[FRIAM] Pondering weird english words

Sun Dec 30 23:19:51 EST 2018

Which is why one of my former consulting partnerships back in the '70s was
called "Sartor."
TJ

============================================
Tom Johnson
Institute for Analytic Journalism   --     Santa Fe, NM USA
505.577.6482(c)                                    505.473.9646(h)
*NM Foundation for Open Government* <http://nmfog.org>
*Check out It's The People's Data
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http://www.jtjohnson.com                   tom at jtjohnson.com
============================================

On Sun, Dec 30, 2018 at 4:52 PM Carl Tollander <carl at plektyx.com> wrote:

> 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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