| T.R | Title | User | Personal
Name | Date | Lines |
|---|
| 1022.1 | | SMURF::BINDER | Qui scire uelit ipse debet discere | Thu Feb 11 1993 05:13 | 6 |
| The luke in lukewarm is probably from the Middle English lew - tepid;
hence, lukewarm is a redundant word meaning tepid warm.
I suppose I could take a bath on this.
-dick
|
| 1022.2 | Curious | ULYSSE::MILDER | Nihil obstat | Thu Feb 11 1993 10:38 | 5 |
|
But how/where/when/why did the "k" sound get in?
-maarten.
|
| 1022.3 | Over to you, Dick, or Maarten, you probably know too... :-) | RDVAX::KALIKOW | Parody Error, please retry | Thu Feb 11 1993 11:41 | 6 |
| Dunno about the "k" sound, but what does "Nihil obstat" mean? I can't
quite recall, it's one of those rhetorical or legalistic thingies,
innit?
(-: Pardon the ratholization :-)
|
| 1022.4 | according to the AHD | PENUTS::DDESMAISONS | | Thu Feb 11 1993 11:51 | 10 |
|
>> Dunno about the "k" sound, but what does "Nihil obstat" mean? I can't
nihil obstat - nothing hinders
1. An attestation by a Roman Catholic censor that a book contains
nothing damaging to faith or morals.
2. Official approval, especially of an artistic work.
|
| 1022.5 | Strictly from memory... | VMSMKT::KENAH | Shedding the homespun | Thu Feb 11 1993 11:53 | 5 |
| Loosely, it means "Nothing offends." It's the Roman Catholic Church's
indication that the contents of the book do not contradict any church
doctrines.
andrew
|
| 1022.6 | | SMURF::BINDER | Qui scire uelit ipse debet discere | Fri Feb 12 1993 08:04 | 10 |
| The RC church uses two such declarations:
Nihil Obstat, meaning literally, nothing stands in the way. This is,
as stated, the censor's statement that the book contains nothign
damaging to faith or morals.
Imprimatur, meaning literally, it may be printed. This the bishop's
permission for the publication of the book.
-dick
|
| 1022.7 | not cool | RAGMOP::T_PARMENTER | Human. All too human. | Fri Feb 12 1993 13:17 | 11 |
| Webster's 9NCD says lukewarm comes from two ME words:
"luke", meaning "lukewarm"
"warm", meaning "not so hot"
The syllable "luke" comes from an OHG word "lao" meaning - What else? -
"lukewarm". The word "lee" also comes from "lao" and therefore
apparently originally meant "a warmish place to be" before it came to
mean "sheltered from the wind".
|
| 1022.8 | So it's redundundant | GAVEL::SATOW | | Fri Feb 12 1993 13:57 | 7 |
| Webster's 9NCD says lukewarm comes from two ME words:
> "luke", meaning "lukewarm"
> "warm", meaning "not so hot"
Clay
|
| 1022.9 | Don't stop yet... | SWETSC::WESTERBACK | Mimsy were the borogroves | Sun Feb 14 1993 16:07 | 6 |
| And taking this a bit further, 'lao' is related to latin 'calere'
meaning to be warm. This is the same root as in French 'chaud',
'chaleur' and Spanish 'caliente'.
Hans
|
| 1022.10 | What's all this got to do with Cool Hand Lew? | FORTY2::KNOWLES | DECspell snot awl ewe kneed | Mon Feb 15 1993 06:35 | 21 |
| The K sound at the end of the lao-like word (I'll bet the `lew' version
is earlier than the `luke' version) was introduced, presumably, just
to make the word easier to pronounce. When you've got a string of
vowels, as in *lew-warm, there are three options:
o shove a consonant in between
o elide them (which is why in some pronunciations,
the word `vacuum' becomes just two syllables)
o pronounce them all, carefully, if there's time, and
be thought old-fashioned
Before a language is standardized, the first option is much the
easiest.
And incidentally, the redundancy point is no surprise - especially
not in the case of Middle English (I think, though what I know
about ME is slight). One example I can dredge up is `erst er'
[ME], which means before before; a more common example (common
to many languages) is the double negative.
b
|
| 1022.11 | Hmph. I don't think an `l' is enough... | SMURF::BINDER | Qui scire uelit ipse debet discere | Mon Feb 15 1993 06:36 | 5 |
| I know that W9NCD says it's true, but I'd dearly love to see the
etymological train that relates OHG "lao" to Latin "calere." Seems
just a mite far-fetched for my admittedly uneducated palate.
-dick
|
| 1022.12 | | RAGMOP::T_PARMENTER | Human. All too human. | Mon Feb 15 1993 09:03 | 2 |
| "Reiterate" is another.
|
| 1022.13 | | SMURF::BINDER | Qui scire uelit ipse debet discere | Mon Feb 15 1993 09:54 | 1 |
| The topic appears to be warming up...
|
| 1022.14 | Let's confuse the issue a bit | OSL09::ELIZABETHA | Elizabeth Allen | Tue Feb 16 1993 00:06 | 14 |
|
For what it is worth...
In Norwegian the word for lukewarm is "lunken". My guess is that since
the k is in both languages, that the etymologies in the dictionaries
that have been consulted thus far are leaving something out.
Either that k has been there all along, or both languages have been
affected by a common external influence.
The n in the Norwegian word is pronounced just like the n in "bank".
This is likely to be the result of an earlier nasalised vowel, and I
don't feel it adds much further confusion to the issue!
|
| 1022.15 | we were getting warm, but then . . . | RAGMOP::T_PARMENTER | Human. All too human. | Tue Feb 16 1993 05:30 | 4 |
| Meanwhile, the not-really-a-Webster's that lurks near editor's offices
says that "lee" comes from "hleo", an anglo-saxon word meaning
sheltered.
|