Etymology

sus

Well-known member
Dude you are delivering today. Haven't heard of that either.

I think advanced versions of Ethnomethod incorporate Structuralism's insights, and talk about how order is both top-down and bottom-up (cybernetic). But if gun-to-the-head I gotta pick between em, I'll take EM any day, and it's a shame it was outcompeted by French idolatry.
 

sus

Well-known member
It is. The old Gaddis resource site's still up too with some of his books online, e.g. his Recognitions annotations. That quote's from a J. M. Tyree piece on Gaddis and Thoreau hosted on the same site,

I should make a Stephen Moore thread, I've been browsing his collection Back Pages lately. He got me into Edna St Vincent Millet, who was apparently quite the it-girl back in the day.
 

sus

Well-known member
Pretty sure Gaddis had a short-term obsession with her, which how Moore came across, but her admirers pretty much check the boxes on American modernism... Edmund Wilson obsessed about her in the shower, etc
 

sus

Well-known member
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constant escape

winter withered, warm
evolution (n.)

1620s, "an opening of what was rolled up," from Latin evolutionem (nominative evolutio) "unrolling (of a book)," noun of action from past participle stem of evolvere "to unroll" (see evolve).
 

constant escape

winter withered, warm
I still think etymology is the one way to become a proper renaissance person across some number of fields. Damn near every word contains a golden vein in its history.
 
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constant escape

winter withered, warm
pathetic (adj.)
1590s, "affecting the emotions or affections, moving, stirring" (now obsolete in this broad sense), from Middle French pathétique "moving, stirring, affecting" (16c.), from Late Latin patheticus, from Greek pathetikos "subject to feeling, sensitive, capable of emotion," from pathetos "liable to suffer," verbal adjective of pathein "to suffer" (from PIE root *kwent(h)- "to suffer").

The specific meaning "arousing pity, sorrow, or grief" or other tender feelings is from 1737. The colloquial sense of "so miserable as to be ridiculous" is attested by 1937. Related: Pathetical (1570s); pathetically. The pathetic fallacy (1856, first used by Ruskin) is the attribution of human qualities to inanimate objects.

Makes more sense in light of the word "apathetic", which would, strictly speaking, denote an absence of suffering. Passion/pathos.

"com - passion" = suffering together

"sym - pathy" = suffering together

The passion of this or that saint/martyr. Passion waxes and wanes above and below zero, fluctuating. But the absolute value, positive or negative, is still a sort of suffering.

Duḥkha and Sukha, perhaps? Not too familiar with this discourse though.
 

constant escape

winter withered, warm
Just listened to RObert Anton Wilson say the world trivial and "quadrivial" and an inquiry was prompted:

trivial (adj.)"ordinary" (1580s); "insignificant, trifling" (1590s), from Latin trivialis "common, commonplace, vulgar," literally "of or belonging to the crossroads," from trivium "place where three roads meet," in transferred use, "an open place, a public place," from tri- "three" (see three) + via "road" (see via). The sense connection is "public," hence "common, commonplace."

The earliest use of the word in English was early 15c., a separate borrowing in the academic sense "of the trivium" (the first three liberal arts -- grammar, rhetoric, and logic); from Medieval Latin use of trivialis in the sense "of the first three liberal arts," from trivium, neuter of the Latin adjective trivius "of three roads, of the crossroads." Related: Trivially. For sense evolution to "pertaining to useless information," see trivia.

and

quadrivium (n.)
"arithmetic, music, geometry, astronomy," by 1751, from Latin quadrivium, which meant "place where four roads meet, crossroads," from quadri- "four" (from PIE root *kwetwer- "four") + via "way, road, channel, course" (see via). Compare liberal arts, and also see trivium. The adjective quadrivial is attested from late 15c. in English with the sense "having four roads."
 

constant escape

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senate (n.)c. 1200, "legal and administrative body of ancient Rome," from Old French senat or Latin senatus "highest council of the state in ancient Rome," literally "council of elders," from senex (genitive senis) "old man, old" (from PIE root *sen- "old"). Attested from late 14c. in reference to governing bodies of free cities in Europe; of national governing bodies from 1550s; specific sense of upper house of U.S. legislature is recorded from 1775.
 

constant escape

winter withered, warm
anagogical (adj.)"having a secondary, spiritual sense" (of Scripture, etc.), 1520s, with -ical + Greek anagoge "elevation; spiritual or mystical enlightenment," from anagein "to lead up, lift up," from ana "up" (see ana-) + agein "to lead, put in motion," from PIE root *ag- "to drive, draw out or forth, move."
 

catalog

Well-known member
Yeah, that was in the article I think version posted the other day, about jenner and the original anti vaxxers.

They just noticed that for some reason farmhands and people who had contact with livestock never got smallpox. And he took it from there.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
Yeah, that was in the article I think version posted the other day, about jenner and the original anti vaxxers.

They just noticed that for some reason farmhands and people who had contact with livestock never got smallpox. And he took it from there.
Reminds me of how "biscuits" comes from the French for "twice baked" - although, now that I think about, I read recently that this is a mistranslation, and it actually means "half-baked."
 

Clinamenic

Binary & Tweed
Watching a lecture on autism from Simon Baron-Cohen, yes Borat's cousin , who pointed out something of revelatory simplicity which, up until this point, I had not noticed.

"Autism" is cognate with "auto" as in self, so named because autistic behavior is characteristically anti-social and solitary. A beautiful example of etymologically sound semantics, in my opinion.
 

jenks

thread death
I like the etymology of supercilious

supercilious (adj.)​

1520s, "lofty with pride, haughtily contemptuous," from Latin superciliosus"haughty, arrogant," from supercilium "haughty demeanor, pride," literally "eyebrow" (via notion of raising the eyebrow to express haughtiness), from super "above" (see super-) + second element akin to cilium "eyelid," related to celare"to cover, hide," from PIE root *kel- (1) "to cover, conceal, save."
 
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