[Windflier]

What is the linguistic origin of Palin, or the one you have assumed? (Germanic, Greek, what?)

From Dictionary.com:

palingenesis \pal-in-JEN-uh-sis\ , noun;

1. Rebirth; regeneration.
2. In biology, embryonic development that reproduces the ancestral features of the species.
3. Baptism in the Christian faith.
4. The doctrine of transmigration of souls.

Origin:
Palingenesis is the combination of two Greek roots: palin, "again," and genesis, "source."

From the Concise English Dictionary:
Palingenesis: “a new birth; reincarnation, a second creation, regeneration, unmodified inheritance of ancestral character, the new formation of a rock by re-fusion.”

[scrabblehack]

Is Sarah Palin of Greek extraction, then?

For years, I wrongly assumed that the Latin word pagus = “rural area; country” was related to the Greek word pagos = “rocky hill.”

[scrabblehack]

Also there was a discussion on Free Republic some time ago about “gopher wood” in the Bible. It is unrelated to the gopher animal — that’s just how the Hebrew letters transliterate.