I’m slowly working my way through the online course from Hillsdale College An Introduction to C.S. Lewis. Do check it out – it’s more than worth the time.

One of the instructors is Visiting Professor Michael Ward, a Senior Research Fellow at Blackfriars Hall, University of Oxford. In addition to other skills that make him a simply fascinating teacher, he occasionally uses etymology to reinforce a point. Here are a few things I’ve learned from him in that regard:

• The root of the word religion is the Latin religare, “to tie” or “to bind” – that is, to connect things together (think ligament).
• And that is the opposite of analysis, from Latin ana, “up” or “back,” and lysis, “a loosening” – that is, to separate into parts.
• Cosmology comes from the same root word as cosmetics, the Greek kosmos meaning “an ordered whole.” The former is studying the universe as an ordered system, and the latter is putting your face into order.
• Influenza is Italian for influence, and comes from the old days when everyone, even doctors, believed the other planets had influence on earth’s air. So if you had an undiagnosed malady, your doctor would blame that astrological influence.

I love this stuff.