[FRIAM] Pondering weird english words

[Carl Tollander]

I got new tires on my car.   "Tire" in this sense, may come from "attire",
or "clothes, especially fine or formal ones".

Thus if we are retired, we are retailored?  I like this definition better;
we did not stop working, instead we have new "clothes",
a la Carlyle's "Sartor Resartus".

Carl


On Sun, Dec 30, 2018 at 2:58 PM Gillian Densmore <gil.densmore at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Nick,
> ERMG So much that ^_^ . LOL good call their Steve on Chill-lax as old
> school slang.    While reading it's really fun for me to go wait a
> second...what's that word actually mean? or associations i've had with it.
> Love it.
>
>
> Steve: Oh you Re-Minded me of a awesome phenomenon I'm seeing more and
> more on Twitter. People saying no to paid work saying they'd rather go to
> someplace they'll actually like to be at. That just happens to be charrity
> stuff so far.  A 14-15 year old swiss woman is making news for doing stuff
> to help her nations ecology.
> So far she's not Tired of doing that.
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Sun, Dec 30, 2018 at 1:50 PM Nick Thompson <nickthompson at earthlink.net>
> wrote:
>
>> Hi, Gill,
>>
>>
>>
>> Words are FUN! Back in the old days, when Latin and one other language,
>> usually French, were part of a standard education, most words had a double
>> association, the association that we all have (RE-tired, to be tired again)
>> and the association that arose from having encountered the root for the
>> word in another language.  So, for instance, when I see “retired” I also
>> see the French word “tirer”, to shoot, which would make the world mean
>> “re-shot” or “shot back”.  But then I also have a vague recollection of a
>> latin verb, meaning to draw, and that leads me to wonder if perhaps the
>> original meaning had to do with bows and arrows and perhaps the underlying
>> metaphor is to draw back the string of the bow again.  Now, all of this is
>> probably wrong, and I will direct you to the correct etymology in  a
>> second, but just to say that having brushed up against a bunch of languages
>> fills one’s head with a bunch of stuff that normal people might find
>> bemusing.
>>
>>
>> So, try etymology.com.  Here is the entry for Retired
>> <https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=retire>.  And here is the entire
>> entry. retire (v.)
>>
>> 1530s, of armies, "to retreat," from Middle French retirer "to withdraw
>> (something)," from re- "back" (see re-
>> <https://www.etymonline.com/word/re-?ref=etymonline_crossreference>) +
>> Old French tirer "to draw" (see tirade
>> <https://www.etymonline.com/word/tirade?ref=etymonline_crossreference>).
>> Related: Retired
>> <https://www.etymonline.com/word/Retired?ref=etymonline_crossreference>;
>> retiring
>> <https://www.etymonline.com/word/retiring?ref=etymonline_crossreference>.
>>
>>
>> Meaning "to withdraw" to some place, especially for the sake of privacy,
>> is recorded from 1530s; sense of "leave an occupation" first attested 1640s
>> (implied in retirement). Meaning "to leave company and go to bed" is
>> from 1660s. Transitive sense is from 1540s, originally "withdraw, lead
>> back" (troops, etc.); meaning "to remove from active service" is from
>> 1680s. Baseball sense of "to put out" is recorded from 1874.
>>
>> So you see, I was a little bit right, but mostly wrong.  But, right or
>> wrong, the associations are always fun and the sense that every time you
>> use a word, you are in the midst of a web of history is bracing.
>>
>>
>>
>> Once you get into this website, you may get lost in it.  This website is
>> just a guy who fell in love with etymology, and so not necessarily
>> “authoritative”.  Look at his bio under “Who Did This”.  He seems like the
>> sort of guy who should come to FRIAM.
>>
>>
>>
>> Nicholas S. Thompson
>>
>> Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology
>>
>> Clark University
>>
>> http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/
>>
>>
>>
>> *From:* Friam [mailto:friam-bounces at redfish.com] *On Behalf Of *Gillian
>> Densmore
>> *Sent:* Sunday, December 30, 2018 10:59 AM
>> *To:* The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <
>> friam at redfish.com>
>> *Subject:* [FRIAM] Pondering weird english words
>>
>>
>>
>> While reading a book last night  talking about some characters relaxing.
>> I've always been curious. If Re: is to do again. then what was laxing
>> supposed to be?
>>
>> Many people on this and the wed-tech list are REtired.  So do you get
>> Tired again then quit being a worker ?
>>
>> I seriously get these kind of words.
>>
>> Any guesses where they came from?
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