In a message dated 12/17/2009 11:53:16 P.M. Pacific Standard Time, [email protected] writes: Etymologically, Frank, you are right on topic since the history of the word leads directly to photography.
The origin of the word is Latin 'phoca', which we eventually turned into 'focus'. This happened following the withdrawal of the Romans from Britain. The remaining Romano-Celtic tribes lost the use of fire after that fateful year 410 AD so to keep warm in the long winter months they would bring a nice fat seal into the living room and huddle round it, watching patterns shifting and shimmering in the creature's blubbery fur and cooking marshmallows in it's salty breath. This is where the notion of intense study and concentration led to the idea of looking at a fixed point, hence phoca -> focus. It is also the origin of the word you are so assiduously avoiding. When our Brithonic ancestors at last rediscovered fire and lit a nice blazing hearth their menfolk, being naturally conservative and generally slow on the uptake, would come home from a hard day's henge-building, see that their seal had been replaced by crackling logs and cry "What the phoca's that?!". Bob =========== Someone should be writing your tale tales down. :-) And too bad the above is too long for a Mark. Marnie aka Doe :-) --------------------------------------------- We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them. Albert Einstein -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
