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On The Word "Ehre" (Honour), And Its Derivatives,
No single German word embraces the comprehensive idea conveyed by our word "worship . " The word Wiirdigen , derived from the same root as our worth , does not , and I believe never did , represent . this idea ; it simply means to value , estimate , appreciate . Gott wiirdigen ,
would mean to appreciate God at His trae value , which is comingsomewhat near oar expression , but represents rather the passive than the active phase of to worship . A judge is worshipful in an infinitely less degree than the Almighty , whose feeble representative he is , but the idea remains the same in kind ; and wherever this title of
worshipful is employed the same idea is preserved , i . e ., its owner is to be reverenced , feared , loved , obeyed , honoured , & c . We render to God the highest , broadest , deepest worship ; the worship each one of us renders to his superiors is intrinsically the same in kind , but shorn of that illimitability which is due to our Maker alone .
But if the Germans have no Avord fco translate our worship and worshipful , it follows that no word of theirs can be j > roperly thus rendered . What then is the meaning of fflirbar and fflirsam ? They are often used indiscriminately in German , but none the less represent fine shades of difference . Except where great accuracy is needful they might be translated as honourable , but with this distinction , fflirbar signifies capable of being honoured , and fflirsam acting
habitually with honour , or honourable . An fflirbarer Meister is thus a master capable on account of his conduct of being honoured ; an fflirsamer Meister , one who invariably acts honourably . The distinction is a fine one to draw , and in this particular case almost impossible to define in English . Man } - other German adjectives
would illustrate it better . From heilen to heal , we have heilbar that can be healed , curable , and heilsam , that cures , healing ; thus a wound is heilbar ; the ointment applied to it , heilsam . Biegen , to bend , forms the adjectives , biegbar , capable of being bent ( perhaps by exerting great force ) , and biegsam , easily bent . Thus a bar of iron might be
biegbar , but a willow wand would be biegsam ; and we should call the one bendable or pliable , and the other bending or pliant . The termination bar always represents the passive , sain the active side of an adjective . Bhrsamer Meister , is therefore "honourable master , " fflirbarer Meister , a master worthy to be honoured , and as the nearest
equivalent for this idea , I suggest the word worthy ; all the more so as the German literal translation of worthy ( Wiirdiger ) conveys very much the same impression to a German as Bhrbar . But just so much as simple honour falls short of the extended meaning of worship , so do honorable and worthy fail to convey the larger idea of worshipful , being , in fact , only one of the many qualities which are combined in tbis one word . When , therefore , we translate fflirbarer Meister as
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On The Word "Ehre" (Honour), And Its Derivatives,
No single German word embraces the comprehensive idea conveyed by our word "worship . " The word Wiirdigen , derived from the same root as our worth , does not , and I believe never did , represent . this idea ; it simply means to value , estimate , appreciate . Gott wiirdigen ,
would mean to appreciate God at His trae value , which is comingsomewhat near oar expression , but represents rather the passive than the active phase of to worship . A judge is worshipful in an infinitely less degree than the Almighty , whose feeble representative he is , but the idea remains the same in kind ; and wherever this title of
worshipful is employed the same idea is preserved , i . e ., its owner is to be reverenced , feared , loved , obeyed , honoured , & c . We render to God the highest , broadest , deepest worship ; the worship each one of us renders to his superiors is intrinsically the same in kind , but shorn of that illimitability which is due to our Maker alone .
But if the Germans have no Avord fco translate our worship and worshipful , it follows that no word of theirs can be j > roperly thus rendered . What then is the meaning of fflirbar and fflirsam ? They are often used indiscriminately in German , but none the less represent fine shades of difference . Except where great accuracy is needful they might be translated as honourable , but with this distinction , fflirbar signifies capable of being honoured , and fflirsam acting
habitually with honour , or honourable . An fflirbarer Meister is thus a master capable on account of his conduct of being honoured ; an fflirsamer Meister , one who invariably acts honourably . The distinction is a fine one to draw , and in this particular case almost impossible to define in English . Man } - other German adjectives
would illustrate it better . From heilen to heal , we have heilbar that can be healed , curable , and heilsam , that cures , healing ; thus a wound is heilbar ; the ointment applied to it , heilsam . Biegen , to bend , forms the adjectives , biegbar , capable of being bent ( perhaps by exerting great force ) , and biegsam , easily bent . Thus a bar of iron might be
biegbar , but a willow wand would be biegsam ; and we should call the one bendable or pliable , and the other bending or pliant . The termination bar always represents the passive , sain the active side of an adjective . Bhrsamer Meister , is therefore "honourable master , " fflirbarer Meister , a master worthy to be honoured , and as the nearest
equivalent for this idea , I suggest the word worthy ; all the more so as the German literal translation of worthy ( Wiirdiger ) conveys very much the same impression to a German as Bhrbar . But just so much as simple honour falls short of the extended meaning of worship , so do honorable and worthy fail to convey the larger idea of worshipful , being , in fact , only one of the many qualities which are combined in tbis one word . When , therefore , we translate fflirbarer Meister as