Pondering weird english words
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Pondering weird english words
 
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While reading a book last night talking about some characters relaxing. I've always been curious. If Re: is to do again. then what was laxing supposed to be?
Many people on this and the wed-tech list are REtired. So do you get Tired again then quit being a worker ? I seriously get these kind of words. Any guesses where they came from? ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com archives back to 2003: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove |
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re·lax Origin late Middle English: from Latin relaxare, from re-(expressing intensive force) + laxus ‘lax, loose.’ ----------------------------------- Frank Wimberly My memoir: https://www.amazon.com/author/frankwimberly My scientific publications: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Frank_Wimberly2 Phone (505) 670-9918 On Sun, Dec 30, 2018, 10:58 AM Gillian Densmore <[hidden email] wrote:
============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com archives back to 2003: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove |
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OOOH ok. Thanks! that makes sense now. if the slang: Pretty lax rules (for example) is kind of to be taken as: Well the rules and guidelines at this place have some leeway. Thanks that's really helpful and nifty to learn ^_^ On Sun, Dec 30, 2018 at 11:02 AM Frank Wimberly <[hidden email]> wrote:
============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com archives back to 2003: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove |
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In reply to this post by Gillian Densmore
Hi, Gill, Words are FUN! Back in the old days, when Latin and one other language, usually French, were part of a standard education, most words had a double association, the association that we all have (RE-tired, to be tired again) and the association that arose from having encountered the root for the word in another language. So, for instance, when I see “retired” I also see the French word “tirer”, to shoot, which would make the world mean “re-shot” or “shot back”. But then I also have a vague recollection of a latin verb, meaning to draw, and that leads me to wonder if perhaps the original meaning had to do with bows and arrows and perhaps the underlying metaphor is to draw back the string of the bow again. Now, all of this is probably wrong, and I will direct you to the correct etymology in a second, but just to say that having brushed up against a bunch of languages fills one’s head with a bunch of stuff that normal people might find bemusing. So, try etymology.com. Here is the entry for Retired. And here is the entire entry. retire (v.)1530s, of armies, "to retreat," from Middle French retirer "to withdraw (something)," from re- "back" (see re-) + Old French tirer "to draw" (see tirade). Related: Retired; retiring. Meaning "to withdraw" to some place, especially for the sake of privacy, is recorded from 1530s; sense of "leave an occupation" first attested 1640s (implied in retirement). Meaning "to leave company and go to bed" is from 1660s. Transitive sense is from 1540s, originally "withdraw, lead back" (troops, etc.); meaning "to remove from active service" is from 1680s. Baseball sense of "to put out" is recorded from 1874. So you see, I was a little bit right, but mostly wrong. But, right or wrong, the associations are always fun and the sense that every time you use a word, you are in the midst of a web of history is bracing. Once you get into this website, you may get lost in it. This website is just a guy who fell in love with etymology, and so not necessarily “authoritative”. Look at his bio under “Who Did This”. He seems like the sort of guy who should come to FRIAM. Nicholas S. Thompson Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology Clark University http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/ From: Friam [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Gillian Densmore While reading a book last night talking about some characters relaxing. I've always been curious. If Re: is to do again. then what was laxing supposed to be? Many people on this and the wed-tech list are REtired. So do you get Tired again then quit being a worker ? I seriously get these kind of words. Any guesses where they came from? ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com archives back to 2003: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove |
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In reply to this post by Frank Wimberly-2
I like the paral-lax provided by the roughly synonymous
neologisms: be-lax and chill-lax On 12/30/18 11:01 AM, Frank Wimberly
wrote:
============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com archives back to 2003: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove |
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In reply to this post by Nick Thompson
I much prefer to think of "retire" in the sense of pertaining to "drawing back", as a bow, after which I get launched at high velocity toward some target. Of course, I had always thought of retirement as a time of rest, but since I've retired, I seem to have more responsibilities than ever, so "tired again" seems entirely appropriate as well. Of course, there is always the implications of "to shoot", which could be taken to mean that once I get too old, they should just take me out and shoot me. Not too fond of that latter use. I prefer the "to withdraw" for privacy or to go to bed sense of the word. So, I shall now retire from this conversation for now - I'm withdrawing for a moment, but if nobody shoots me, I am happy to launch back into it. :-) On Sun, Dec 30, 2018 at 3:50 PM Nick Thompson <[hidden email]> wrote:
============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com archives back to 2003: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove |
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In reply to this post by Nick Thompson
Nick, ERMG So much that ^_^ . LOL good call their Steve on Chill-lax as old school slang. While reading it's really fun for me to go wait a second...what's that word actually mean? or associations i've had with it. Love it. Steve: Oh you Re-Minded me of a awesome phenomenon I'm seeing more and more on Twitter. People saying no to paid work saying they'd rather go to someplace they'll actually like to be at. That just happens to be charrity stuff so far. A 14-15 year old swiss woman is making news for doing stuff to help her nations ecology. So far she's not Tired of doing that. On Sun, Dec 30, 2018 at 1:50 PM Nick Thompson <[hidden email]> wrote:
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I got new tires on my car. "Tire" in this sense, may come from "attire", or "clothes, especially fine or formal ones". Thus if we are retired, we are retailored? I like this definition better; we did not stop working, instead we have new "clothes", a la Carlyle's "Sartor Resartus". Carl On Sun, Dec 30, 2018 at 2:58 PM Gillian Densmore <[hidden email]> wrote:
============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com archives back to 2003: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove |
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My wife keeps telling me I should be ashamed of my well-used but therefore comfortable clothes. I say that I don't care what people think of my clothes. Daughter, age 27, is at the other extreme. ----------------------------------- Frank Wimberly My memoir: https://www.amazon.com/author/frankwimberly My scientific publications: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Frank_Wimberly2 Phone (505) 670-9918 On Sun, Dec 30, 2018, 4:52 PM Carl Tollander <[hidden email] wrote:
============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com archives back to 2003: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove |
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In reply to this post by Carl Tollander
Which is why one of my former consulting partnerships back in the '70s was called "Sartor." TJ ============================================ Tom Johnson Institute for Analytic Journalism -- Santa Fe, NM USA 505.577.6482(c) 505.473.9646(h) NM Foundation for Open Government Check out It's The People's Data On Sun, Dec 30, 2018 at 4:52 PM Carl Tollander <[hidden email]> wrote:
============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com archives back to 2003: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove |
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In reply to this post by Gillian Densmore
Much more than you asked for…
“lax” is “loose’, as in morals and bowels. “Re-“ is more complicated. From the Oxford English dictionary: “re-, prefix of Latin origin, with the general sense of ‘back’ or ‘again’, occurring in a large number of words directly or indirectly adopted from Latin, or of later Romanic origin, and on the model of these freely employed in English as a prefix to verbs, and to substantives or adjectives derived from these. In earlier Latin re- was used before consonants, and red- before vowels or h-, as in redīre, redimĕre, redhibēre (rarely in other cases, as in red-dĕre). The latter form appears in Eng. only in a few words which are ultimately of Latin origin, as redeem, redemption, redintegrate. In later Latin the form with d was no longer in use, and re- was employed before vowels as well as consonants, as in reædificāre, reagĕre, reexpectāre, reillūmināre, etc. In a few words adopted from French the prefix has so coalesced with the main part of the word that its real nature is obscured. In some cases this is due to the combination of re- with another prefix, as ad- (Fr. a-) or in- (Fr. en-). For examples of these types, see ransom, rally, rampart. 2.2 The original sense of re- in Latin is that of ‘back’ or ‘backwards’, but in the large number of words formed by its use, the prefix acquires various shades of meaning, of which the following are the most clearly marked. a.2.a ‘Back from a point reached’, ‘back to or towards the starting-point’, as in recēdĕre to draw back, recurrĕre to run back, redūcĕre to lead back, referre to carry back, refugĕre to flee back, remittĕre to send back, respicĕre to look back, retrahĕre to pull back, revocāre to call back. Sometimes the sense of ‘backwards’ is also implied, as in resilīre to spring back or backwards. The return of light and sound is expressed in such verbs as relūcēre and renīdēre to shine or flash back, reboāre to bellow back, resonāre to echo, resound. In many cases the idea of force is present, as in reflectĕre to bend back, repellĕre to drive back, reprimĕre to force back, rescindĕre to cut back; hence arises the sense of resistance, as in reluctārī to struggle against, repugnāre to fight against, reclāmāre to cry out against, recūsāre to refuse. Occasionally the sense passes into that of ‘away’, as in removēre to move back or away, revellĕre to pull away or off. b.2.b ‘Back to the original place or position’, as in recondĕre, repōnĕre, restituĕre, etc. to put back, replace; freq. implying ‘back to one's hands or possession’, as in recipĕre to take back, redimĕre to buy back, rependĕre to pay back, resūmĕre to take back. c.2.c ‘Again’, ‘anew’, originally in cases implying restoration to a previous state or condition, and frequently occurring as a secondary sense in verbs of the two classes already mentioned; further examples are recreāre to create again, reficĕre to make again, reformāre to form again, renovāre to make new again, refrīgēscĕre to grow cold again, revirēscĕre to grow green again. This naturally passes into cases where the action itself is done a second time, as recoquĕre to cook or bake again, refricāre to rub again, regenerāre to produce again, retractāre to handle again, etc. This class of words is largely augmented in later Latin, as reædificāre to build again, rebaptizāre to baptize again, etc. Many of these later compounds have been adopted in English, and have chiefly supplied the models for the new formations illustrated in §5. d.2.d In some cases re- has the same force as Eng. un-, implying an undoing of some previous action, as in recingĕre to ungird, reclūdĕre to unclose, to open, refīgĕre to unfix, resignāre to unseal, revēlāre to unveil. More rarely it expresses direct negation, as in reprobāre to disapprove of. e.2.e ‘Back in a place’, i.e. ‘from going forward’, with verbs of keeping or holding, as retinēre to hold back, religāre to tie back or up, refrēnāre to rein back, reprehendĕre to (seize and) keep back; or ‘without going on or forward’ with verbs of rest, as remanēre, residēre, restāre to stay or stop behind, requiēscĕre to stay quiet, etc. Other shades of this sense appear in relinquĕre to leave behind, reservāre to keep back, store up. Even in Latin the precise sense of re- is not always clear, and in many words the development of secondary meanings tends greatly to obscure its original force. This loss of distinct meaning is naturally increased in English, when the word has been adopted in a sense more or less remote from the strict etymological significance of the two elements which compose it. In many cases the simple word to which the prefix is attached is wanting in English; in others a change of sound or shifting of stress frequently assists in disguising its original sense. In the Romance languages, as in later Latin, extensive use was made of re- as a prefix in verbs and verbal derivatives, and some of the words thus formed are among the earliest which were adopted in English, the immediate source being OF. To these and later adoptions from French belong many of the commonest words beginning with re-, as rebate, rebound, rebuke, rebut, recoil, redress, refresh, regain, regard, regret, remark, etc. 3.3 Words formed with the prefix re- first make their appearance in English about the year 1200. In the Ancren Riwle, the first text in which such forms are prominent, there occur recluse, recoil, record, relief, religion, religious, and remission. Towards the end of the century Robert of Gloucester uses rebel, receit, release, relic, relief, remue, repent, restore, revest. In the 14th c. the stock is largely increased, especially in the writings of Langland, Chaucer, Wyclif, and Trevisa, and by the year 1400 the number in common literary use is very considerable. During the 15th c. the additions are of less importance, but about the middle of the 16th an extensive adoption of Latin forms or types begins; the French element at this time is small in comparison, though it includes some important words. Towards the end of the 16th c. re- begins to rank as an ordinary English prefix, chiefly employed with words of Latin origin, but also freely prefixed to native verbs, a practice rare before this period, though Wyclif, Trevisa, and others have renew (after L. renovāre). Such formations, however, are common in Elizabethan writers: Shakespeare has recall, regreet (frequent), relive, requicken, resend, respeak, restem, retell (thrice), and reword, and many others occur in contemporary literature, as rebuild, recast, refind, reflow, regather, etc. Since 1600 the use of the prefix has been very extensive, though the number of individual formations appears to have been smaller in the 18th century than in the 17th and 19th. The rapidly increasing use of re- in the early part of the 17th c. is strongly marked in the dictionaries of Florio and Cotgrave, both of whom freely invent forms with this prefix to render Italian or French words which begin with it. Many of these reappear at a later date, and most of them might be formed again at any time: the following may be quoted as specimens of those which have obtained little or no currency in later writers.“ --Barry On 30 Dec 2018, at 12:58, Gillian Densmore wrote: > While reading a book last night talking about some characters > relaxing. > I've always been curious. If Re: is to do again. then what was laxing > supposed to be? > Many people on this and the wed-tech list are REtired. So do you get > Tired > again then quit being a worker ? > I seriously get these kind of words. > Any guesses where they came from? > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > archives back to 2003: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ > FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com archives back to 2003: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove |
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Nice! I didn't know the simple sound re- came from so many roots! Might explain why Rapier seemingly gets pronounced ree pre ayur (for example) it's a classic weapon in movies. supposedly for a time privatteyerrs{spelling- the 15th century marineers tasked with steeling enemy supplies (latter called privateers and pirates.) used them. I haven't a clue why. I have been told it had to do with old habbits and pragmatics. I wonder if the word Tyre that became the day tuesday is the same reason their Tier. Both are associated sounds to move up a latter. I gather in the case of Tyre it was because he had to give up something (an arm) to move foward. Or not get eaten according to wikipedia. I haven't clue if that's also because of simple mispronouncing a name or sound that somehow became the defacto way to say it. Surprisling common. eXspRResso I gather is only eSSpreso. as the popular example.No idea why people in california added more Are sounds and a Eks sound as well. On Mon, Dec 31, 2018 at 8:30 AM Barry MacKichan <[hidden email]> wrote: Much more than you asked for… ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com archives back to 2003: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove |
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