Activity for PSTH
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What's the semantic field of "putare"? What SINGLE bigger picture and base meaning relates, bestrides, and underlies all 9 of putare's superficially UNrelated, but multitudinous, meanings below?  Oxford Latin Dictionary (2012 2 ed), pp 1679-1680. (more) |
— | over 3 years ago |
| Edit | Post #283287 | Initial revision | — | over 3 years ago |
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How did 'style' signify names of court cases? Can you please expatiate on ohwilleke's answer? She asseverated >My suspicion is that the Latin/French word for a writing instrument ends up being used for the act of using a writing instrument to place a name upon something, which in turn comes to mean the name written as a result of this act, wh... (more) |
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| Edit | Post #281913 |
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| Edit | Post #282694 | Initial revision | — | over 3 years ago |
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Why does "counter" mean the area of a letter entirely, or partially, enclosed by a letter form or a symbol? 1. Etymonline's entries for the homonyms "counter" don't semantically appertain to its meaning in typography. How does "counter" in typography relate to the common lay English 2021 meanings of "counter"? Solely Wrzlprmft♦'s answer distinguishes "counter" from "aperture". 2. Why did the typography ... (more) |
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| Edit | Post #281917 |
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| Edit | Post #281046 |
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| Edit | Post #281977 |
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| Edit | Post #281977 |
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| Edit | Post #281977 | Initial revision | — | over 3 years ago |
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Why did David Ricardo coin "rent", to signify income from a factor of production that exceeds the minimum amount necessary (to beget that factor of production)? 1. At the time that Ricardo (1772-1823) coined "rent", did "rent" already signify Modern English's lay meaning of 'rent' (tenant's regular payment to a landlord for the use of property or land)? How prevalent was this ordinary meaning? 2. If so, why did Ricardo still coin "rent" and beget this a... (more) |
— | over 3 years ago |
| Edit | Post #281918 | Initial revision | — | over 3 years ago |
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How does the original meaning of “but” (“outside”) relate to its current 2021 meanings? How do the principal 2021 meanings of "but" relate, if any, to its original meaning of "outside"? E.g. how does "no more than; only" appertain to "outside"? >### CONJUNCTION >1. Used to introduce a phrase or clause contrasting with what has already been mentioned. >2. [with negative or in q... (more) |
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| Edit | Post #281917 |
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| Edit | Post #281917 |
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| Edit | Post #281917 |
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| Edit | Post #281917 | Initial revision | — | over 3 years ago |
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How did 'to wit' shift (from "to know") 🡺 to mean 'that is to say'? Unquestionably, "wit" or "knowing" are concepts distinguishable from "saying". Thus how did 'that is to wit' shift 🢂 to denote 'that is to say; namely'? >### wit > >Both the noun wit [OE] and the verb [OE] go back ultimately to the Indo-European base woid-, weid-, wid-. This originally meant... (more) |
— | over 3 years ago |
| Edit | Post #281914 | Initial revision | — | over 3 years ago |
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How can the Latin prefix 'in-' possibly befit imputare? I quote Etymonline on impute (v.): >early 15c., from Old French imputer, emputer (14c.) and directly from Latin imputare "to reckon, make account of, charge, ascribe," from assimilated form of in- "in, into" (from PIE root en "in")(2)) + putare "to trim, prune; reckon, clea... (more) |
— | over 3 years ago |
| Edit | Post #281913 | Initial revision | — | over 3 years ago |
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How did 'in-' + 'putare' compound to mean 'to attribute, credit to'? I quote Etymonline on impute (v.): >early 15c., from Old French imputer, emputer (14c.) and directly from Latin imputare "to reckon, make account of, charge, ascribe," from assimilated form of in- "in, into" (from PIE root en "in")(2)) + putare "to trim, prune; reckon, clea... (more) |
— | over 3 years ago |
| Edit | Post #281613 | Initial revision | — | over 3 years ago |
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How did 'forfeit' shift to signify ‘penalty imposed for committing such a misdeed'? I don't understand this semantic shift, because a misdeed differs from a penalty or "something to which the right is lost through a misdeed". Can someone please fill in the gap? >### forfeit [13] >A forfeit was originally a ‘transgression’ or ‘misdemeanour’. The word comes from Old French for... (more) |
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| Edit | Post #281210 |
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| Edit | Post #281331 | Initial revision | — | over 3 years ago |
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How did “negotiable” mean “a good or security whose ownership is easily transferable”? I knew merely the first most popular meaning of negotiate. I never knew this second legal meaning >A document of an amount of money, or a title, which is readily transferable to another. Difference between Transferability and Negotiability - SRD Law Notes > Negotiability also gives a right... (more) |
— | over 3 years ago |
| Comment | Post #279828 |
Thanks so much Jirka Hanika, as always! Do you mind writing another answer completely in English, without referring to any other language? I have another ESL friend who asked this, and this one's Japanese! I don't want you to have to write a separate answer for each new mother tongue. (more) |
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| Edit | Post #281330 | Initial revision | — | over 3 years ago |
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What spoken human languages in 2021 don't salute with words related to health or peace? 1. What are the exceptions to the fact that most Asian, Middle Eastern and European languages greet with words anent health or peace? I know that "salutation" itself meant "health". 2. Why don't these exceptional languages salute with words anent well-being? Surely their speakers must still c... (more) |
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| Edit | Post #281329 | Initial revision | — | over 3 years ago |
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Why do the most spoken human languages in 2021 greet with words related to health or peace? Why do most Asian, Middle Eastern and European languages greet with words anent health or peace? I know that "salutation" itself meant "health". >### salute [14] >Salute goes back ultimately to the Latin noun salūs, a relative of salvus ‘safe, healthy’ (source of English safe and save). T... (more) |
— | over 3 years ago |
| Edit | Post #281212 | Initial revision | — | over 3 years ago |
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Please expound and simplify the semantic progression behind "reduce"? I don't understand the "semantic progression" that I emboldened below. The steps in the "semantic progression" feel too farfetched and unconnected. Can someone please fill in, and expound, the steps in Simple English? >### reduce [14] >‘Lessen, diminish’ is a comparatively recent semantic de... (more) |
— | over 3 years ago |
| Edit | Post #281211 | Initial revision | — | over 3 years ago |
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How did "join issue" mean ‘jointly submit a disputed matter to the decision of the court’? Kindly see the embolded phrase below. Etymonline is written too abstrusely. >### issue [13] >The words issue and exit are closely related etymologically. Both go back ultimately to the Latin verb exīre ‘go out’. Its past participle exitus became in Vulgar Latin exūtus, whose feminine form ... (more) |
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| Edit | Post #281210 | Initial revision | — | over 3 years ago |
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Why “chose” in action? Why not “right/droit” in action? >### Chose (in action) > this can be translated as ‘thing in action’. It is an intangible right which is essentially a right to sue. JC Smith's The Law of Contract 2021 3 ed, p 476. Law French used "droit", and in 2021 French, droit (the noun) still signifies "right". Why use a vaguer supern... (more) |
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| Edit | Post #281176 |
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| Edit | Post #281187 | Initial revision | — | over 3 years ago |
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How does "drive out" shift to signify "weigh out"? I boldened the relevant parts of the quotations, so that you don't have to read all of the quotations. I'm untrained at metaphors! How did "drive out" develop the metaphor of "weigh out"? >### exact [15] > >The adjective exact ‘precise’ and the verb exact ‘demand with severity’ have undergon... (more) |
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| Edit | Post #281186 | Initial revision | — | over 3 years ago |
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How did kúklos ("circular") shift to signify "general"? >### encyclopedia [16] >Etymologically, encyclopedia means ‘general education’. It is a medieval formation, based on the Greek phrase egkúklios paideíā (egkúklios, a compound adjective formed from the prefix en- ‘in’ and kúklos ‘circle’ – source of English cycle – meant originally ‘circular... (more) |
— | over 3 years ago |
| Edit | Post #281184 | Initial revision | — | over 3 years ago |
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How did "put under" shift to signify "cause to take the place of", then "enough"? 1. How did "put under" shift to signify "cause to take the place of"? 2. Then how did "cause to take the place of" shift to signify "enough"? >### sufficient [14] >Sufficient originated as the present participle of Latin sufficere ‘be enough’ (source also of English suffice [14]). This ... (more) |
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| Edit | Post #281177 |
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| Edit | Post #281175 |
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| Edit | Post #281177 | Initial revision | — | over 3 years ago |
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How did 'quibus?' shift to mean 'evasion of a point at issue'? >### quibble [17] >Quibble probably originated as a rather ponderous learned joke-word. It is derived from an earlier and now obsolete quib ‘pun’, which appears to have been based on quibus, the dative and ablative plural of Latin quī ‘who, what’. The notion is that since quibus made freque... (more) |
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