Democracy, the people, and their things
With presidential contests thick around us here in the United States, how about a little political counterprogramming? Let鈥檚 consider parliaments 鈥� and the metaphors behind their names.
A friend describing her prospective trip to Iceland recently mentioned her plan to visit the Althing, famous as 鈥渢he world鈥檚 oldest parliament.鈥� But just a few days before, I鈥檇 run across another claimant to this title.听聽about efforts to launch 鈥渢he first large-scale public trials of fully autonomous vehicles鈥� on the Isle of Man mentioned the island鈥檚 having 鈥渢he oldest continuous parliament in the world, dating back more than 1,000 years.鈥�
Hmm, there鈥檚 an asterisk in here somewhere, I thought.
滨肠别濒补苍诲鈥檚听聽goes back to 930, but went on hiatus for 45 years. The Manx (as inhabitants of the Isle of Man are known) mind the gap, and cling to their own distinction as having the 鈥渙ldest continuously sitting鈥� parliament.鈥� Nitpickers, though, on the other side, may argue the 鈥渙ldest parliament鈥� distinction is more meaningful when it鈥檚 the legislature of an actual country, however small.
The names of the world鈥檚 legislatures embody a range of underlying metaphors.听, from the French聽parler, is a place where people speak.听聽is rooted in Latin words meaning 鈥渃oming together,鈥� which would appear to be some implicit argument for crossing the aisle to make a deal.听
聽is the lower house of Russia鈥檚 legislature.听聽confirms my understanding that聽duma聽derives from a Russian verb meaning to think or consider. But聽聽calls the word 鈥減robably of Germanic origin鈥� and connects it to the English聽doom, as in 鈥渄ay of judgment.鈥� Not a good sign for Russian democracy.
Here鈥檚 another one: The Japanese diet is heavy on sushi and rice but the聽聽is full of politicians.听Diet聽in both the food and the civic sense derive ultimately from a Greek word meaning 鈥渨ay of life鈥� or 鈥渞egimen,鈥� according to the聽.听
Rivals though the Icelandic Althing and the Manx Tynwald may be, their names share a common etymological root. And that root is聽thing.
聽(originally spelled with a聽thorn, that聽聽that looks like a mash-up of lowercase 鈥減鈥� and 鈥渂鈥�) was an Old English word meaning 鈥渕eeting, assembly, council, discussion,鈥� according to the聽.听
That word had what linguists call聽cognates聽in Old Norse and Icelandic, as well as other languages. The root shows up in聽Folktinget, the聽, for instance 鈥� and in the 鈥淭yn鈥� of聽罢测苍飞补濒诲听is this same root.听
In English聽thing聽evolved from meaning an assembly to meaning the matters being deliberated by an assembly. From there,聽thing聽evolved from 鈥渓egal matter鈥� to 鈥渕aterial object.鈥澛�
One might fancifully describe the Althing, Folketinget, and other assemblies of the people as places where 鈥渁ll things鈥� are considered, and be almost right. Too often, though, a cynic might point out, they are the places where politicians try to be all things to all people.
