Where the State got its Name

By Greg -
Stand is a very old word, linked directly to the Indo-European word whose English descendants include nearly every word that begins or ends with st. The fixed stars got their name from the ancient word that conveyed staying put, standing by, and is now the -stan in all countries like Afghanistan an Pakistan. It is the stage upon which the action occurs. It is all things at rest, and all things real are substantial, i.e., derived from the changeless, eternal, permanent truth. It's no coincidence that we call them stones, and that when we are astounded, we stop what we're doing and stand, staring like a statue. Conversely, we haven't inherited an equally ancient word for things that don't stay put, which move and change. We describe them only as having been perturbed out of their natural state by some outside influence, some cause to which their restlessness can be attributed. This is, perhaps, one of the deepest and most intractable concepts in the psyche of all of the Indo-European's descendants. It's why even Einstein had trouble with the natural implications of his own theories and observations, that the universe is not now, never was, and never will be, at rest.

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