In Which I Learn That Nas Mislead Me*
Posted on June 28, 2005 by Tito
Courtesy of m-w.com‘s Word-Of-The-Day email, I learn that sleep is not, in fact, the cousin of death.
thanatology \than-uh-TAH-luh-jee\ noun : the description or study of the phenomena of death and of psychological mechanisms for coping with them
Did you know?
In Greek mythology, Thanatos was the personification of death, the twin brother of Hypnos (Sleep). The ancient Greeks eventually came to use "thanatos" as a generic word for "death." "Thanatology" is a direct linguistic heir of the Greek term and it was first documented in English in the mid-1800s. In 1935, the name "Thanatos" made a comeback in English, ushered in with psychoanalytic theory and describing an unconscious tendency toward self-destruction.
* How many times have we heard that one?
