Sincere language

Posted by SgtPepper | Posted in | Posted on Thursday, June 18, 2009

The last time you called someone sincere, were you aware of what you were saying? I mean, sure there are these things called dictionaries (very useful weapons) where you can look for a group of other words which attempt to englove the whole menaing into six words or less. And while many times these succeed, they don't really tell us how could we get into time and palce where we say words without knowing how they came to be. We know a sincere person is honest, with cleare intentions, a sincere love is that which is pure and without a double agenda, we know sincere is good. But where does it come from?

Well, to be honest this is not a really interesting or hard question, one could go into internet and research the definition and etimology in WordReference or Wikipedia or any of the Wods... So why is this pretty petty pitiful blogger talking about it? Well, because for many, the roots come from the words sincerus meaning clean, pure, sound and sure, this must be right all sources direct into that direction. But what is interesting about it is when that word is heard in spanish speaking places. Why? Well because it has the sound of Sincero/a (seen-seh-ro/a). Again why is this interesting? Well, because it is believed by many that the source comes from Sin-cera (without wax).

You may think this is only stupid and without any base of linguistic amusement. But it is in fact an honest mistake, for they have even made a history to back-up their inaccuracy. Back in the Classic age, when less than perfect sculpters in Greece made a mistake (the ones without talent) they put wax on it, so the mistake wouldn't show. So they covered the lies with wax. And this became widely known, so if you think about it, it has sense, given that something without wax was true, in a very obscure reference of the facts. It is even poetic in a way, giving sincere a meaning of "true art". But as the reader should know by now, this is a mistake.

And why would this have capted my attention? Well because this only happens in the spanish speaking countries. You could think that it is because of the wording they use, and that would be right. But I like to think, and would encourage the reader to do so, that it has a somewhat cultural background. You see, all the spanish speaking countries have in common, well... the spanish language; that while it has diverted a lot from the places it has been and is now very different from the mother language, it carries a mystic and musical wave around it. Latinamerica and Spain (the main spanish speaking countries) have in common the flavour of bitter and acid and that frugal atrocity that can be tender and fierce at the same time, the romance and stoicity in one single culture.

I believe it has more to do with it than any other thing. The meaning of wax-less is a much more artistic and romantic meaning than plain "pure" because it involves the existence of a mistake, a sin in comparison to what is true. The "pure" meaning is justpure beacause it says so, while the "wax-less" menaing is pure because it is compared with the false art, with the deciving. It is pure because it is the redemption of a mistake that will forever stain the art, and the artists. Which is why I don't think that spanish speakers just came to think of it because of a pronunciation mistake, but by their romantic ways



[procrastinating with culture... on daily basis]
by I'm el pingüino

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