John, Ren� Descartes's father was councillor for the Parliament in Brittany (Bretagne; the one in France). The French "Des" particle meaning "of the", it implies that the name might have originally been "Des Cartes", "Of The Maps", a little like the German "Von" is. Those names were originally reserved for the noble families, hence the reference you found to a "good family".
It is indeed possible, as my first paragraph implies, that the names comes from an early cartographer ancestor. However, I would be surprised if THAT is what led him to devise a coordinate system for maps. My reference (http://mper.chez.tiscali.fr/auteurs/Descart.html, in French) does not seem to state a reason for his works. One thing for sure, we will never know if that was the case or not! (On a personal note: my last name derives from bad transcriptions of the name Pasquier, itself derived from P�quier, which is the place, on a farmland for example, used to feed horses. Apparently my distant ancestors would have bred horses. Thing is, just because my name comes from there, or alternately from a derivation of P�ques ("Easter"), doesn't mean I feel compelled to raising horses or to celebrate Easter! ;-) BTW I'm glad to see that my solution to the horizon problem is good! ;-� However, I would have loved a single-button-click one! ;-) � une de ces nuits� / See you in the dark! Pierre Paquette www.starpete.tk Groupe d'astronomes amateurs Polaris www.astropolaris.ca -----Original Message----- Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2005 01:11:39 -0800 (PST) From: John Mahony <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: "Cartes" etymology --- Pierre Paquette <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > My question now... > Is there a way to NOT display the horizon in horizontal projection? > The > closest I found is to set it to black and leave the "Invisible" > option > unchecked in the "Chart appearances", but that leaves a (white) line > where > the horizon is, though I can see the stars through it. I was trying to do that just last night, and your solution is better than mine. > P.S. To answer John Mahony's question: the French word "cartes" comes > from > the Latin word "charta", meaning "paper", and apparently it's the > case for > the English word "chart" as well. Hmm, still seems like quite a coincidence. Maybe the meaning shifted from "paper" to the more specific modern meaning, due to him? I thought maybe I had the derivation backwards and maybe his family was in the mapmaking business (are French surnames sometimes derived from an occupation, as in the English "Baker" or "Smith"?) That could explain how he was led to develop the idea of a coordinate system. But then I found an interesting statement in an online biography <http://www.maths.tcd.ie/pub/HistMath/People/Descartes/RouseBall/RB_Descarte s.html>: "His father, who, as the name implies, was of good family..." I'm not sure how to interpret that. An etymology at <http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=chart&searchmode=term> says that the meaning of chart as "map" goes back to at least 1571, just before Des Cartes bas born. -John -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.300 / Virus Database: 265.7.1 - Release Date: 2005-01-19 -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.300 / Virus Database: 265.7.1 - Release Date: 2005-01-19 ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> In low income neighborhoods, 84% do not own computers. At Network for Good, help bridge the Digital Divide! http://us.click.yahoo.com/EA3HyD/3MnJAA/79vVAA/1.XolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> To Post a message, send it to: [email protected] To Unsubscribe, send a blank message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/skychart-discussion/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
