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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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It's common for old words to take on new meanings. Sometimes the new meaning is contrary or even exactly opposite the original; "meditate" for instance. It used to mean concentrating one's thought, but now it means to stop thinking altogether. What is this kind of a meaning shift called, and can you think of other examples
dalehileman
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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About this shift : I was taught meditate a child by the good Sisters and it was definetly the concentration of thought, usually on some spiritual theme. (We are talkin' 70 years ago here) Budhists I have talked to recently also tell me thier meditation is a concentration.
Now as to this newfangled Transcendental Meditation stuff - I no know from that, brudda!
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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this is definitely a yart
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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tsu: Good work! to wit:
:Burnside differentiates between a word which shows "historical drift" (enantiodromic) and one which "maintains... two opposite meanings side by side", which he characterizes as a Janus word or amphibolous"
Evidently, then, "meditate" qualifies as enantiodromic, falling in the subcategory Janus. The latter, then, is also a subcategory of amphibolous, which doesn't necessarily imply contradictory meanings
But tsu, what is a yart
dalehileman
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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what is a yart? the man asks.. Yet Another Rehashed Topic -- actually, it's an honest-to-gosh, home-grown acronym!
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I'm not sure I am familiar with the alleged meaning of meditate which is to "stop thinking all together". The kinds of meditation I have read about (Ignatian exercise, Buddhist) usually have one concentrating or focusing on some thing or word. You might have "to empty your mind", but I think that means to not be distracted by extraneous things. So, I'm not sure enantiodromic is apt in this case.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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zm: The older or more classic meaning is as you say. But the term has smeared or morphed into the idea of entirely clearing the mind, as in Transendental ~
Incidentally there's a term for that kind of smearing tho I can't remember it
Last edited by dalehileman; 04/30/06 03:07 PM.
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