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Etymology
Etymology is the science of tracing words through history to reveal their secret Scrabbalah word score.
History
Etymology is all about history because history is what etymology is all about. Languages reflect history through the bastardization of words by renegade colonies, or through the slow process of what Wikipedophiles call "the euphemism treadmill" - which translates to mundane speech as "people like to offend others".
What etymology is useful for beyond amusing anecdotes is not currently known, and the international scientific community has not yet been able to secure the funding required to find out.
Amusing Anecdotes
Philistine
Back in Biblical times, the Jews carried around a large object called the Ark of the Covenant. It was a magical box full of uncountable demons that God had slain and imprisoned there to bless the Jews during their bloody wars. One time, while the Jews were fighting it out with the Philistines (the ancient Palestinians), the Ark was stolen. The clever and resourceful Philistines had created a diversion and then run off with the magical box so that they could use the demons inside to defeat the Jews. The Jews, however, were incensed into a bloodlust that lasted thousands of years and promptly pwned the Philistines. From that time forth, a 'philistine' was someone who didn't appreciate the Ark. (Although this was later corrupted by a rash of cleft-lip birth defects into "someone who didn't appreciate art").
Boring
Derived from the city of Boring in Oregan. The city itself was named after the settlers' success at wiping out the twelve-foot bears in the area - "bore" being the past tense of "bear" - but the success was a hollow one. Without the desperate fight for their lives that the settlers had grown accustomed to, they found life very dull. Thus the city which had finished bearing its region, and had been a symbol of courage to its nation, became synonymous with the dull and dreary trudge forward in a life without hope.
External Links
Etymology is part of a series on Language & Communication | |
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Languages and Dialects • Grammar, Punctuation, Spelling, Style, and Usage • Rhetorical Strategies • Poetry •
The Politics of Language and Communication • Media • Visual Rhetoric
Click topics to expand |