Friends of CAMA's Blog : Captivity Comes from Captivus

martedì 27 settembre 2016

Captivity Comes from Captivus

A dear friend of mine from Great Britain recently said to me that once you have learned how to use prepositions in English, you can say you have learned the language. I would like to add that once you are done with prepositions, the next step is using the so-called 'false friends' correctly. False friends are words that are written similarly in English and Italian because they come from Latin and Greek. They are also known as cognates. Indeed whatever word sounds difficult to you in English is easy for us in Italian: basically, all the words that come from Latin and Greek. Many times American and British friends ask me: "Do you understand this word, Roberta?" (As an example: onomatopoeic). And I answer my friends: "Of course, we leant you this word. It's the same in Italian!"

Why false friends?

By being away from Italy loan words see their meaning change once they are part of the English language. That is why these words are called 'false friends'. A false friend example is a word 'crisis'. If you read 'crisi' in Italian, we mean 'recession' and not a major catastrophic event. Another false friend is: 'suggestive'. you may run into this word with Italian tour guides who say: 'I invite you to enjoy this suggestive landscape', wherewith 'suggestive' we mean: beautiful, inspiring, unique. That is what the word 'suggestivo' means in Italian.

However not all words coming from Latin and Greek change their original meaning (i.e. onomatopoeic is the same for both of us). Another word that did not change its original meaning is 'captivity' (cattività in Italian) which is a very interesting word. Captivity comes from the Latin word 'captivus', prisoner. 'Cattivo' or 'cattiva' in Italian is translated as 'evil' in English. That gives us something more important to talk about.

In Italian the word 'cattivo', 'cattiva' comes from: 'Captivus malii' which means: prisoner of evil. It is much different from saying that a person is evil. In the original Italian and Latin meaning, the person is not evil by nature. The person is a prisoner of evil. That gives us a different perspective when we look at other people.

'Captivus' is the first Latin word I learned in middle school. The teacher gave us the example of 'Captivus malii'. That is why I remember it so well. I hope you enjoyed my today's contribution.