How fare ye scriptomaniacs? This is (probably) the Stranger. Don't forget to try a Little Calculation below. It's both funny and sad, and sad that its funny. I recently made a few more discoveries in Latin - English similarities which just about made me run around in glee. Hope you also enjoy them.
So, there's this word in Latin, Limen; Liminis neuter noun meaning threshold. It doesn't have any other meanings and only a few uses in Latin. If I were a Roman who just learned English I might use the word threshold like this, "I was standing in the threshold of the gate..." or "We took him up to the threshold..." and even "The threshold was guarded by many men against the enemy." But when we converted this word into our language we pretty much ignored these uses.
The most direct root is found in the word limit which obviously means, "having an end, boundary, or threshold." But there are other more subtle words, subliminal (under the threshold), preliminary (before the threshold), and my personal favorite eliminate (out to the threshold). Now whenever I say the word "eliminate" I know I'm really saying, "take blank out to the threshold" or preliminary "now, before we cross the threshold let's blank." But don't worry, I'm not trying to get some message under your threshold. ^_^
Dt
Break Free
8 years ago
2 comments:
Hahahahaha. I wonder if that came from the time period where Latin was no longer a common tongue, but spoken purely for economic, academic, and religious reasons. Nice sublimination :-)
ooh, cool
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