© 2018 Halbert Katzen, JD
The direct route to approaching this etymology is circular. Of course, we need to start at the beginning, but only for the purpose of explaining why we need to start at the end. If we do not start with an understanding of where this is going, then the ride at the beginning is not going to be nearly as much fun. I want inspire fun questions, not questions like “Are we having fun yet?” or “When are we going to get there? I’m hungry!”
So, take this moment, my blessed babes, and suckle yourselves on the etymology of -ta:
ta: 1772, “natural infantile sound of gratitude.”
By way of context, consider how The Urantia Book references Isaiah 66 and then what is said shortly before what is referenced:
This is the same renovated earth, the advanced planetary stage, that the olden seer envisioned when he wrote: “‘For, as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, so shall you and your children survive; and it shall come to pass that from one new moon to another and from one Sabbath to another all flesh shall come to worship before me,’ says the Lord.” (Isaiah 66:22-23) (UB 52:7.12)
Now consider these earlier passages from Isaiah 66:
11 For you will nurse and be satisfied at her comforting breasts; you will drink deeply and delight in her overflowing abundance.” 12 For this is what the LORD says: “I will extend peace to her like a river, and the wealth of nations like a flooding stream; you will nurse and be carried on her arm and dandled on her knees. 13 As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you … Isaiah 66:11-13
Note how the above passages from Isaiah add even more intrigue to these statements from The Urantia Book:
… It is altogether possible that, in some future age when Urantia is approaching the era of light and life, after the affairs of the Lucifer rebellion … have been finally adjudicated, we may witness the presence on Urantia, simultaneously, of Machiventa, Adam, Eve, and Christ Michael [Jesus] … (UB 93:10.8)
When such an era is attained on your world, no doubt Machiventa Melchizedek, now the vicegerent Planetary Prince of Urantia, will occupy the seat of the Planetary Sovereign; and it has long been conjectured … that he will be accompanied by a son and daughter of the Urantia Adam and Eve … These children of Adam might so serve on Urantia in association with the Melchizedek-Sovereign since they were deprived of procreative powers almost 37,000 years ago at the time they gave up their material bodies on Urantia … [Emphasis added.] (UB 55:7.3)
Similar to -ta but with a far less infantile overlay is the meaning of ven:
veneration (n.) early 15c., from Old French veneracion, from Latin venerationem (nominative veneratio) “reverence, profoundest respect,” noun of action from past participle stem of venerari “to worship, revere,” from venus (genitive veneris) “beauty, love, desire” (from PIE root *wen- (1) “to desire, strive for”).
The use of French, given the larger context of continued suffering from the Lucifer Rebellion, makes the identifying difference between the French and United States court systems worth noting. The French court system is known for being an inquisitorial or non adversarial system. The Unites States court system is known for being an adversarial system.
In any case, etymological consideration of the last two syllables suggests some type of association between a more mature expression of worshipful veneration and a more childlike quality of worshipful appreciation.
So, with the end behind us, we now circle back to the beginning, to the first two syllables of Machiventa.
Basically, there are three ways etymologically to approach the first two syllables of Machiventa. And “Mac” says “hi” isn’t one of them. So, we begin with Mach-i.
mach: measure of speed relative to the speed of sound (technically Mach number), named in honor of Austrian physicist Ernst Mach (1838-1916).
I (pron.): 12c., a shortening of Old English ic, the first person singular nominative pronoun, from Proto-Germanic ek (source also of Old Frisian ik, Old Norse ek, Norwegian eg, Danish jeg, Old High German ih, German ich, Gothic ik), from PIE eg- “I,” nominative form of the first person singular pronoun (source also of Sanskrit aham, Hittite uk, Latin ego (source of French Je), Greek ego, Russian ja, Lithuanian aš).
-i: as a termination in certain people names (Iraqi, Israeli), it represents the common Semitic national designation suffix -i.
-i-: a “connective” element in many words formed with Latin or Greek suffixes, now often felt as part of them (as in -iac, -iacal, -ial, -ian, -ify, -ity, etc.). Properly it forms no proper part of the suffix but is often the stem-vowel of the initial word in the Latin compounds (genial from genius), or a modified form of it. As such forms were very common, -i- was used merely connectively or euphonically in some Latin compounds (uniformis) and in later words made from Latin components in English or French (centennial, editorial).
Machiventa’s mission, his epochal revelation, his words needed to be carried to the world through testimony, by the speed of sound, if you will, even if those sounds needed to travel by foot and boat. And his **i-**ndividuality has significance because Machiventa is due to return and to rule. Perhaps not surprisingly, given the efforts to eliminate him from the Old Testament records, only knowledge of his order remains in the records—the order of Melchizedek. In any case, Mach-i, can be thought of in relationship to testimony (the speed of sound) carrying his (this specific **i**ndividual’s) original teachings.
Moving on to Ma-chi, we have:
ma: childish or colloquial shortening of mamma, by 1823. “Also applied colloq. to a middle-aged or elderly woman, esp. one in authority” [OED].
chi (n.): 22nd letter of the Greek alphabet, representing a -kh- sound (see ch). The letter is shaped like an X, and so the Greek letter name was used figuratively to signify such a shape or arrangement (as in khiasma “two things placed crosswise;” khiastos “arranged diagonally; marked with an X;” khiazein “to mark with an ‘X’, to write the letter ‘X’”). Some dialects used chi to represent the -ks- sound properly belonging to xi; Latin picked this up and the sound value of chi in Latin-derived alphabets is now that of English X.
This syllabic division plays off the suckling infant images etymologically related to the latter part of the word and plays into the “X” marks the spot associations with the Bald Knob Cross of Peace and the two full solar eclipses on Urantia Book sabbath days. See the Topical Study: Prophecy and “signs of the times.”
Machi, taken as a whole, leads to noteworthy associations with both Spanish and French connections_—machismo_ and machine, respectively:
machismo (n.): “male virility, masculine pride,” 1940, from American Spanish machismo, from Spanish macho “male” + ismo (see -ism).
In The Urantia Book, incarnating is clearly considered to be a macho move.
machine (n.): 1540s, “structure of any kind,” from Middle French machine “device, contrivance,” from Latin machina “machine, engine, military machine; device, trick; instrument.
machine (n.) + -ery. Originally theatrical, “devices for creating stage effects” (which also was a sense of Greek mēkhanē); meaning “machines or parts of machines considered collectively,” is attested from 1731. Transferred meaning “any complex system of (non-mechanical) means to carry on a particular work” is by 1770.
The political sense “a strict organization of the working members of a political party to secure a predominating influence for themselves and their associates” is U.S. slang, attested by 1876. Machine age_,_ a time notable for the extensive use of mechanical devices, is attested by 1882, though there is this:
“The idea of remodelling society at public meetings is one of the least reasonable which ever entered the mind of an agitator: and the notion that the relations of the sexes can be re-arranged and finally disposed of by preamble and resolution, is one of the latest, as it should have been the last, vagary of a machine age.” [“The Literary World,” Nov. 1, 1851]
machine for living (in) “house” translates Le Corbusier’s machine à habiter (1923).
machine-made (adj.): “made by a machine or machinery” (opposed to man-made), by 1837, from machine (n.) + made.
So, apparently, best as I can tell, the etymology of this word means something like:
When it takes more than a man-made effort, when the team needs to use all the tools in the bag and all the tricks in the book to set the stage for their best macho machine, whose Word breaks the sound barrier between worlds, who arrives next time where “X” marks the spot with a world redeeming Madonna, and who leads the world to learn to venerate our Father like the babes we are … if this is what it takes, then Machiventa is who we need!