ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the etymological roots of the words "communication" and "information." It demonstrates a connection between the two concepts and their evolution. The chapter suggests that the idea of information, that is, the social attitude which considers information an abstract essence and treats it as a thing, has historical antecedents which are quite old. At about the time that the idea of information failed to take hold in the Hellenistic cultures of the eastern Mediterranean, its taproot appeared in Rome. There the Romans conceived the ancestors of the words information and communication. The chapter provides an outline of the transformations that led to the meanings of information and communication. Since the idea of information emerged from historical and cultural processes, and since communication behavior is also a product of cultural history, the overlap between the two phenomena bears deeper exploration.
