[lit-ideas] pls refudiate
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 4 Aug 2010 16:54:16 EDT
We were referrring to the 'meditation rooms' mentioned in the link J.
Krueger provided.
They sounded rather obscene to me. I don't need a ROOM to 'mediate'. Note
that the etymology of 'meditate' is totally unrelated to that of 'room'.
--
In a message dated 8/4/2010 5:44:51 P.M., rpaul@xxxxxxxx writes notes the
idioms involving 'closet', which I argued was the Christian equivalent of
the Muslim 'meditation room'.
"I'm not sure where the 'hence' comes from. Even if American closets were
'originally built for Cartesion purposes, the phrase is, surely, '[to have
a] skeleton in the closet,' which roughly speaking means to have
something unspoken but potentially ruinous or at least embarrassing if
discovered, in one's or one's family's background. Its origin is English.
http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/skeleton-in-the-closet.html
Skeletons don't come out of the closet, but people do.
OED[under entry for 'closet']: ...skeleton in the closet (or
cupboard): a private or concealed trouble in one's house or
circumstances, ever present, and ever liable to come into view: see
SKELETON. d. to come out of the closet: to admit (something) openly,
to cease to conceal, esp. one's homosexuality."
Hear, hear.
This, to confirm, also from the Etymological online:
closet:
"late 14c., from O.Fr. closet "small enclosure, private room," dim. of
clos, from L. clausum "closed space," from neut. pp. of claudere "to shut" (see
close (v.)). In Matt. vi:6 used to render L. cubiculum "bedchamber,
bedroom," Gk. tamieion "chamber, inner chamber, secret room;" thus originally
in
English
"a private room for study or prayer;"
modern sense of "small side-room for storage" is first recorded 1610s. The
adjective is from 1680s, "private, secluded;" meaning "secret, unknown"
recorded from 1952, first of alcoholism, but by 1970s used principally of
homosexuality; the phrase come out of the closet "admit something openly"
first
recorded 1963, and lent new meanings to the word out."
------
"Mediation rooms" are INDIVIDUAL. With a 13 story proposed building I
assume that at least, let's check,
13 X 4
13
X 4
------
52
52 meditation rooms -- assuming four per story.
----
In general, people now do think it IS a bad idea, Park51, and incidentally,
"Park51" is a politically correct euphemism. Apparently "Cordoba House" is
semi-officially banned.
Speranza
Bordighera
------------------------------------------------------------------
To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off,
digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html
Other related posts:
- » [lit-ideas] pls refudiate - Jlsperanza
