Dampen I can sort of get :p To dampen say the oscillatory motion of a wheel on a car you could add a piston/shock absorber. Contained within this is a fluid of some description and hence making the motion of the wheel damp! Having no idea of the history of the term it seems like a reasonable explanation, and knowing engineering type people it probably came about in a similar manner.
Cheers, Nick On Thu, Dec 1, 2011 at 11:27 AM, Nick Andrews <[email protected]> wrote: > How about dampen versus damp? Although it is used very frequently, I > do not see how it would be possible to dampen vibrations. Wrapping a > wet towel around the vibrating part might help to damp the vibration > while dampening the parts though... > > My peeve is when 'data' is mispronounced like a Star Trek: The Fake > Generation character's name. > > I had a statistics teacher in college who annoyed me by always talking > about 'tossing a dice.' I tried to explain to her that if you walked > up to a craps table and 'tossed' the dice, you would be laughed out of > the casino... But since Engrish was not her first language, I cut her > some slack. Just a little, but some. > > On Wed, Nov 30, 2011 at 2:55 PM, Nicholas Harvey > <[email protected]> wrote: >> Hello, >> >> >> As to personal word annoyances lighted versus lit. And the use of data >> as a collective noun (or some such thing) I don't even know if how I >> think it should be used is correct but every time I see it annoyance >> strikes me, and I see a significant amount of it when reading general >> interest science magazines. >> >> Cheers, >> Nick >> >> On Thu, Dec 1, 2011 at 7:49 AM, Dragosani <[email protected]> wrote: >> {snip} >>> >> >> > > > > -- > Nick A > > "You know what I wish? I wish that all the scum of the world had but > a single throat, and I had my hands about it..." Rorschach, 1975 > > "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary > safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."- Benjamin Franklin, > Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759 > > "Suburbia is where the developer bulldozes out the trees, then names > the streets after them." Bill Vaughan > > "The price of apathy towards public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." Plato > >
