On Wed, Mar 6, 2019 at 3:15 PM Paul Allen <pla16...@gmail.com> wrote: > Unsurprisingly, the English "Laboratory" also derives from the Latin. The > Latin, as you stated, > means a place where one labours or works. Somehow, in English, it appears > only to ever have > meant a place where one conducts scientific research and experimentation. I > have no idea why > this is so, none of the dictionaries (on-line and hardcopy) I looked at > explain why, and none > state that it ever meant any more generalized workplace.
It's pretty common to refer to a place that makes prostheses (dental or orthopedic), one that analyzes medical specimens (histologic, haematologic, serologic, etc.) one that makes eyeglasses or contact lenses, one that develops photographic film, and so on as a 'laboratory'. The word does seem to be reserved for what is thought to be highly technical processes, and one-of-a-kind artifacts (every medical specimen, orthodontic appliance, prosthesis, optical appliance, and photograph is unique to a specific patient or customer). A goldsmith (or for that matter a blacksmith or tinker), a machinist,, an auto mechanic, and so on, are much more likely to have the place where they ply their trades called a 'workshop'. I suspect that both 'laboratory' and 'workshop' would translate to 'laboratorium' in Latin, and possbly to its cognates in the Romance languages. _______________________________________________ Tagging mailing list Tagging@openstreetmap.org https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/tagging
