Spirothete

Submitted by Hermit Barber on Fri, 2010-01-22 15:11

Spirothete, a word coined to describe a living (self-aware) being, initially created as an artifact. From Latin*, spiro -are; intransit., to breathe, blow, draw breath; to be alive; to have inspiration; be inspired; transit., to breath out, expire (also L/Gk spiro- the breath of life) and synthetic adj 1: (chemistry) not of natural origin; prepared or made artificially 2: involving or of the nature of synthesis (combining separate elements to form a coherent whole) as opposed to analysis. Initially introduced on the CoV in 2002 http://virus.lucifer.com/archive/0205/2636.html.

Also Spirothetic, adjective, describing something having the attributes of a spirothete.

Responding to a bloviating critic at Wiktionary (who should have read the deleted definition which asserted that it was in fact a neologism and cited the first use (as above)) (from the deletion log at Wiktionary):

spirothete

Maybe a protologism? SemperBlotto 08:45, 23 November 2005 (UTC)

Probably, from the unwieldiness in the etymology: "spiros" is neither Greek nor Latin for the breath of life (in fact, it doesn't appear to exist at all, though spirare is legitimately Latin). It's an ugly blend, too... If "spirothete" were a properly built word (from something like Ancient Greek *σπειρόθετος) it would mean something like "curled into a spiral (i.e., σπεῖρα), coiled," or possibly "wrapped in a cloth (i.e., σπεῖρον)." —Muke Tever 19:05, 4 December 2005 (UTC)

First response:

spiro-, spir-, spira-, spirat-, -spire, -spiring, -spiration, -spirational (Latin: breath of life, breath, breathing, mind, spirit, courage, “soul”). Source: http://www.lexfiles.com/basic-latin-l-v.html (Accessed 2008-03-09)

Tever's reply

1, this is an archive page, not being actively watched.

2, mixing Latin roots with Greek is highly inelegant, hence my remark about it not being properly built. —Muke Tever 23:23, 14 March 2006 (UTC)

A second response not posted at Wiktionary, given Tever's ability to blythely ignore exposure of bigotted assertions and the direct rebuttal of his unfounded rejection of spiro- as a word through recourse to a dictionary, along with his quick shift of the goalposts to an alternative, though still invalid, objection. A word does not require a dictionary to be useful - although being in dictionaries indubitably speeds adoption and dissemination of words. Which means that AI practioners and others familiar with "spirothetes" will merely continue to apply this rather useful little portmanteaux word (for which no accessible synonyms exist) and which encapsulates the intersection of evolutionary General AI and self-awareness in the same way as the Romans and later definers of Latin merrily adopted Greek and other "foreign" words, not realizing how this would come to be regarded as "highly inelegant":

Even though the current objection is farcical as well as irrelevant, it is perhaps worth observing that the synthesis of neo-Latin words to describe artificial creations has a long history. We don't have to look very far for an example [from dictionary.reference.com]: "synthesis 1690–1700; < Neo-Latin syntheticus < Greek synthetikós, equivalent to synthet ( ós ) placed together, verbid of syntithénai to put together ( syn- syn- + the-, stem of tithénai to put, place + -tos verbid suffix) + -ikos -ic". Perhaps the fact that it is "not properly built" that made "-thete" seem like an appropriate ending for this syncretion of the natural and the instigated (not "created" per se, because a spirothete will almost certainly be the product of self-directed evolution).

Refer also: Artificial Intelligence and http://latinlexicon.org/definition.php?p1=1015468 (Accessed 2012-04-29) spīrō āvī, ātus, āre, to breathe, draw breath, respire: dum spirare potero: ne spirare quidem sine metu possunt: sunt qui ab eo (Clodio) spirante forum putent potuisse defendi, i. e. while alive: margarita viva ac spirantia saxis avelli, Ta.: spirantia consulit exta, still panting, V.: non sunt ausi admovere (corpori), velut spiranti, manūs, Cu.: graviter spirantis copia thymbrae, i. e. of strong odor, V.: Di maris et terrae . . . spirate secundi, i. e. be propitious, V. —With acc, to breathe out, exhale, emit: flammas, L.: flamina, O.: divinum odorem, V. —To breathe, blow, be exhaled, burst forth: Letiferis calidi spirarunt flatibus austri, O.: Quā vada non spirant, rage, V.: fervet fretis spirantibus aequor, boiling, V. —Fig., to breathe, live, be alive: videtur Laeli mens spirare etiam in scriptis: spirat adhuc amor puellae, H.: Parii lapides spirantia signa, V. —To be inspired, have poetic inspiration: Quod spiro, tuum est, H. —With acc, to breathe forth, exhale, be full of, be inspired with, aim at: mendacia, Iu.: amores, H.: tribunatum, L.: maiora, Cu.: immane, V.