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Joined: Mar 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
Dody's thread over in I&A got me to thinking about this. For governments that have established empires, why don't we say they're empirical?
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Joined: Dec 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Because they have different roots. Empire is from the Latin imperare, to rule; empirical is through Latin from the Greek empeirikos, experienced.
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Joined: Mar 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
Thank you, Mr. F. I had a feeling it would be something like that. Although I am too familiar with the "real" meaning of empirical to be able to seriously ascribe it as I said above, it still makes grammatical "sense" to me; I guess in the same way that toddlers say, "I tooked a piece of candy".
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Joined: Jun 2002
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jun 2002
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You could say, I suppose and at the risk of being laughed at, that the government was empireical.
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