[lit-ideas] Re: The Diversions of Purley
- From: Paul Stone <pastone@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 13 Jul 2009 11:43:27 -0400
On Sat, Jul 11, 2009 at 10:41 AM, <Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx> wrote:
> Geary thinks that etymologies are abitrary. J. Horne Tooke thought
> otherwise.
>
> The etymon is the TRUE. There is only ONE etymon for each word; we know it
> or not. That true encompasses, as J. Wager notes, the ESSENCE of the
> denotatum of the word.
>
> Give me a word and I'll explain that the etymology is only possible for
> that word and that it cannot have or could not have had another etymology.
Sort of like "the calculus"? NOT!
When i was young, I made up the word "freakazoid" while trash-talking
a fellow road-hockey player. About 10 years later, according to
dictionary.com, it was coined. Different etymologies? Perhaps I had
influence even when I was 8.
p
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