AWADmail Issue 211
May 28, 2006
A Compendium of Feedback on the Words in A.Word.A.Day
and Other Interesting Tidbits about Words and Languages
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From: Anu Garg (gargATwordsmith.org)
Subject: Interesting stories from the net
Make Our Bed, and We'll Say Our Grace:
http://www-csli.stanford.edu/~nunberg/himno.html
It's Liberty, Not Language, That Unites a Nation:
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/living/columnists/leonard_pitts/14637125.htm
Fewer Characters Being Used in Written Chinese:
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=scienceNews&storyID=2006-05-23T080145Z_01_PEK61396_RTRUKOC_0_US-CHINA-LANGUAGE.xml
http://tinyurl.com/onnc4
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From: Peter Jennings (peterjATbenlo.com)
Subject: Brevity
The subject this week brought to mind one of my favorite quotations:
Pascal's apology at the end of his letter to the Jesuits (Dec 4, 1656),
"this is long because I lack the time to make it short."
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From: Cat Bieber (ratriATutter-chaos.net)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--erg
Refer: http://wordsmith.org/words/erg.html
This word spawned a great one-line joke that I heard often while in school
at MIT: the lesser known "arg" which is "the unit of work done incorrectly".
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From: Dorothy Daybell (rddaybellATusc.edu)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--erg
An erg is a very small amount. My physicist husband says it's the amount
of work done when a fly does a pushup, and was named for the tiny grunt
he makes as he does it!
----------------------------
From: Johannes Wiedersich (jowiATph.tum.de)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--erg
Erg is not a SI unit, i.e.. it doesn't correspond to international
measurement standards. That simply means it shouldn't be used any more.
Instead people should use Joule as it is the official SI unit for
Energy. In many counties (including the EU) the use of erg as a unit of
energy (as well as other units from the CGS system) is no longer
officially allowed. In Germany it hasn't been allowed since 1978 to use
erg as a unit of energy.
Scientists and engineers, but also anyone else should settle on a common
'language of units'. If everyone uses her/his own private units for
measurements this will lead to global chaos and misunderstanding. That
was already known by ancient cultures like the Greek and Roman, both of
which implemented universal standards for mass, length etc.
In our times of global exchange of people, ideas, and products, it is
no longer sufficient to agree on a system of units in an area like the
Mediterranean: we should adhere to global standards.
Richness of language --as exemplified in many mails from this list-- is
a marvelous thing. In the case of units this 'richness' is rather a
poorness, since it tells the same thing (how much energy) in a manner
incomprehensible to others (who use Joule), without adding any meaning
that couldn't also be expressed by correctly using Joule.
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From: Mark Huey (markhueyATgmail.com)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--erg
In addition to the two definitions above, "erg" holds another potent
meaning for some subset of your readers. The standard rowing machine
(used throughout the year, but especially for winter training when the
rivers are frozen) is commonly referred to as an Erg. Officially, the
machine is an ergometer, as it continually measures work output (and
records it for comparison, thereby maximizing the intensity of a team
of competitive individuals). But the shorter name is apt - ergs have
a reputation for sucking every unit of energy from your body.
----------------------------
From: Harold Heft (haroldATconnecticc.com)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--heft
Refer: http://wordsmith.org/words/heft.html
Imagine my excitement at seeing I'd hit the big time!
So now I have a sense of "importance" to add to my (unfortunately real)
sense of "weight" and "heaviness".
----------------------------
From: John Langford (jlangfordAThobartairpt.com.au)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--tor
Refer: http://wordsmith.org/words/tor.html
A tor is also the thing you throw onto the squares in hopscotch -- in the
simple times of my childhood usually, a stone or similar piece of material
gleaned from the ground around where the hopscotch squares were scratched
or chalked on the ground.
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From: Leo Weigant (weigantATusna.edu)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--ret
"Ret" is familiar to crossword-puzzle workers along with another Middle
English word from linen-making, to "ted", which meant to lay out the flax
to dry it. I confess I'm not sure about the process -- whether one would
ret then ted, or perhaps ted then ret. Maybe they'd ted, then ret, then
tread on the fibers. It almost makes an algebraic equation: ted + ret = tread.
----------------------------
From: Mercer Jackson (mercerATjmjackson.com)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--ret
I remember my English grandmother talking about "retting up the dishes".
I never quite knew what she meant, but she was apparently going to soak
them before washing them.
I think she would have said "redding up the dishes":
http://wordsmith.org/words/redd.html
-Anu Garg
----------------------------
From: Richard Yarnell (ryarnellATbctonline.com)
Subject: Monkey sentences
Refer: http://wordsmith.org/awad/awadmail210.html
In today's letter you call our attention to the National Geographic report
of "sentences" formed by the "putty-nosed" monkey.
Coincidentally, during breakfast earlier today, my partner, Susan Nielsen,
told me about her firsthand experience feeding chimps at the Portland,
Oregon zoo during its experimental signing program.
The chimps were given a treat of watermelon which they'd not had before.
When they wanted more, they were offered another treat since there had only
been a limited amount of watermelon. After many adamant "no" headshakes,
one of the chimps constructed a sentence that coined a name for the
previously unfamiliar treat: "want sweet eat drink." Susan says the hackles
still rise on the back of her neck when she recalls the moment.
----------------------------
From: Timothy Marvin (tmarvinATearthlink.net)
Subject: The word "lee"
Refer: http://wordsmith.org/words/lee.html
It should be pointed out that when the term, "lee", is used in the term
"lee shore", it means the side toward which the wind is blowing, meaning
it is a difficult shore for a sailing vessel to move away from and is NOT
a sheltered shore. When standing on the lee side of the quarterdeck, one
is standing where the wind is not in one's face and therefore can be
considered sheltered. The use of the term "sheltered" causes confusion
when applied to the noun, "lee".
----------------------------
From: Eric Shackle (eshackleATozemail.com.au)
Subject: Lee
A rain shadow is the region on the lee side of a mountain or mountain range,
where less rain or snow falls than on the windward side. "The rain it
raineth every day / Upon the just and unjust fella / But more upon the just
because / The unjust hath the just's umbrella." That much-quoted and witty
verse could have been written by Ogden Nash, Hilaire Belloc, Lord Bowen, or
US Senator Sam Erwin Jr. but does anyone know for sure who was the author?
This is discussed in the June edition of my free e-book,
http://bdb.co.za/shackle
............................................................................
A language is a dialect that has an army and a navy. -Max Weinreich,
linguist and author (1894-1969)
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