A WORD A DAY.

Southland Times, Issue 21430, 26 June 1931, Page 8

A WORD A DAY.

DIVINE. The adjective and substantive forms of this word are closely related while the verb, in modern ■ usage, seems strangely distant. All are from the French divin or devin, “divine,” in turn from the Latin deus, God. Adjectively, “divine” means “given by or proceeding from God, having the sanction of or inspired by God, or devoted or addressed to God”; thus practically anything which pertains to God or Godlikeness is so characterized. One who had to do with divine things—formerly any ecclesiastic or priest—bore the name “divine”; now it is limited to a theologian. “To divine,” the verb, meant “to make known or interpret what is hidden, obscure or unintelligible to ordinary faculties,” hence in later use to interpret or explain or disclose. This meaning came about quite naturally, as from the earliest days the prophets were called upon to foretell the future, interpret dreams, etc. In all forms the final syllable is stressed, di-vine. Sound the first i as in it, second as in ice. “Divine acts are not less divine because they do not happen to be recorded.” PROFANE. In answer to H.R.: This word comes to us from the Latin profanus, “unholy,” compounded of pro, “before,” and fanum, “temple”—the implication being, of course, that that which was before, or outside, the temple was unworthy of being in it. We use the words as an adjective in the sense of “treating sacred things with disrespect; irreverent; impious”; also to mean “uninitiated in certain rites,” hence, “of low or common standing.” As a verb, the word is used -to mean “to violate or desecrate; to put to a wrong or unworthy use.” Pro-fane is accented on the second syllable; sound o as in obey, a as in late. “Many churches in Russia are being profaned by anti-religious demonstrations.”