Uh, Plutarch,I've...uh, kinda inherited this thread by default because the other crap shooters who once posted here have stopped posting and moved on to matters more worthy of their uh...personage, and so now, I am, so to speak, the semantic head.


Your choice, I'm afraid, is to play by my rules or else I will stop posting and your own echo will become your counterpoint.

But what good luck! My rules are simple. All I ask is for you to be polite and focus your sharp mind on the important subject of this thread. Yes, Anu's discussion of "presentism" is relevant but the horse of the matter is whether or not words, by their very nature, can lock in meaning between diverse cultures and prevent the adulteration of key words through time.

Admittedly this is a lofty subject and as such it requires that we first investigate the fundamental quirks and oddities of language.

Rail, snarl, and smirk, at what I say here but please offer other ideas rather than cute trite remarks in their place.

Together let us address the propositions at hand as I am here to learn; are not you?