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Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
This is a word descibing both very old and very new technology. Primitive men built shelters
with poles and skins, wattle and daub walls, bricks with straw. I remember wondering why the
Israelites complained that they could not make bricks without straw. I had no idea it meant
clay mixed with straw, and merely dried in the sun. Now we have fiberglass, kevlar and space
thechnoology things I don't know anything about. I forgot to mention stucco, which is commonly
spread over wire mesh.. Fifty years ago, fairly large ships were built of concrete with wire mesh
embedded. Maybe you can think of something to add.In another thread I found a site which said
jade is a composite. That's why it resists shattering, one of its most valuable properties.
Come to think of it, skin is a composite. There are strong fibrils all through it. Leather is
skin from which much of the "waterproofing" has been removed.
composite
adj.
5L compositus, pp. of componere, to put together < com3, together + ponere, to place: see POSITION6
1 formed of distinct parts; compound
2 [C3] designating or of a classical Roman order of architecture, in which the scroll-like ornaments of the Ionic capital are combined with the acanthus design of the Corinthian: see ORDER, illus.
3 Bot. designating the largest family (Asteraceae, order Asterales) of dicotyledonous plants, with flower heads composed of dense clusters of small flowers surrounded by a ring of small leaves or bracts, including the daisy, thistle, artichoke, and chrysanthemum
n.
1 a thing of distinct parts; compound; esp., any of a class of high-strength, lightweight engineering materials consisting of various combinations of alloys, plastics, and ceramics
2 Bot. a composite plant
com[pos4ite[ly
adv.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210 |
people who work with graphics, especially on the computer, use this word a lot. to place different images over one another is to composite.
formerly known as etaoin...
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692 |
compositor
noun [C]
A compositor is a person whose job is to arrange the letters, words, sentences, etc. of a book or a magazine before it is printed.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Posts: 6,511 |
And then we have composer and composter, both of whom combine elements of their trades into a product.
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Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
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Overnight I remembered a couple other well known composites: When I was a boy,
sheetrock had not been invented, at least all the houses I saw built had oldtimers
with a big flat tub mixing slow setting plaster of paris, with sand for bulk, and cows hair
for linear element.
Then there was the tarred paper for roofing underlayment.
The first raincoats with liquid rubber applied to fabric.
The balloon type inflated buildings.
The fabric on early airplanes.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I wouldn't trade anything for composition. [blank stare]
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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Motions debated at the Trades Union Congress Annual conference are usually called "Composites." This is because all of the motions of a similar nature or on the same topic, proposed by several unions, are melded together to make just one motion (otherwise it would take weeks for the cponference to be completed, and many of the debates would be fairly near to identical.)
The process of "Compositing" takes hours, and can be the cause of some bitter rows between rival unions, who each want their own thoughts and wording to go forward.
The term "smoke-filled room", (denoting a negotiation that goes on in private and undemocratically,) comes from this process.
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