Somtimes I teach my students etymology. I have them get out their Merriam Webster Collegiate Dictionaries (have you ever noticed how you're always expected to utilize resources that are intended for higher than your level? how in high school you have to use a collegiate dictionary, but when you are actually in college they start training you to use the OED?) and find out that "pronto" doesn't exactly come from protinus, meaning immediately, but from promptus, -a, -um which means, well, prompt. I haven't yet pulled out "etymology by sound is not sound etymology" but we're working up to that.
Along those lines, I pass along from the classics blogosphere this funny excerpt from a column in the Buffalo News:
"Now I look forward to cool evenings, good sleeping and new energy. This is the time of the year when it is finally possible to enter the attic without the benefit of a space suit. The word attic is derived from “Attica,” the name for the land of the ancient Greeks — a society that accumulated so much junk that museums had to be built all over the world to accommodate it. Thus, in the modern house the attic is the place to put things that don’t fit anywhere else."
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Monday, September 22, 2008
Not Entymology
Somtimes I teach my students etymology. I have them get out their Merriam Webster Collegiate Dictionaries (have you ever noticed how you're always expected to utilize resources that are intended for higher than your level? how in high school you have to use a collegiate dictionary, but when you are actually in college they start training you to use the OED?) and find out that "pronto" doesn't exactly come from protinus, meaning immediately, but from promptus, -a, -um which means, well, prompt. I haven't yet pulled out "etymology by sound is not sound etymology" but we're working up to that.
Along those lines, I pass along from the classics blogosphere this funny excerpt from a column in the Buffalo News:
"Now I look forward to cool evenings, good sleeping and new energy. This is the time of the year when it is finally possible to enter the attic without the benefit of a space suit. The word attic is derived from “Attica,” the name for the land of the ancient Greeks — a society that accumulated so much junk that museums had to be built all over the world to accommodate it. Thus, in the modern house the attic is the place to put things that don’t fit anywhere else."
Along those lines, I pass along from the classics blogosphere this funny excerpt from a column in the Buffalo News:
"Now I look forward to cool evenings, good sleeping and new energy. This is the time of the year when it is finally possible to enter the attic without the benefit of a space suit. The word attic is derived from “Attica,” the name for the land of the ancient Greeks — a society that accumulated so much junk that museums had to be built all over the world to accommodate it. Thus, in the modern house the attic is the place to put things that don’t fit anywhere else."
4 comments:
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Emily J said...
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Haha, nice...I like that.
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September 22, 2008 at 8:32 PM
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Emily J said...
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Katie, are you still alive? And, am I ever going to see you again?
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September 27, 2008 at 5:25 PM
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Anna said...
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that is hilarious. Reminds me of that dad in "my big fat greek wedding" who thought every word came from a greek word.
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September 28, 2008 at 3:13 PM
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Emily J said...
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The bill is HR 1424, but the bailout is only an earmark, an addition, and they're trying to sneak it through that way.
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October 1, 2008 at 5:43 PM
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4 comments:
Haha, nice...I like that.
Katie, are you still alive? And, am I ever going to see you again?
that is hilarious. Reminds me of that dad in "my big fat greek wedding" who thought every word came from a greek word.
The bill is HR 1424, but the bailout is only an earmark, an addition, and they're trying to sneak it through that way.
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