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paper-machine comments on A Marriage Ceremony for Aspiring Rationalists - Less Wrong
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I don't believe that's correct. According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, benediction is (clearly) Latin, whereas blessing is old English. The hypothetically pre-Christian, proto-Germanic *blodison is about marking with blood, whereas benedicere/eulogein have far more secular and far less messy readings. Unfortunately 'eulogy' has non-marriage-friendly connotations.
Of course I didn't know all that when I suggested benediction. My original theory was that blessing has more religious connotations than benediction.
No, I meant they're the same concept from two different etymologies. A bracha is called "blessing" in English and "bénédiction" in French. Even the non-religious senses are still parallel in the two languages ("Mulan joined the army with her father's blessing"). So I assumed that when English absorbed the latter it would keep its meaning. Do you have an example where they'd clash? (Other than Eliezer's speech, obviously.)
I didn't know the original sense of "blessing", thanks for that.
That's interesting, because "Mulan joined the army with her father's benediction" triggers -- so to speak -- my English parser's quirks mode, whereas "Mulan... blessing" sounds standard. Maybe dialect and/or language environment specific, I guess?
Okay, so "blessing" is an exact translation of French "bénédiction" while "benediction" fills a different linguistic niche. Thanks.