h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Here's another one to consider without looking it up.

Sublime, as in 'from the sublime to the ridiculous'.

It appears to be 'sub', as in under, and 'lime', a green sour fruit rich in Vitamin C.

But what's so what's so sublime about being under a lime?

Dare I suggest it may come from the same source as the (now considered derogatory) term 'limey' referring to Brits as a result of the Royal Navy's policy of providing limes to sailors to prevent scurvy. Can it be that somehow, someone actually thought that being under the influence of limes was a good thing? I suppose, considering the alternative, scurvy, it might be.


~jwf~

And on that tack, maybe 'consternation' derives from being keel-hauled.

Ever been to Berlin, jwf? Unter den Linden's simply sublime.

Divine decadence, daaahling.

http://www.oed.com/news/updates/revisions0803.html

>> ...maybe 'consternation' derives from being keel-hauled <<

LOL.
Take a bow sir!


I'm now considering that the lime which one is under in sublime may refer to the powdery substance (sometimes also erroneously called lye*) made from ground limestone which is used to dissolve rotting corpses. But again I'm unable to imagine anything sublime about being under it.

~jwf~

*Lye is created out of a chemical reaction between soda, known as sodium carbonate, and calcium hydroxide, or lime.

Excuse the subject line - I've had a lot of backlog to catch up on.

I learnt something from ~jwt~:

I didn't know this about Nightwash - one of my kids' and my favourite TV programmes:
"At about this same time there was a German phenomenon of 'night laundering' stand-up comics who performed, at night, in public coin operated laundromats throughout Germany, for free, to a relatively captive audience, apparently to prove that German can have a sense of humour. Some of them actually made it onto a German TV special which featured a few of these performances."

**********
But I don't think "Dingdsda" can take any gender - it is always neuter.
**********

As for "tenet" and "tenacious", "tenable" and all the rest of that group - I just assumed they all derived from the word meaning "to hold" that gave us tenir (french) tenire(Italian) and tener(?)(Spanish). Giving us the English words tension, tenable, tenacious, tenuous.

Tenet is actually Latin for he holds. The Latin verb tenere means to hold. Of the words you listed, tenable and tenacious derive from tenere. Tension derives from the Latin tensio, which is some participle of tendere - to stretch. Tenuous comes from the Latin tenuis, a participle of tenare - to make thin.

************

Regarding Dingsda, my dictionary (Cassells German) has the following in the German->English section:

Dings: 1. n. (inv.) (coll.) thingamy(bob), what's-its-name; 2. m., f., (inv.) (coll.) what's-his/her-name
Dingsda: 1. n. (inv.) you know where; 2. m., f., (inv.) see Dings m., f.

The English->German section puts it slightly differently, giving 'der or die or das Dingsda' as being German for thingumabob, possibly depending on the gender of the 'thingumabob' you're thinking of. I only checked the English->German section when I did my prior post, and the two definitions seem to conflict slightly.

This thread is way too quiet. There was an article in New Scientist last week about the future of English.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19726491.300 (but you must register for the full article)

Quite interesting, so it was. Apparently there are 79 formerly irregular verbs in English which have become regular since Old English, but the rate is slowing down.

And 'loophole' comes from...

loophole
1464, from M.E. loupe "opening in a wall" (c.1300), perhaps related to M.Du. lupen "to watch, peer;" + hole. Figurative sense of "outlet, means of escape" is from 1663.

Been bugging me all week, that one.

According to Steven Pinker, as older, less familiar irregular verbs become regularised, new ones come into use. Such as "dive dove", "catch caught" and so on.

<<"catch caught" and so on.>>

Is caught quite recent then? I'd've thought that would've been taken from French or somewhere yonks ago.


Welcome back, btw.

I think catch caught is about 200 years old, but the original post was talking about Old English which went out about 1,000 years ago, so 200 years is recent. In the 18th Century, it was catch catched.

Cor! 'Caught' is especially interesting because it pulls in the fossilised -gh- of the Kentish dialect. They - and Caxton, who was Flemish, would have pronounced it in the throat-clearing Dutch manner. But nobody did that 200 years ago. So why bring in a silent -gh?

Caught was invented by analogy with "taught", although catch is not the same sound as teach.

Well, quite. It seems odd to borrow an irregular spelling.

And, without looking it up, the present of wrought (as in wrought iron)is??
Thank you for the resurrection. Here's another little snippet from Hong Kong for you: on the steps down to the main road is a neat notice saying "place no junk". In true HK fashion it overlooks where all the rubbish bags are put for collection every night,

OK, I looked it up, but the present of wrought is work. Actually, what I looked up was 'wright', as in wheelwright, shipwright, etc. The words are so similar that I felt they had to be related and they are. Wright comes from an Old English word for work, hence a wright is somebody who works at or crafts something. Wrought iron is iron that has been worked (forged or rolled, according to my dictionary), rather than cast.

One thing I can't find out from my dictionary is if 'wright' was ever a verb. Wrought as the past participle of wright just feels right, if you'll excuse the choice of words.

Two wrights don't make a rong.

Speaking of signs, a road near me has a sign:

NO TROUGH ROAD

So if your horse is thirsty, go somewhere else.

You don't live in Ireland do you Gnomon?

t.