The Pundits of the Blogs : From Word of Mouth Bloggers to Internet Impresarios

The Pundits of the Blogs (RSS Title)

Nr. 1 - July 3, 2003 - posted by Andis Kaulins - Copyright © 2003 by Andis Kaulins

The major tool of the pundits of the blogs is language. We thus begin with an analysis of the origin of the word pundit - a term used to name some of the best of the blogs or describe their makers.

In modern times, the word pundit means "a learned man, an expert, a critic, a source of opinion, one who can speak with authority on some subject of importance". However, the word can also be used in the sense of a pundit who is a "self-appointed authority". Indeed, many bloggers fall into this latter category, commenting with self-alleged expertise on subjects of their choosing. Is this desirable?


Who today can we truly characterize as a learned man of authority? Espoused knowledge is not enough. Nicholas of Cusa wrote that a truly learned man admits to "learned ignorance". What he meant was that "knowing" necessarily brings the recognition of "not knowing". A know-it-all is not a pundit. Through the internet, massive amounts of factual information are available today to everyone - yet, it is their wise selection and analysis which is crucial to judgment.

The blogger or pundit of our day is a different breed of human than the pundit of yesteryear. Mainstream linguists claim that the term pundit derives from Sanskrit panditah meaning "learned, scholar" and this in turn is viewed as a word derived from the Dravidian language.


Another etymology for this word is suggested by the Baltic languages (Latvian and Lithuanian), the most ancient of all still spoken Indo-European tongues and very similar to the above-cited Sanskrit.

What does Baltic tell us about English pundit and Sanskrit panditah?
The Latvian root term pant- means "verse, stanza, paragraph" and the term pantot (whence pundit) means "to recite verses or paragraphs", which is what learned men of past eras did, for that was how history and knowledge were passed on orally from generation to generation before the advent of writing. An ancient pundit was a story-teller.

Word of mouth bloggers thus preceded modern internet impresarios.
So, what are the new stories? We will find out in future blogs.



Andis Kaulins, Owner of the PunditMania ® Blog, July 3, 2003