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Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
Someone PM'ed me today and used this word: eruditeness. Though it is perfectly correct, it somehow struck me as awkward; dunno why. For a second, I thought it should be erudity, but that's not right! So, I looked it up, and thought you-all might find this interesting, as I did:
er'u·dite'ness n.
WORD HISTORY One might like to be erudite but hesitate to be rude. This preference is supported by the etymological relationship between erudite and rude. Erudite comes from the Latin adjective çrudîtus, “well-instructed, learned,” from the past participle of the verb çrudîre, “to educate, train.” The verb is in turn formed from the prefix ex–, “out, out of,” and the adjective rudis, “untaught, untrained,” the source of our word rude. The English word erudite is first recorded in a work possibly written before 1425 with the senses “instructed, learned.” Erudite meaning “learned” is supposed to have become rare except in sarcastic use during the latter part of the 19th century, but the word now seems to have been restored to favor.
From Atomica (AHD 2000).
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Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 742
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 742 |
eruditeness
I prefer erudicity.
Repectfully yours,
H. Dumpty
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 315
enthusiast
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enthusiast
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 315 |
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Joined: Apr 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
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Is it just me, or does Jackie have the etymons for erudite starting with a c with a cedilla? That can't be right.
Bingley
Bingley
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,189
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,189 |
çrudîtus, “well-instructed, learned,” from the past participle of the verb çrudîre, “to educate, train.”
And herein seems to lie some more oxymoronological etymology:
Whence crude and crud?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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formerly known as etaoin...
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Joined: Nov 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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On a T-shirt - made me laugh -
"Eruditer than thou"
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
Love the t-shirt slogan, wow.
I would say that erudition is the process of becoming erudite and eruditeness is the quality of being so.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
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The character that got transmorgrified(C) to a c-cedilla was an e with a macron over it in the original.
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