| Reclaiming Long-Lost Positive Words Posted: 27 Dec 2021 07:31 PM PST
Language changes fast, especially in the internet age. But it had always changed. While we have words our ancestors never imagined, we have also lost words. We know how to be ruthless, but at one time we could be full of ruth. We recognize when something is unwieldy, but would we recognize a thing that is wieldy? Lexicographer and etymologist Susie Dent thinks there are plenty of words that need to be brought back, especially positive words.
If we could be full of "ruth," that would mean we are full of compassion. Another great word is "confelicity," which means taking joy in someone else's happiness. Or how about old words that are just funny, like "cacklefarts" for eggs? There are plenty of lost words in English, and in other languages, which deserve to be brought out and used properly. Read about more of them at The Guardian. -via Metafilter
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| The Woman for Whom the Word “Scientist” Was Coined Posted: 27 Dec 2021 02:14 PM PST 
Did you know that the word "scientist" didn't exist before 1834? At the time, the term used was "man of science," and that couldn't apply to Mary Somerville, who was a woman. "Mathematician" didn't quite work, either, although she was a mathematician and for a long time taught mathematics to children, along with her studies and raising her own four children. Somerville was brilliant in so many scientific subjects that the word "scientist" was coined to describe her.
Somerville was born in 1780, a time when women weren't given much of an education. She was schooled in art and music, but her parents objected to her fascination with Euclid, which they thought would drive her insane. It did not, and she taught herself higher mathematics. In 1834, she published a book called On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences, which described how astronomy, mathematics, physics, geology, and chemistry fit together to explain the world around us. It wasn't her first impressive science book, but it cemented her status as a "scientist." Read the short version of Mary Somerville's amazing life at the Marginalian. -via Damn Interesting  |
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