I am having trouble understanding the above Latin expression. I encountered it in Theodor Haecker, Kierkegaard the Cripple<\/em> (tr. C. Van O. Bruyn, New York: Philosophical Library, 1950) in the passage:<\/span><\/p>\n Not only for Augustine, but also for that Christian whose teaching is most perfectly harmonious, Thomas Aquinas, the evil in the world was always in the majority. Melum ut in pluribus<\/em>. This must never be forgotten, nor was it in Kierkegaard's judgment. (pp. 29-30)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n My first question: why melum<\/em> and not malum<\/em>?<\/span><\/p>\n Second question: where in Thomas can we find melum ut in pluribus<\/em>?<\/span><\/p>\n Wiktionary<\/a> informs us: <\/span><\/p>\n Borrowed<\/a> from Ancient Greek <\/a><\/span>\u03bc\u1fc6\u03bb\u03bf\u03bd<\/a> <\/em>(<\/span>m\u00ealon<\/span>)<\/span>. Doublet<\/a> of m\u0101lum<\/a><\/em>, from dialectal Ancient Greek <\/a><\/span>\u03bc\u1fb6\u03bb\u03bf\u03bd <\/a><\/em>(<\/span>m\u00e2lon<\/span>)<\/span>. First attested in Petronius.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Now m\u0113lum<\/strong> n<\/abbr><\/span> (genitive<\/em> m\u0113l\u012b<\/a><\/strong>) means apple<\/em>, and malum, mali<\/em> means evil, adversity, torment, misery, punishment, etc. This answers my first question but gives rise to a third: Is there some connection here with the Adam and Eve story in the Garden? <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Fourth question: I don't recall ever seeing the word 'apple' in my English versions of Genesis<\/em>. Is there in the original text of Genesis a word that translates as 'apple'? <\/span><\/p>\n Fifth question: I don't understand ut<\/em> in this context. Wiktionary<\/a> says it can be used as an adverb or as a conjunction. But it doesn't seem to be used in either way in melum ut in pluribus<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n Here<\/a> are some other Latin phrases most of which my astute readers already know. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I am having trouble understanding the above Latin expression. I encountered it in Theodor Haecker, Kierkegaard the Cripple (tr. C. Van O. Bruyn, New York: Philosophical Library, 1950) in the passage: Not only for Augustine, but also for that Christian whose teaching is most perfectly harmonious, Thomas Aquinas, the evil in the world was always … Continue reading “Melum ut in pluribus<\/i>“<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[343,6,115,280],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-632","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kierkegaard","category-language-matters","category-latin","category-vocabulary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=632"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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