Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2015 May 3

= May 3 =

Persian (including Old Persian): Does it have any word similar to the English word "good" by both sound and meaning?
Unfortunately, neither / xub / (خوب) nor / xuʃ / (خوش) are phonetically similar to the English "good" (all of them have a similar meaning, though).

Alternatively, does Persian have a word deriving from the same etymological source the English word "good" derives from? HOOTmag (talk) 08:53, 3 May 2015 (UTC)


 * No. Omidinist (talk) 14:55, 3 May 2015 (UTC)


 * Interestingly, the words God and Khoda (I hope that's the right transliteration) are cognates, but unintuitively, the English words "good" and "god" don't come from the same root. There's also the famous case of bad which is coincidentally the same in Farsi and English. μηδείς (talk) 17:23, 3 May 2015 (UTC)


 * I may add that Waiting for Godot, in which Godo is a pseudonym for God, can be translated in Persian as Waiting for Khodo to suggest Khoda (خدا). Omidinist (talk) 18:54, 3 May 2015 (UTC)

Latin-to-English translation
I have been studying a facsimile of a degree from Harvard University, in which the field of study is (in the accusative case) "Rerum Numerandarum Rationem", which seems to mean "account of things to be counted", indicating "Accounting". (The noun "ratio" has many other meanings besides "account".) I did not find "Accounting" listed at http://www.fas.harvard.edu/pages/degree-programs-courses, and I did not find it listed at http://www.gsas.harvard.edu/programs_of_study/degree_programs.php. That second page lists "Mathematics" and "Statistics", but "Mathematics" corresponds to "la:Mathematica", and "Statistics" corresponds to "la:Statistica". I have searched in printed dictionaries, and on the World Wide Web. Am I correct to understand that this degree is in "Accounting"? —Wavelength (talk) 23:02, 3 May 2015 (UTC)
 * Could be, but it could also be that whatever Harvard uses for "mathematics" or "statistics" (or "accounting") does not correspond to what is used on the Latin Wikipedia. When is the degree from? Is it possible to scan the whole degree so we can see it here? That might help. Adam Bishop (talk) 23:39, 3 May 2015 (UTC)
 * I am reluctant to provide the entire text of the diploma, because of concerns about confidentiality. The date on the diploma is "die X Martii anno Domini MMXV" (that is, "March 10, 2015"), so the degree was given less than two months ago.
 * —Wavelength (talk) 23:57, 3 May 2015 (UTC) and 23:59, 3 May 2015 (UTC)
 * Are you sure it's from the Faculty of Arts and Sciences? The Business School offers a doctorate in accounting and management. Marco polo (talk) 00:23, 4 May 2015 (UTC)
 * Hmm...March 10 was one of the graduation dates for all the schools, so that doesn't help much. But Harvard has a big business school of course, so maybe it's a business degree? There is an "Accounting and Management" doctoral program within HBS. Adam Bishop (talk) 00:30, 4 May 2015 (UTC) (Oops, Marco beat me to it...)
 * The diploma includes the words "Professoribus Artium et Scientiarum" ("to the Professors of Arts and Sciences").
 * —Wavelength (talk) 00:41, 4 May 2015 (UTC)
 * Well, I don't know how it works at Harvard specifically, but it's possible that doctoral degrees are technically granted by the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. There is also a doctorate in Business Economics that is a joint GSAS and HBS program. Or maybe it's just a generic thing to put on the diploma, since "arts and sciences" pretty much covers it all, and maybe they don't make special diplomas in Latin for HBS. It's difficult to say if we can't actually see it. Can you cover up the info that would be confidential? Adam Bishop (talk)
 * I have just discovered a similar diploma (and a translation) at
 * http://www.noscalpelvasectomies.net/vasectomy/Latin_Translations_-_Harvard_PhD.html.
 * Only the specialty, the recipient, the date, and some of the signatories are different.
 * —Wavelength (talk) 02:10, 4 May 2015 (UTC)
 * Haha, yeah I saw that too, what a strange website for that...anyway that was what made me think that PhDs are awarded by GSAS no matter what program the student is actually in. Adam Bishop (talk) 02:56, 4 May 2015 (UTC)
 * Thank you both for your replies.—Wavelength (talk) 03:34, 4 May 2015 (UTC)