Good Things Start with “Eu-“
Did you know that “eu” is the Greek root for “good”?
Here are some “eu-” words you probably already know:
Here are some others you might enjoy:
- Euphony – Harmony or agreeableness of sound.
- Eupraxia – Normally coordinated muscle performance.
- Eupepsia – Good digestion.
- Eudaimonia – A state of happiness and flourishing, especially as understood by Aristotle and other ancient Greek philosophers.
This last word, eudaimonia, popped up recently in a Harvard Business Review post about living a meaningful life, mostly by eschewing consumerism.
The economy we have today will let you chow down on a supersize McBurger, check derivative prices on your latest smartphone, and drive your giant SUV down the block to buy a McMansion on hypercredit. It’s a vision of the good life that I call (a tiny gnat standing on the shoulders of the great Amartya Sen) hedonic opulence. And it’s a conception built in and for the industrial age: about having more. Now consider a different vision: maybe crafting a fine meal, to be accompanied by local, award-winning microbrewed beer your friends have brought over, and then walking back to the studio where you’re designing a building whose goal is nothing less than rivaling the Sagrada Familia. That’s an alternate vision, one I call eudaimonic prosperity, and it’s about living meaningfully well.
Of course, to understand this article, you would need to know the words hedonic and opulence.
Vocabulary is important! GRE students sometimes wonder, “Who uses all these words?” Nearly every published source worth reading, it turns out — not just the literary or liberal-arts ones.