The Writer's Life: “Did you know? The origin of the word “sincere” might not be what you think it is. Or it might?.”

Read more: It used to be thought that “sincere” came from an unscrupulous practice in the world of goldsmiths. If a piece of work emerged from the mold with imperfections, they were smoothed over with wax steeped in gold dust – thus, “sine” – without; “cera” – wax. Likewise, in the marble quarries where Michelangelo worked, if a piece of marble had been hurt in the excavation, the quarrymen rubbed in wax to subdue the gouged scars. These origins have long been challenged by Latin scholars, who say that  “sincere” comes from a medieval Latin word, “sincerus,” meaning clean, unadulterated, pure of composition. But - dah! Couldn’t “sincerus” have come from “sine” and “cera”? We shall never know until we get that book I’ve always wanted to see published – the dictionary that gives us the root of the word-root, and for several generations of origin where necessary.

 

Comments

[Italy villas]

this is just a misunderstanding about the word. maybe it's common that there are different meanings in a word ,but we can't analize it by dividing it .maybe some word can be done like this ,not all works.

[Belg]

Wiktionary : sine
From Proto-Indo-European *sene-, *sane- (“apart, without”). Cognate with Old English sundor (“apart, separately, by oneself”). More at sunder.
Old English perfectly cognates with modern Dutch 'zonder' = without.
cere strongly reminiscent to Dutch zeer (zere) "sore, ache, Middle Dutch seer, Old High German ser "painful" (from sore Online Etymology dictionary)
So etymology of the word sincere strongly suggests to be originating from : sine zere, Dutch : zonder zeer
English : without pain

[Matthew Henderson]

sincere, from Middle French sincere, from Latin sincerus ‎(“pure, sound, whole, natural, genuine”), from Proto-Indo-European *sin- (confer Latin simplex, similis, semper, etc., and Sanskrit सम ‎(sama, “whole, together”)) and *ḱer- ‎(“grow”), from which also Ceres ‎(“goddess of harvest”) from which English cereal.

[Christian]

"If a piece of work emerged from the mould with imperfections, they were smoothed over with wax steeped in gold dust – thus, “sine” – without; “cera” – wax"... surely thats the reverse as the sword is with wax "cum cera". If a sword was "sincere", it would be better quality than one that had been "corrected" with wax?? So why do we hold the word so high, it refers to poorer quality?

[Steve Held]

The version that I heard of this word origin is that pottery makers in Rome would note a higher level of craftsmanship with the marking "sine cera" on the bottom of jugs that would be used to carry water; "without wax".

[Codyp]

If we discuss the nature of gold, myth, language and meaning; one should turn back to the most glaring exclusions of our culture, and that is the myth makers and the legends whom speak with the same tongue and wove it differently-- Oh how we would be if we understood all the things we might of discounted just because we don't recognize it as a valid influence--

Not putting it on you, just like to say it--

Now I will not cite the source of this information, since basically I am just an alchemist-- But if you go back and take a closer look at the history, not just the path of the word through history, but the paths of the words that are used to bring something that points to another time and place; basically remembering the subtle distortion of hindsight in the moment before the sight has found hind--

That is much like the wisdom that arises from looking back upon an experience; so to do we manipulate that perspective--

Thus, we must seek something beyond what any translation can give us-- For that, I will give you something of a definition in the negative spaces--

Sincerity, is simple in binary logic; fact checking, am I telling the truth? A dozen others say so! So how can sincerity be something difficult as to not be it? Whatever we may be, must be sincerely what it is; and so we must head back to a time where not a single lie was ever told for eternity... But that within eternity all truth could deceive; so to arose a narrative, and our breathing ability to work with greater elements, but that we also became contaminated with unrefined mentalities of mental myth, so that our glowing constellation of points of reference are muddled upon the surface of a dream--

In order know sincerity; we must know what it is we are making pure, and to what extent can this purity be effectively masked-- So many people forget how practical every move is; how Wu wei is like kung fu, you do not need to do it, it is the movement of life.. And thus all we are doing is better learning to polish and refine those things that we already are, and perhaps transmute them to a higher element!

In this, we must ask specifically; what am I making pure? Our expression.. And what are we expressing? our selves; all else is narrative within this scope-- Thus we must ask, if I wanted to help an old lady cross the street, and I passed her looking down at my phone at the time, because I have an appointment soon; not even giving her a glance--

We have the purity; or the desired substance, but we have a contamination.. So what is a contamination, or by what substance are we measuring such a purity--

We are measuring your expression in accordance with the desire or motivation of the spirit that it expresses-- This means, for every step taken that is not in accordance with the expression in its highest quality form; it generates a divergent path, a garden path grammar in reality, in which all manners of things can be effected--

In this sense, if we two countries want peace; but during discussions it all fell through because of financial or other conditions, which are generated from on going insincerity (oh no karma makes sense?), than the their spirit, if read according to the peace; would be a poor quality spirit, not a matter of failing or succeeding but in acting in the same principle regardless of what one must face, or how one must begin to approach it (that is, sometimes purity is not desired upon impure situations; allowing impurity to be transmuted into the intent that it once blocked or diminished its ability in expression)--

So we are talking about something on one hand very practical, but on another; in some of the greatest questions man is faced with; because we are talking about integrity of our actions in accordance with out will, without sacrificing quality because we are insincere and thus not steady at the helm--

One more way to put it; imagine if all knowledge as we know it was a type of insincerity an impersonal suggestion upon us, and by using it we use the contamination, which further brings us under its hypnotic spell of seeming to be the solution to the issue that arose concurrently with it, and gave birth to the poet and madman and could mean whatever you you think it means or expand in depth commentary about interpretation-- And all this under the same context, will never bring us upon the same page or even the same substance to be transmuted--

But that, what if in magical land just in reach of your dreams, just beyond your imagination to truly think it as it would be; We managed to find a solution to being subject to the context or knowledge that is a product of our insincerity (as a will, but sincerely developed according to that will); and suddenly, through sincerity, or through the ability to take only steps that expresses your intentions instead of attempting to reach the expression in a jungle of what ifs made concrete by it isism's and losing your own focus upon your intentions to fall victim to the labyrinth of forms that play out and insist upon ways of looking, so that you are donating your time to an innocent person who got involved in a mix up, and is having a terrible day.. and by the time you get home, you forgot you intended to cook dinner for the entire family depending on you--

It isn't a matter of being right or wrong, or being consistent.. because this is a purity beyond form, it is a purity that can exist in every form; all that matters is if the expression delivered the meaning of your own righteous worship (or simply respectful conscious honoring of those deemed worthy to weigh their input upon your own choices)--

If you look deeper, you will find that this is clearly marked out in etymology, but not necessarily remembered by many--