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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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strange new words I relish
like nectar or tonic
I now know my line printer
is boustrophedonic
Yes! Thank you, M.
Here's what A.W.A.D. had for meander:
Date: Sun Oct 31 00:03:29 EDT 1999
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--meander
X-Bonus: The quiet and solitary man apprehends the inscrutable. He seeks nothing, holds to the mean, and remains free from entanglements. -I Ching (BCE 1150?)
meander (mee-AN-duhr) verb intr.
1. To follow a winding and turning course.
2. To move aimlessly and idly without fixed direction.
noun
1. meanders. Circuitous windings or sinuosities, as of a stream or path.
2. Often meanders. A circuitous journey or excursion; ramble.
3. The Greek fret or key pattern, used in art and architecture.
[From Latin maeander, circuitous windings, from Greek maiandros after the
Maeander River in Phrygia.]
Hmm--the more common meaning of meander certainly carries the connotation of no set pattern. Perhaps that codex thing refers to def. 3 above, which I may say I had not known.
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newbie
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Thanks, Faldage and Jackie, for your clarification and definitions.
No set pattern -- rambling -- allowing oneself to be drawn onward, instinctively, by Nature's patterns, and/or some inner sense. Some feel chaos is negative and call it aimless, shapeless, and its devotees idle.
Why not let the form happen? Why not go by feel? Are there things which can't be said in English?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Why not let the form happen? Why not go by feel? Are there things which can't be said in English?
In one of Dick Francis' more recent novels, the main character is a glassblower, who does exactly that.
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Jackie, the Dick Francis character sounds intriguing! I'll have to look at the book next time I'm at the library.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Are there things which can't be said in English? ~websafeAs coincidence would have it, in his weekly commentary on the NPR program "Fresh Air," Geoff Nunberg addresses the concept of words and concepts, whence this quote: "The fact is that people have plenty of concepts that their language doesn't happen to have a single word for. Take the German word Schadenfreude, which denotes the pleasure we take in the misfortunes of others. True, it's a nice item to have handy in a pre-packaged form. But that doesn't mean that Red Sox fans have to learn German before they can enjoy watching the Yankees lose eight straight at home." http://www-csli.stanford.edu/~nunberg/compromise.html
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Carpal Tunnel
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re: Are there things which can't be said in English? ~websafe
but we can say "i enjoy seeing team X lose"-- but are there philosophies we can't understand, or express?
in theory, there are no 'foriegn' cultures here on earth, since all culture is human culture, and we should be able to understand it..
but there are ideas, that are difficult to express and understand, with whole books, let alone single words. (take Hawking's thoughts on the Big Bang!)
i don't know if his ideas (if other ideas) can be better expressed in other languages.. but.
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Carpal Tunnel
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but we can say "i enjoy seeing team X lose"
Which is exactly Nunberg's point. Simply not having a word for it doesn't stop us from thinking or talking about it.
Case in point:
Just look at what we did with the parent who has lost a child.
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Pooh-Bah
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I could be completely wrong here, but my understanding of "schadenfreude" is that it means "a malicious and vicarious pleasure in the suffering of others". Is that really what USns feel when the Red Sox lose eight straight games, no matter how badly their name is spelt? What the hell have they done to you?
Just asking, like.
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Carpal Tunnel
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>Is that really what USns feel when the Red Sox lose eight straight games...
Cap'a, the example presented was how Red Sox fans feel when the Yankees lose eight straight games (as just happened); and schadenfreude is pretty much exactly what they felt, and it is based on a long history of frustration over losing out to the Yankees that goes back to the giving away of Babe Ruth.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Pfranz & tsuwm (latter: your excellent explanation notwithstanding),
How bout we ask Geoff at the next chat?
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