That Would Be My Neck

It’s getting hot out, so this is what it feels like.

It was like sawing through a rope, but eventually I got it all shorn off. Not all that different from a sheep.

Language of Confusion: -Ment, Part VI

I tell myself that I’m not going to do any more long series, but then I realize that doing a long series means I don’t have to come up with new ideas for a while. So, you know. There are benefits.

Anyway, this is the last one!

Implement

Implement showed up as a noun in the mid fifteenth century, but not a verb until the early eighteenth century. Oh, and back in the fifteenth century it meant “amount needed to complete repayment”, and when the verb first showed up it was mostly used in Scottish English law, where it meant fulfillment. The noun did quickly become a synonym for tool, but it’s still quite a departure from its original meaning. It comes from the Late Latin implementem, filling up, from the classical Latin verb implere, to complete or fulfill, a mix of in- (in, unsurprisingly) and plere, to fill, from the Proto Indo European pele-, to fill. So I guess an implement is something that fulfills some purpose?

Sentiment

Sentiment showed up in the late fourteenth century as sentement, which apparently we just had to tweak from the Old French sentement. It can be traced to the Medieval Latin sentimentum and classical Latin sentire, to feel, the origin word for sense. Well, at least this one was straightforward.

Torment

Torment showed up in the fourteenth century from the Old French torment (torture) and classical Latin tormentum, which could mean conflict, torture, or anguish. It’s from the verb torquere, to twist, from the Proto Indo European terkw-, which also means twist and I can’t look at without thinking of twerking. Is twerking torture? Perhaps.

Lament

Lament showed up in the mid-fifteenth century as a verb and in the late sixteenth as a noun, from the Middle French lament and classical Latin lamentum, which means wailing. Lamentation actually showed up earlier, in the late fourteenth century, from the Latin lamentationem, which also means wailing. The la- part of it is Proto Indo European meaning shout or cry, and it’s thought to be imitative. You know how we say a cat meows because that’s what the noise they make sounds like? That’s what imitative means. So apparently wailing people sound like “la”.

Moment

Moment showed up in the mid fourteenth century from the Old French moment and classical Latin momentum. Which, yes, is also where we get momentum. Momentum is actually a contraction of the word movimentum, which is from movere, to move, and that’s where move comes from, along with a bunch of other words that I’m not going to get into. Movere can be traced back to the Proto Indo European meuǝ-, to push away, so the origin of all movement is apparently trying to get away from something.

Rudiment

Rudiment showed up in the mid sixteenth century from the Middle French rudiment and classical Latin rudimentum, which could mean beginning or raw materials and other rudimentary stuff like that. It’s from the word rudis which means raw or… rude.

TL;DR: Latin liked the suffix -ment so now it’s everywhere in English.

Sources

Online Etymology Dictionary

Google Translate

Omniglot

University of Texas at Austin Linguistic Research Center

University of Texas at San Antonio’s page on Proto Indo European language

Dictionary of Medieval Latin

University of Ottawa, Canada

Orbis Latinus

Art

Do you like art? Do you like parodies? What about parodies of art? Will that work for you?

Over on Newgrounds there’s a guy named Munguia who makes games where you look at a caricature he drew of a well-known painting and try to guess which painting it’s from. Some of them are easy. I mean, you’re not going to have any trouble figuring out when it’s supposed to be the Mona Lisa. And if you really need help, there’s also a button so you can look at the real version of the painting. Or just, you know, google it.

Anyway, it’s a nice way to go look at some paintings for a few hours. And more importantly, I don’t have to think up a real post! Win-win. Here’s the links:

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Spotlight

My bedroom faces to the west, which is good for sleeping in the morning. But the door opens to an eastern facing hallway…

Because of the way everything is angled, this is really only a problem for a few weeks at this time of year. But man, is it annoying.

Language of Confusion: -Ment, Part V

This is the fifth one, right? I’m too lazy to check so I’m going with yes. Only one more after this.

Element

Element showed up in the fourteenth century, but back then it only referred to earth, air, fire, and water because old timey people didn’t know how matter worked and it wasn’t until 1813 that elements were called elements. It’s from the classical Latin elementum, which it shouldn’t surprise anyone that it means element, and that was a translation of a Greek word (stoikheion, which I’m not sure the definition of), so they didn’t come up with the concept. Also, since “element” roughly means “first principles”, that’s why elementary is like saying basically or rudimentary (don’t worry, we’ll get to that word, too).

Testament

Testament first showed up in the late thirteenth century basically meaning a will, coming from the classical Latin testamentum, which is also just will [https://translate.google.com/#la/en/testamentum]. It’s related to testari, which can mean testify, witness, or make a will, and testis, a witness. It’s from the Proto Indo European tri-st-i-, which means “third person standing by”. That tri- is where we get three from! So because a witness is a third party, that’s why we have testament. And in regards to the Bible, the reason the two parts are called testaments is because they were called vetus testamentum and novum testamentum (Old/New testament) in Late Latin, which was a translation of what they were called in Greek, palia/kaine diatheke. Diatheke can mean testament (like will) when translated into Latin, but it can also mean covenant or dispensation, which was what they were actually going for there.

Monument

Monument showed up in the late thirteenth century from the Old French monument and classical Latin monumentum, which means… monument. No big surprise there. It’s related to the word monere, to warn, in the sense that a monument is supposed to be a reminder. Monere comes from the Proto Indo European moneyo-, from men-, to think. A monument is something you’re supposed to remember to think about.

Ferment

Ferment showed up in the late fourteenth century from the Old French fermenter and classical Latin fermentare, to ferment. It’s origins beyond that are muddy, but it might be related to fervimentum and fervere, seethe or boil. Which would make sense, but come on. When does this ever make sense?

Segment

Segement showed up in the mid sixteenth century from the classical Latin segmentum, asegment, strip, or cutting. It’s related to the verb secare, to cut. So a segment is something cut from something bigger.

Augment

Augment showed up in the late fourteenth century meaning “to become more severe” before it meant to make larger/greater. It’s from the Old French augmenter and Late Latin augmentare, to increase. That’s from the classical Latin augmentum, growth, and augere, to increase. The aug- is a Proto Indo European root meaning to increase and is where we get the wonderful month of August from, too.

Sources

Online Etymology Dictionary

Google Translate

Omniglot

University of Texas at Austin Linguistic Research Center

University of Texas at San Antonio’s page on Proto Indo European language

Orbis Latinus

June Goals

Whoa, it’s June already? How did this happen? It seems like the beginning of May was just yesterday.

Anyway, let’s look at what I was supposed to do last month.

May Goals

1. Finish the read through and all the editing notes that come with it.

I did this! On May 1^st, if I recall correctly.

2. Start working on the notes. I’m not so sure I’ll be able to finish them as it looks like there’s going to be around six hundred, varying from “change this word” to “change this whole section”.

Hey, I did this, too. It was indeed over six hundred, but somehow I managed to get through all of them. And yet I’m STILL finding things I need to change.

3. Find something mindless and boring for me to do to recharge with. I have a feeling I’m going to need it.

Yeah, I did this too, because nothing makes you want to edit more than doing something that’s even more boring.

That’s another month down. What’s next?

June Goals

1. Do my first color partition—when I highlight different parts of the MS in different colors to make sure everything works. I know I’ve posted about this at some point…

2. Do my second color partition—this one is checking for sensory cues to make sure descriptions are evocative. I’ve explained this one, too.

3. Update my etymology page. I can’t remember the last time I did it, which means it’s time to do it again.

So that’s my plan for this month. What are you going to be doing?

Updating

Every Windows Update breaks my laptop just a little more.

And don’t bother pointing out that all the protons being decayed would include my laptop. I already know.