The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #47438 Message #707497
Posted By: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
09-May-02 - 01:34 PM
Thread Name: Origins: Dives and Lazarus-or vice versa(Child 56)
Subject: RE: Help: Dives and Lazarus - or vice versa
Dives is Latin for rich, a rich man. The Reformed Academic pronunciation is Dee-ves. The Oxford English Dictionary goes with dee-ves (Oxbridge, upper class), but average Britons are probably taught Die-ves. Church Latin in English-speaking countries mostly goes with die-ves. Webster's Collegiate goes with Die-ves. The first printed usage in English is in Chaucer (14th C). How it was pronounced at that time is unknown.
How it would be pronounced in Ancient Greek, Aramaic, or other Biblical-age language is unknown. We know very little about English pronunciation before the vowel shift, let alone how people talked 2000 years ago. The word "dives" would only have appeared in Latin in Biblical times.