Just a link today to this article that I wrote for the Huffington Post. It's about progressio and diacope and the Beatles and other such fun stuff. It is, of course, a further reminder that The Elements of Eloquence is now out in the U.S. of A.
Also, on Thursday I'm going to be in Oxford, at Blackwells on a panel discussing whether bookshops will exist one hundred years from now. Do come along if you're in Oxford.
Charles Dickens writing Tale of Two Cities
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ReplyDeleteGreat article Inky! You missed a great one from Winnie the Pooh: "The wonderful thing about Tiggers, is that Tiggers are wonderful things".
DeleteDear Dogberry, this is about "The Etymologicon" which I've been reading with great pleasure and lots of laughter - until I was brought up short by the 'Ignorami' chapter (this takes a lot of doing as I'm very tall). Crétin/chrétien, who knew? What I do know are large numbers of lovely and healthy Christians so it seemed unlikely. But no! Everywhere I look in English and French other etymologies confirm yours, except for one solitary web page, bravely holding out against the consensus. If anyone had asked me I would have pointed to the letter of Paul to Titus, Ch 1, verse 12, but no again. Thanks for preventing me from making that error - if it is one. Here's the dissenting voice, from way up in the crests: http://projetbabel.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3467 And here's a French etymologist discussing the matter (you probably know about him already): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1bd2pU8-1Q
ReplyDeleteIn fact, come to think of it, wouldn't it make sense if 'crétin' had been derived from 'someone who lives in the crests, i.e. the 'crêtes', or as the word would have been once upon a time, 'crestes'?
ReplyDeleteAmazing writing! I would like to share a something writing. Bible says,"The Bible shows the way to go to heaven, not the way the heavens go.
ReplyDeleteHappy X-Mas!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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