Esperanto Blog

Esperanto has always enjoyed a remarkably intuitive number system. We use root words for the cardinal numbers 0-9, and then there are various prefixes to denote larger and larger multiples. So, where languages like Spanish have words like cuarenta for 40 [N.B. - Thank you for catching me in yet another moment of stupidity, Toraku!], Esperanto uses kvardek. At a glance, you can tell it means “four tens,” or 40. (I don’t mean to disparage the Spanish language by citing it here…I simply want to make a comparison for Esperanto’s benefit, and I remember being bothered by numbers in my pre-university days!)

Since we’ve stumbled into a new year, and a new decade, I figured it would help to provide a list of some Esperanto time denominations. They work much like the Esperanto number system – find the root word you need (probably jaro, meaning “year”), and append the requisite number. At this rate, you can be a historian in no time at all!

Day – tago
Week – semajno
Month – monato
Year – jaro
Decade – jardeko / dekjaro (ten-year)
Century – jarcento / centjaro (hundred-year)
Millennium – jarmilo / miljaro (thousand-year)
Era – erao
Epoch – epoko
Generation – generacio (not really a time denomination, but appropriate for a discussion about years!)

Do you have snow where you live yet? For me, winter began about two weeks ago with the first snowfall, and the snow continues to pile up all across my region of the States. Some people dislike the snow, since ili bezonos sxoveli, but I love all the fun activities that come with it. (And yes, I consider shoveling snow to be fun!)

A word for this chilly season that you can keep in the back of your mind is the term glitveturilo. Let’s take a look at what it could possibly mean. We have glit-, which connotes slipping (think glita, meaning “slippery,” or gliti, “to glide”). There is vetur-, which brings about the notion of riding or traveling. Lastly, we have -ilo, meaning “tool.” Any guesses as to what they mean when they combine?

A “glitveturilo” is a sled, or a sleigh. Makes sense in retrospect, right? It’s a tool you ride by sliding all over the place. (With luck, your auxtomobilo won’t fit that description during the winter months!) Now, you have a word to use when you’re atop a large, snowy hill, and need to think of how to reach the bottom quickly.

An interesting synonym for the English verb “to tempt” is the word “tantalize.” It can mean “to tease,” but it also connotes some temptation – “tantalizing” refers to something that arouses want, mostly due to that something’s unattainable nature. The word itself comes from the name of the Greek trickster-hero Tantalus, whose skills in deception led the gods to punish him. The legends place him in Tantarus, a region of the underworld reserved for evil-doers; in his particular portion, Tantalus is placed in water that recedes from him when he attempts to drink it, and underneath a fruit tree whose branches dangle ever higher when he tries to procure some of its fruit.

My point is that “tantalize” is one of the cooler English verbs. You can use it as a way to remember the Esperanto word for “tempt.” In Esperanto, we use tenti as “to tempt,” or “to entice.” Phonetically, it’s similar to the name of Tantalus. So, if the lack of an immediate cognate trips you up, think of synonyms for “to tempt.” You’ll remember in no time!

La kuko cxokolada tentas min. – The chocolate cake tempts me.