Isn’t it important to know the words and phrases we use daily? I think so. I imagine most folks have no clue as to the origin of the words and phrases they may speak. Kind of nuts going through life that way, isn’t it?
I certainly need to improve my vocabulary and understanding of language. The sources, the origins. This is especially true, I believe, for anyone that is a Christ follower, as we ought to take the time to learn and understand as best we possibly can the culture and times of the people, places and events of the whole Holy Bible, as well as at least have a cursory understandings of numerous word translations of the Hebrew, the Greek, and the Aramaic.
Yesterday, in pastor Jack Hibbs’ sermon on Romans 13:1-7, he mentioned how a Representative in the U.S. Congress — should be highly educated and aware, shouldn’t they? — how he mocked pastor Jack’s prayer in Congress by concluding a prayer with “Awoman.”
The representative merely revealed his utter ignorance in not knowing what “Amen” means and why it’s said at the conclusion of prayers. Evil is so blind in its hatred of God, of Jesus, of the Holy Spirit, of the inerrant infallible unchangeable eternal living and active Word of God, and of those who have been renewed of spirit, mind and heart, born from above they now openly reveal their hatred and ignorance daily, by the minute. Be aware. Be prepared. Don’t shrink from it. The light needs to shine into all the darkness. One light at a time.
To also reveal the times we live in, the advanced spell check with AI — can’t avoid it these days — that is ingrained here had no problem with my typing “Awoman” and didn’t cast a red line under that made up word. Such are our current times.
But, back to “Amen”, if not aware — it has nothing to do with gender or the patriarchy. It has everything to do with affirming what has been spoken. As in “so be it,” or “truly,” or “certainly.”
Excerpt from my Jewish Learning;
The word amen is a liturgical response to hearing someone else recite a blessing or certain prayers. The Hebrew root of amen, aleph-mem-nun (אמנ), is shared with the word emunah, meaning faith or belief. Reciting amen is thus an indication that the speaker affirms the truth of what was said, an indication reflected in its common English translation as “verily” or “truly.” It is used in both religious contexts — as a response to a blessing or prayer — and sometimes to punctuate everyday declarations. Jews typically pronounce it ah-men rather than ay-men, which is more common in other faith traditions.
Ignorance is not bliss. It’s just ignorance.
Break the ice daily by spending about 3 to 5 minutes of the 1440 minutes of the day blessed with looking up a new word’s origin, meaning, and usage, so we can all know a bit better what we’re saying.
Let it begin with me.
If possessing a cold heart towards the LORD, towards God Almighty, towards the Holy Bible, if grown lukewarm, backslidden, on autopilot, if unbelieving and just getting through each day wondering a bit, wondering a lot…wow, in fear — stop it already. Right now. Today. Break the ice and find a quiet place and reach up in heart, mind, and action to the LORD your God, even if you claim not to believe in Him, or blame Him for what you’ve done, or others have done to you. Seek the truth of the LORD, just as we all need to seek the truth and origin of the words and phrases we all use daily.
Read on…
Ken Pullen, Monday, April 28th, 2025
“Breaking the ice” — Thank a 15th century Dutch theologian
The bold act of “breaking the ice” is common practice in modern social settings, but the expression stems from centuries-old maritime tradition.
April 28, 2025
By Rachel Gresh
Reprinted from Word Smarts
An idiom, by definition, is a phrase in which the overall meaning is understood separately from the individual meanings of the words. Some idioms are so ingrained in our collective vocabulary that we never think about what the true meanings are. Consider the idiom “break the ice.” This expression — meaning “to say or do something to relieve tension” — might seem like a modern invention designed for cocktail parties or business meetings, but it actually has roots in the Italian Renaissance.
For the origin of this well-loved idiom, we look to Desiderius Erasmus, a 15th-century Dutch theologian. Erasmus recorded a collection of over 4,000 annotated Greek and Latin proverbs (idioms) in his book Adagia. “Break the ice” is among these expressions, recorded in the first installment of the book as proverb No. 374. Erasmus credits this saying to an Italian humanist by the name of Francesco Filelfo. In his own words, Erasmus states that the expression “break the ice” means “to open the way and to be the first in beginning a task.” He says it is “derived from boatmen who send one of their number ahead to break up the ice on a frozen river and open the way for others.” In a modern twist, ships specifically designed for breaking up channel ice are dubbed “icebreakers.”
William Barker — a 20th-century editor who compiled the work of Erasmus in The Adages of Erasmus — believes that Erasmus was citing Filelfo’s Epistolae, letters addressed to the leading humanists and lords of Italy. They exemplify the political and literary goings-on of the Italian Renaissance. Today, one volume of these letters is preserved in the renowned Uffizi Library in Florence, Italy. The specific expression that Filelfo uses in the letters is glaciem fregi, meaning “I have broken the ice.” Barker also notes that unlike nearly all of the other proverbs listed by Erasmus, “break the ice” is not found in any classical Latin literature in the figurative sense — adding an air of mystery to the origin of the expression.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, when the expression first emerged in English, it was used to reference the beginning of an undertaking, especially faced with difficulty or resistance, akin to the difficulty of literally breaking through ice in water. Oxford’s first citation of the phrase is from the mid-16th-century divorce papers for Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon: “This reuerend father..chaunced..to be one of the first that brake the yse, and [showed]..the inconvenience that followed.”
By the late 18th century, the expression had evolved slightly to mean “to do or say something to relieve tension or get conversation going” — the same manner in which we often use it today. We can see this usage in a 1795 collection of poems by Samuel Jackson Pratt, titled Gleanings through Wales, Holland and Westphalia: “Notwithstanding…, there is an air of distance, reserve, and even coldness, they are all.., replete with an anxious desire to break the ice.” While business meetings and orientation halls are less fanciful circumstances, the idiom’s meaning still stands, two centuries later.
Idioms that only Americans understand
Leave A Comment