fungible - Wordsmith.org

Merriam-Webster visits the word fungible, which we had some discussion about here with some choosing to take a very narrow usage view.

It has a distinct meaning in the law and is used in the Uniform Commerical Code to describe goods where one quantity of them (e.g. a wheelbarrow of sawdust) is as good as any other (e.g. another wheelbarrow of sawdust).

'Where goods in the amount of a given quantity may be substituted for an equal quantity of like goods.'

Put another way, fungibility denies any extrinsic value. A dime is a dime unless it's an MS-65 1916-D Mercury dime, in which case it's a small fortune.

Does fungibility trump sentimental value.

"That wasn't just any wheelbarrow full of sawdust, your honor.

"That was the sawdust that filled the last wheelbarrow my grandfather stole from the saw mill."

or as a New Yorker Lawyer cartoon had a senior white shoe lawyer explain to an underling "associates are fungible, partners are not!"

??

"associates are fungible, partners are not!"

Quite precisely! The other running joke around court is that all deputy prosecutors are fungible goods (they are interchangeable), as are all public defenders (one can easily stand in for another). Maybe this is only funny if you are a denizen of the courthouse.

Can you explain "senior white shoe lawyer"? Is wearing white shoes a sort of privilege of the bigwigs in a law firm?

Not after Labor Day!!!!

O.K., I'm just telling you what the expression would mean here, not my opinion, don't be harping on the messenger...

Only old men wear white shoes (we're not talking running shoes here.) So a white-show lawyer or white-shoe accountant would be an old lawyer or accountant.

You can be a senior partner without being old, so adding the white-shoe reference says that the man is old.

i should have said senior partner in a white shoe law firm.

why white shoe? i have no idea, but its a ny term for exclusive law firms, --just as person in a tenuous (legal) position used to be told "get your self a philadelphia lawyer" (a species of lawyer held to be superior) .

i have passing knowledge of the terms, with out really knowing their origin.

I think of white shoe firms as blue blood hoighty toighty high end private. I think. And I figure it comes from the sears suckers who wore them practicing. B u t w h a t d o I k n o w ?

them are seersuckers.. (one word) from persian, (via french) for a fabric of ripples and smooth woven stripes, (often in pale colors like blue and white, or green and white, tan and white, etc) the sucker part is from sucre.. the fabric was thought to resemble milk and sugar-- the persian word for sugar was based on the grit/gravelly nature, shingle (roof, or rocky 'sand bar' (UK)) are from the same root word (these too are gravelly!)

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them are seersuckers.. (one word) from persian, (via french) for a fabric of ripples and smooth woven stripes, (often in pale colors like blue and white, or green and white, tan and white, etc) the sucker part is from sucre.. the fabric was thought to resemble milk and sugar-- the persian word for sugar was based on the grit/gravelly nature, shingle (roof, or rocky 'sand bar' (UK)) are from the same root word (these too are gravelly!)

According to the AHD, it came via Hindi, not French:

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Hindi srsakar, from Persian shroshakar : shr, milk (from Middle Persian) + o, and (from Middle Persian u, from Old Persian ut) + shakar, sugar (from Sanskrit arkar, from the resemblance of its smooth and rough stripes to the smooth surface of milk and bumpy texture of sugar).

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shingle (roof, or rocky 'sand bar' (UK)) are from the same root word (these too are gravelly!)

Interestingly, the online etymology dictionary says that that the roof shingle and the gravel shingle have different origins:

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shingle (1) Look up shingle at Dictionary.com
"thin piece of wood," c.1200, scincle, from L.L. scindula, altered (by influence of Gk. schidax "lath" or schindalmos "splinter") from L. scandula "roof tile," from scindere "to cleave, split," from PIE base *sked- "to split." Meaning "small signboard" is first attested 1842; that of "woman's short haircut" is from 1924. The verb meaning "to cut the hair so as to give the impression of overlapping shingles" is from 1857.
shingle (2) Look up shingle at Dictionary.com
"loose stones on seashore," 1513, probably related to Norw. singl "small stones," or N.Fris. singel "gravel," both said to be echoic of the sound of water running over pebbles.