Words, words, and more words!
But, the Socratic method does work; debate can
uncover truth. But, the word "meaning" intended must
be understood as well!
> > Well, I just have to say this. Tom, your slams are
>>just way too personal
> Your choice. As my dad used to say, "don't let the door
>hit you in the a** on the way out"
> Thank God there are differences amongst men and
>opinions and we are strong enough to debate them openly.
Does work; and now, way off topic, how did words come
to have the "meanings" they do?
If you want a really fun read about how the spelling and
meaning of our English language words at last came to
be "set", go check out from your library the new book:
"The Professor and the Madman", by Simon Winchester,
HarperCollins Publishers.
This is the amazing tale of several attempts at getting
the English language "correct"!
Shakespeare had no word guide to either usage nor
spelling! In fact, none existed, and there was not even
in the language the concept of "looking a word up" in his
time!
The same held true during the time of the works of
Francis Drake, Walter Raleigh, Francis Bacon, Christopher
Marlowe, Ben Johnson and all the other of their near
contemporaries! About 150 years after Shakespeare had
finished the "Twelfth Night" (probably about 1601), and after
some six years effort in 1755, Samuel Johnson,
(following much complaining by the likes of Alexander
Pope, Daniel Defoe, and Jonothan Swift, author of Gulliver's
Travels, about the lack of agreement on word spelling, meaning,
and need to "fix" the language) published the first real
English language dictionary, two volumes, leather bound,
which alleged to not only list the "hard" words, but all words
in use in the language!
But his was not the definitive final word on the spelling/meaning
of English words. For that another hundred years was to pass,
when another attempt would begin about 1858, and 70
years later, in 1928 the complete twelve volume Oxford
English Dictionary would be published and become the
definitive guide to use, examples, spelling, and apparent
sources of ALL known English language words.
About 1978 a complete second edition was done of the
OED, integrating the then existing supplemental volumes into
one twenty (!) volume whole, each enormously heavy
volume bound in rich dark blue cloth.
These volumes establish and define the English language.
Have a look for the book mentioned above for the amazing
story of how this has come to be, and how it continues to
be modulated by the way we use the language daily. While
at the library, ask if they have copies of the OED volumes,
they may, or may not. If they do, "look up" Orient, for
the Eastern part of the world as viewed from England,
and compare to the source/meaning of "to be disoriented"!
How did "yoke" come to be what is about an ox's neck when
tasked to pull a cart, and "yolk" to be the inner substance
within an egg?
73, Jim, KH7M
On the Garden Island of Kauai
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