

Rachel Udin

whimsical rabbit

Bunned

Xelebes

Delerium ex Ennui

Rachel Udin

KQ800

whimsical rabbit

Bunned

Deleted member 42

Deleted member 42

Skyler

Ninja kid, be gentle!