Saturday, August 29, 2009

More on property

Continued from this post.

to own, to have something, or property -- what is proper to me(?)

What is the definition of dominion among the scholastics? To be able to exert control or exercise one's will over something?

Regarding one's body and the tools that one has: one can act as an agent cause with respect to an instrument. This is a matter of fact? But this alone cannot tell us what is right or wrong with respect to the use of an instrument. Some infer incorrectly that because one has use one has complete or absolute ownership, or that one is free to use/dispose of that property as one pleases?

OEM: property
c.1300, "nature, quality," later "possession" (a sense rare before 17c.), from an Anglo-Fr. modification of O.Fr. propriete (12c., Fr. propreté), from L. proprietatem (nom. proprietas) "ownership, property, propriety," lit. "special character" (a loan-translation of Gk. idioma), noun of quality from proprius "one's own, special" (see proper). Propertied "holding property" is from 1760. Hot property "sensation, a success" is from 1958.
own (adj.)
O.E. agen "one's own," lit. "possessed by," from P.Gmc. *aigana- "possessed, owned" (cf. O.S. egan, O.Fris. egin, O.N. eiginn, Du. eigen, Ger. eigen "own"), from pp. of PIE *aik- "to be master of, possess," source of O.E. agan "to have" (see owe).

own (v.)

evolved in early M.E. from O.E. geagnian, from root agan "to have, to own" (see own), and in part from own (adj.) (q.v.). It became obsolete after c.1300, but was revived early 17c., in part as a back-formation of owner (1340), which continued. To own up "make full confession" is from 1853.
proper
c.1225, "adapted to some purpose, fit, apt" (implied in properly), from O.Fr. propre (11c.), from L. proprius "one's own, particular to itself," from pro privo "for the individual." Proper name "belonging to or relating to the person or thing in question," is from c.1290, a sense also preserved in astronomical proper motion (c.1300). Meaning "socially appropriate" is first recorded 1704.

No comments: