De Vocabulis “Apistevist” et “Apistevism” / About the Words “Apistevist” and “Apistevism”
The neologisms apistevist and apistevism were badly formed. The shapes of the words suggest that someone took the Modern Greek word πιστεύω (“I believe”), changed the πιστεύ- part to pistev- in accordance with the Modern Greek method of transliteration, slapped on the suffixes -ist and -ism, and called it a day. But when we make neoclassical derivatives from Greek words, the form of the Greek language which we regularly use is Classical or Ancient Greek and not Modern Greek. Moreover, the two suffixes do not interact with verbs in the way that the neologisms suggest. Someone may say, “It is all Greek to me,” but not all forms of the Greek language are commutable, and each of those forms has its own rules for the formation of new words.
In this essay I offer my corrections to the badly formed words apistevist and apistevism, and then explain how I arrived as such corrections.
Contents
The Agent Noun Apisteut
The Abstract Noun Apisteutism
Sources
1. The Agent Noun Apisteut
Apistevist should be apisteut. The Greek form of the word is ἀπιστευτής and the Latin form is apisteuta. Here is how we form these words:
ὁ ἀπιστευτής -οῦ / apisteuta -ae m. / apisteut
[ἀ- alpha privative + πιστεύειν “to put faith in” + -τής agent noun suffix]
[ἀ- + πιστευ- + -τα-] prefix and stems
[ἀ- + πιστευτα-] new stem
[ἀπιστευτα-] new stem
[ἀπιστευτής] nominative singular (cf. ἑρμηνευτής from ἑρμηνεύειν)
[apisteuta] ἀπιστευτής Latinized (cf. buleuta, periodeuta)
[apisteut] apisteuta Anglicized (cf. hermeneut, therapeut)
2. The Abstract Noun Apisteutism
The abstract noun corresponding to the agent noun apisteut is apisteumus instead of apistevism. The Greek form of apisteumus is ἀπιστευμός and the Latin form is also apisteumus. We form the words this way:
ὁ ἀπιστευμός -οῦ / apisteumus -i m. / apisteumus
[ἀ- alpha privative + πιστεύειν “to put faith in” + -μός abstract noun suffix]
[ἀ- + πιστευ- + -μο-] prefix and stems
[ἀ- + πιστευμο-] new stem
[ἀπιστευμο-] new stem
[ἀπιστευμός] nominative singular (cf. σκυλευμός from σκυλεύω)
[apisteumus] ἀπιστευμός Latinized and Anglicized
I admit that apisteumus sounds strange. Neither Latin nor English seems to use any words which correspond to Greek words ending in -ευμός. We can make an -ism word instead by adding the suffix to the agent noun: apisteutism. The Greek form of apisteutism is ἀπιστευτισμός and the Latin form of the word is apisteutismus. Here is how we form these words:
