tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Jan 23 19:48:40 1996

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Re: Wish List

• From: [email protected] (Alan Anderson)
• Subject: Re: Wish List
• Date: Tue, 23 Jan 1996 22:49:40 -0500

marqem writes:
>...Mandarin kai1 means "open" and "turn on",
>while guan1 means "close" and "turn off".  I've heard the same
>relation in Yiddish-influenced English ("open/close the light" =
>"turn the light on/off").  This is opposite to the electrical-circuit
>sense, in which opening (or "breaking") a circuit turns OFF the
>appliance, and closing ("making") the circuit turns it ON.

Oh... you're right (hand slaps forehead).  Closing a switch is like
opening a gas valve, and opening the switch is like closing the valve.
Somehow, I never noticed this before, and I now feel very silly to
have missed this amusing mismatch of terms for so long.

-- ghunchu'wI'               batlh Suvchugh vaj batlh SovchoH vaj

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