To Live is to Sin?

Wednesday, May 26, 2004 | 8:58 pm

An interesting bit of etymology to ponder…

The modern English word sin derives from Old English synn. The same root shows up in other Germanic languages — e.g., Old Norse synd, German Sünde. It may ultimately derive from the Indo-European root *es-, which meant “to be.”

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6 Responses to "To Live is to Sin?"

  1. Adrian says:
    May 27th, 2004 at 7:23 am

    I bet Nietzsche might have something interesting or cynical about that somewhere.

  2. Amber says:
    May 27th, 2004 at 11:16 pm

    To be clear… this isn’t just something I made up, some random leap. I first heard one of my linguistics professors talk about it a few years ago. I can find references on the internet if anyone cares.

  3. Adrian says:
    May 27th, 2004 at 11:58 pm

    Yes, we care.

  4. Niki says:
    May 28th, 2004 at 6:03 pm

    Well, aren’t all humans beings supposed to have original sin, so we technically are supposed to sin (or be), because we were just “programmed” that way.

  5. Charles says:
    May 31st, 2004 at 11:48 am

    Interesting. Now, is that ‘being’ in the sense of ‘is’ (”Jane is a girl”) or in the sense of ‘this being the one’ (”Tim was executed, being found gulty in a court of law”)? Would you trace the etymology through the Latin sontis?

    At any rate, the connection of being to sin is found even in “contemporary” thinkers such as Heidegger and Derrida. While both may not have in mind the traditional concept of sin, they do put forward in their language the notion that guiltiness attaches to the very fact we are.

  6. Amber says:
    June 3rd, 2004 at 6:23 pm

    As far as I can tell, it’s being in the sense of your first example; existence. Tracing the etymology through Latin sontis sounds right. You get Spanish ser, French suis, etc…