Things you have recently learnt
Comments
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The word (and concept of) 'allergy' only emerged in 1906. Wild.
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Yet the first medical description of hay fever was in 1819.
1985 Mercian King of Mercia - work in progress (Hah! Who am I kidding?)
Pinnacle Monzonite
Part of the anti-growth coalition0 -
That's the kind of thing that is really interesting, how words can cement a concept/observation, and how do people think about that concept/observation before the word is coined.
A case in point; the difference between 'random' and 'arbitrary': I can say that the choice of letters of the alphabet for notes of the scale is 'arbitrary', but it's not random (as the alphabet is a useful already-understood order of labels). But before the word 'arbitrary' was coined (which implies a not-totally-random choice), was that concept recognised as a 'thing'?
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Now I know what a bulldog is in French.
I wonder if they can play boules.
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American Bully XL…….. 🤔
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Don't think that's a great example. Random is derived from an old French word for great speed > impetuousness (same root as randonneur) so the word was around long before it became attached to the mathematical idea of an occurrence happening purely by chance. The Latin root of arbitrary has always bean associated with a choice. These are both words whose meanings have evolved after they were coined.
1985 Mercian King of Mercia - work in progress (Hah! Who am I kidding?)
Pinnacle Monzonite
Part of the anti-growth coalition0 -
Fair point. I'd seen the headline date of 'random' and hadn't looked further down for the 'modern' meaning.
Will do more careful homework next time, sorry, sir.
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😁 Had always wondered about randonneur, so quite pleasing to find that it is connected. Not sure how one gets etymologically from 'great speed' to something like the result of a dice roll. Feels a bit like the way physics uses existing words with established meanings to describe newly discovered phenomena (rather than inventing a new word).
1985 Mercian King of Mercia - work in progress (Hah! Who am I kidding?)
Pinnacle Monzonite
Part of the anti-growth coalition0 -
This is what the OED suggests (and who am I to argue?) Maybe a bit of a misunderstanding at what the archaic meaning of 'random' was, and the sense got transferred from 'headlong' and 'at speed' to the haphazardly' sense. Wouldn't be the first time that a misunderstanding/misuse (see 'coruscating') led to a change of meaning.
Anyway, let's leave it here on this thread, just in case...
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I have just found out I'll be more productive at work going forwards.
Any thoughts on a phoenix group? Is MySpace still going?
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