Is that if you remember a really great and applicable word exists weeks after writing an entry, you can go back and plug it right in. You can then blog about how great it was that you were able to transcend time like that, how you were able to travel back to a moment where you went, "OK, 'christened' will do," and say to yourself, "No! You will not settle! You will reflect and find the perfect word, that ideal thing that will capture the very essence of what you mean to express in a concise collection of sounds!"
Yclept.
Showing posts with label etymologies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label etymologies. Show all posts
Friday, February 6, 2009
Monday, March 3, 2008
Frankly, my dear, I don't give a rat's antebellum
I went to an international school. Subsequently, me and US History, not the best of amigos. Usually this only gets me into serious trouble when I laugh at what is recognizably an American historical reference, albeit one with which I am unfamiliar, at a comedy show or on TV, and the person next to me asks me to explain the joke. Unable to admit that I had only pretended to understand the quip, I begin the futile endeavor of trying to explain why the reference was hysterical in only the vaguest of terms. It's kind of like watching presidential hopefuls campaign in sparsely populated grocery stores.
This lack of a practical working knowledge of US History brings me to my most recent scholarly embarrassment… my lack of recognition of the term “antebellum.” Now, let’s not exaggerate my stupidity here (despite the inherent entertainment value this would bring to the blog). I knew we were talking about something that happened after the American Revolution and before the "war of northern aggression". – I would like to take this moment to celebrate the fact that in some of Atlanta’s more elite private schools it was not unusual for 16-year-old boys to begin a night of heavy drinking with a toast “fucking Sherman”. – In any event, it was time to start some serious soul-searching in order to determine what “antebellum” really meant.
“Ante” – from Latin, meaning “before.” Cool.
“Bellum” – from the French “belle”, meaning “hot people.”
Therefore: “Antebellum” – adj. Before people were hot.
This lack of a practical working knowledge of US History brings me to my most recent scholarly embarrassment… my lack of recognition of the term “antebellum.” Now, let’s not exaggerate my stupidity here (despite the inherent entertainment value this would bring to the blog). I knew we were talking about something that happened after the American Revolution and before the "war of northern aggression". – I would like to take this moment to celebrate the fact that in some of Atlanta’s more elite private schools it was not unusual for 16-year-old boys to begin a night of heavy drinking with a toast “fucking Sherman”. – In any event, it was time to start some serious soul-searching in order to determine what “antebellum” really meant.
“Ante” – from Latin, meaning “before.” Cool.
“Bellum” – from the French “belle”, meaning “hot people.”
Therefore: “Antebellum” – adj. Before people were hot.
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