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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692 |
Something that came up at work today brought home the similarity of meaning of reticule and graticule, in each case the second meaning is identical, and yet they stem from different Latin words. I wonder how this happened?
Reticule:
French, réticule, L. reticulum, dim. of rete a net.
1. A little bag, originally of network; a woman's workbag, or a little bag to be carried in the hand.
2. A system of wires or lines in the focus of a telescope or other instrument; a reticle
Graticule:
French, from Latin craticula fine latticework, diminutive of cratis wickerwork, hurdle.
1. A grid composed of horizontal and vertical lines printed over an image, such as a map, to assist in locating specific features.
2. A network of fine lines, dots, cross hairs, or wires in the focal plane of the eyepiece of an optical instrument.
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Joined: Dec 2002
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addict
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I am only thinking aloud, dxb; don't know for sure.
It seems probable that there are two separate Latin roots, because the *pattern of the mesh is different in both. A reticulum is a fine meshwork of assymetric branching lines that connect randomly and without a predetermined design. Whilst with a graticule, the grid design is extremely ordered, regular and symmetric.
None of this explains why the manufacturer of the optical instrument decided to use the terms as synonyms!? Maybe, if you went into the history of the instruments themselve? I didn't know this second usage before; thanks!
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Joined: Dec 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
Seems to me that there's two separate Latin roots because we have two separate things. The net, rete, would be a saggy thing that would bring up the idea of a bag so the bag, made of the same netlike fabric, only smaller, would easily be called a "little net." The wickerwork, cratis, would be solid, possibly, but not necessarily, with a curved shape. What they have in common is the cross-hatch design of the material they are made of and this is the metaphor that came to describe the pattern on the optical instruments.
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Joined: Oct 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400 |
RE: A reticulum is a fine meshwork of assymetric branching lines that connect randomly and without a predetermined design. Whilst with a graticule, the grid design is extremely ordered, regular and symmetric.
is the at quote a technical definations? or just your understanding.. to me, a reticule is fine net work, (just like a sailor/fishermans net, made identically, just with finer cords and finer mesh to the netting..
like a net, its can be opened up, or compacted. i have a pair of summer formal gloves done in netted linen.. and i have seen reticules (small formal purses for women) done in the same style... as well as casual ones, done in a worsted weight cotton -- common called 'french market bags' these are sometimes done in crochet, rather than proper netting.
netting is very similar to tatting in exicution.
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No, of troy, that was not a defintion that I quoted; it was just an elaboration of my understanding of the difference between the words.
Reticulum is a common enough word in medicine and there is a difference between the reticula in the body and the orderly grid pattern of a graticule. Whilst both are networks and meshworks, the latter is technical and drawn in an orderly, calibrated fashion, to scale, whilst the former is more akin to an, er,..artistic tangle.
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