tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Dec 06 13:31:28 2010

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Re: latlh mu' chu'

MorphemeAddict ([email protected]) 

What is the figurative meaning of "walking the Appalachian Trail"?
lay'tel SIvten
On Mon, Dec 6, 2010 at 3:53 PM, lojmIt tI'wI' nuv <[email protected]
> wrote:

> While it is not exactly what you are looking for, the word "retronym" comes
> to mind. The classic example is "analog watch", which was not a term used at
> all before the advent of the "digital watch". Before that, the thing on your
> wrist with hands that moved around and told you what time it is was just
> called a watch.
>
> But there are many examples, like going to see a film (even if it is
> digital), or tape recording a meeting (even if it's a digital recording), or
> "riding shotgun" in a car (even though that's a term from horse-drawn stage
> coaches), or when you say that it's "eleven o'clock", which is a term
> invented to differentiate time determined by looking at the Sun vs. time
> determined by looking at a clock (when clocks were new and rare), or when
> you say that you "wipe a hard drive" (the word wipe meant a lot of things
> before hard drives were invented, but erasing magnetic information was not
> on the list for the majority of the history of the use of the word "wipe").
> Ditto for "calling" someone on a phone. "Call" was something you did across
> a field to get someone's attention. For that matter, there's "hello", which
> was also something you called across a field to get someone's attention. And
> "going postal" has had a bit of new meaning applied to it, as has "walking
> the Appalachian Trail".
>
> Nothing else we do requires as much rote memorization as language. The
> links between words and meaning are remarkably plastic, limited only by the
> mutually memorized context of the speakers and listeners, writers and
> readers.
>
> There are probably less than a dozen people in the world who know the
> meaning of the paired sentences, "We can't do popcorn. The chickens are too
> short." I feel confident that no one that I have not met is among those who
> know it. Of course, if I explain it here, that will no longer be true.
>
> So I won't.
>
> bIloychugh, bItIvjaj.
>
> pItlh.
> lojmIt tI'wI' nuv
>
>
>
>  On Dec 6, 2010, at 3:28 PM, Felix Malmenbeck wrote:
>
> > ghItlhta' lojmIt tI'wI' nuv:
> >> All computer storage DISKS are disk shaped, though there are DRIVES
> >> that are not disk shaped, like the Solid State Hard Drives (SSHD) that
> >> come with the current models of MacBook Air, or like the USB FLASH
> >> drives many of us carry around. We talk about hard disks and hard
> >> drives interchangeably.
> >
> > Ah, alright.  I think I was confused because in Sweden, the word hårddisk
> is often used to describe any kind of drive, including "SSD-hårddiskar"
> (also called "Solid State-hårddiskar") and sometimes "FLASH-hårddiskar".
> >
> > Is there a good word for words that have grown to mean something other
> than their original, literal meanings due to everyday use?
> >
> >
>
>
>
>
>

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