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Talk:Homo
'Homo' is Latin for man, but where does the use of 'homo' as 'the same' come from (i.e. homozygous, homosexual, homogenous, etc)?--BlackGriffen
- A quick web search suggests that the second usage is from greek.
Yes. Greek homos is cognate with English same. It's unrelated to Latin homo. --Zundark, 2001 Dec 16
I doubt that the Latin "homo" is unrelated. Consider that men formulated the language. One way to refer to other men is "the same [as myself]". Just speculation, though.--BlackGriffen
Latin homo is apparently related to humus ("ground" or "earth"), so the meaning is something like "creature of the earth". The Latin words from the same Indo-European source as Greek homos and English same are things like simul and similis. --Zundark, 2001 Dec 16
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