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I have recently come across the word "aptronym", which was explained in the text as "a symbolic or allusive label name". One example given was a contemporary character named Percy whose actions linked him unmistakeably, though not explicitly, with Knight Percival from the Arthurian legends. About "aptronym", though, does anybody know whether it is directly derived from Greek (as are "synonym" and "antonym"), or whether it has been formed by uniting "apt" (since the name is apt for the character it designates) with the "nym" part of the Greek-origin words? -- something like a coinage by analogy...
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Aptually, tsuwm, I think eu are more apt to remember the former. But I went to your M-W site and found a neat opposite: "Henry Calamity, an inaptronym, as this man was named the Santa Fe Railroad's "safety man of the month" for March 1969." 'Nother new word, and thanks for the Round Table info., too.
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enthusiast
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enthusiast
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There's a movie coming out this summer called "The Fast and the Furious" about drag racing on the streets of LA. It stars an actor named Vin Diesel. Is there such a category as "inaptronym"? The movie also stars an actor named Paul Walker.
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old hand
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old hand
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Vin Diesel.I think the Germans and the French should NOT collaborate one wine production! I ain't gonna drink any of this stuff!
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Diesels will run on strange things. They probably could run on vodka, but probably not on vin.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Whether the diesel will run on vin is one question, whether you'd get anybody to drink the stuff is an entire nother.
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I was reminded of this thread while listening to Terry Gross on NPR interview one Michael Pollan (pron. like pollen), author of The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s-Eye View of the World. I hope he doesn't do book signings - you wouldn't beleaf all the horrible jokes he must hear over and over again - must make him wish he had a pistil handy. OK, I'm done now.
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The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s-Eye View of the World
i KNEW that had a sue me [read: tsuwmy] ring to it...
Should have known tsuwm and Sparteye would beat me to it, and with better puns, no less.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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back to the top, for the sake of the link, bd.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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found this online bulletin today:
Lucent said on Thursday its Bell Labs scientists found that a single strand of optical fibre could transmit 10-times more information than previously thought, which means the potential power of such networks has yet to be realised. The Bell Labs team, whose scientific results appear in Thursday's issue of the British journal Nature, found that it is theoretically possible to send about 100 terabits of information, or roughly 20 billion one-page emails, simultaneously per Current commercial optical systems can transmit just under two terabits of information per second and laboratory experiments have demonstrated transmission rates of 10 terabits per second. "This paper highlights the fundamental understanding of the ultimate capacity of fibre," said the chief technical officer of Lucent's Optical Networking Group.
A man clearly born for his job - his name?
Alastair Glass
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