The source of the Greek term
KLEPTOMANIA is Turkish
The Greek term "KLEPTOMANIA" (also
CLEPTOMANIA in English) is defined as
meaning "a
persistent neurotic impulse to steal, especially without
economic
motive." [1] In Webster's Dictionary, there are two entries
for this word. One
starts with "K" and the other with "C".
"CLEPTOMANIA",
when decoded letter-by-letter as "CALEPTO MANI", and read
phonetically as in
Turkish, is an anagram of Turkish expression
"ÇALIPTU
MENI" meaning "he stole me". Thus this composite Turkish
phrase has been
taken from Turkish and integrated into Greek, as most
other Greek words
have also been done so by way of anagrammatizing.
It seems that
ancient Greek linguists had a taste for Turkish words
and expressions in
making a language for themselves. Obviously the
Greek
"CLEPTOMANIA" made up from Turkish "ÇALIPTU MENI" is one of
them. In this Greek
anagram, the Turkish root word "ÇALIP" from
Turkish verb
"çalmak" meaning "to steal" has been used. In the
anagram, letter
"Ç" (ch) has been converted to letter "K" thus
alienating the
Turkish source word from Turkish. However the English
version of the word
has kept Turkish "Ç" as "C" in one version of the
word. This trick of
using "C" as "K" interchangeably is a way of
hiding Turkish
texts used as source material for words in both Greek
and Latin languages.
There are other
Greek terms which use the Turkish word "ÇALIP".
The Greek term
KLEPTIS means "thief, robber". KLEPTIS, [2] with K = C,
is an anagram of
Turkish word "ÇALIPTIZ" (ÇALIPSIZ) meaning "you
stole"
pointing to a "thief or robber".
The Greek term
KLEPTORIA, [3] again means "thief, robber". The term
KLEPTORIA, with K =
C, when rewritten as "CALEPTIR O", is an anagram
of Turkish word
"ÇALIPTIR O" meaning "he stole", thus again it is
pointing to a
"thief or robber".
Similarly, the
Greek term KLEPTIKON (or KLEPTIKOS), [4] meaning
"stealing,
thievish", with K = C, is an anagram of Turkish expression
"ÇALIPGANTI
(çalipgandi) meaning "it is compalsive stealing" or "it is
habitual
stealing". In this case the Greek ending "KON" is the
distorted form of
Turkish suffix "-GAN, -GEN" indicating "habit".
Thus from all of
these, it is evident that the ancient Greek linguists
took Turkish words
and phrases, anagrammatized them and thus made
encrypted words for
a language that they called their own. They
advocated this
manufactured language an independently developed
language without
mentioning its Turkish source, and the world
linguists believed
it.
REFERENCES:
[1] Webster's
Collegiate Dictionary, Fifth Edition, 1947, p. 555.
[2] DIVRY's
"Modern English-Greek and Greek-English Desk
Dictionary, p. 557.
[3] DIVRY's
"Modern English-Greek and Greek-English Desk
Dictionary, p. 557.
[4] DIVRY's
"Modern English-Greek and Greek-English Desk
Dictionary, p. 557.
Best wishes to all,
Polat Kaya
29/06/2004