08 April 2022

New words for me: thymos and thymotic

Thymotic (chemistry) Of, related to, or derived from thymotic acid or thymol. 

(philosophy) Of, of related to the thymos

Thymos: that area of the soul where feelings of pride, indignation, shame etc are located.  The etymology is from the Ancient Greek θῡμός (thūmós, “soul, heart”). 

Those with backgrounds in the life sciences will wonder about the relation to "thymus."  It apparently is a "doublet" (One of two or more words in a language that have the same etymological root, but have come to the modern language through different routes...) via the Ancient Greek θύμος (thúmos, “warty excrescence.")

Encountered this morning in an interesting essay by David Brooks (which I will blog separately):
"...human beings are powerfully driven by what are known as the thymotic desires. These are the needs to be seen, respected, appreciated. If you give people the impression that they are unseen, disrespected and unappreciated, they will become enraged, resentful and vengeful. They will perceive diminishment as injustice and respond with aggressive indignation."

1 comment:

  1. Interesting that you picked up on the same verse and thought best to google it up. I also was associating it with the Thyroid. Did not know of it's Greek philosophic derivation.

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