Here's an interesting tit-bit (remember the spell-checker problem?) that relates to my last super-relevant posting "Psychology Today". Read on and be enlightened.....
The English borrowed cretin from the French word cr�tin in 1779. It comes from an earlier word, cretin, which meant "Christian" in the (French) dialects of Valais and Savoie (compare the standard French word, chr�tien). Its ultimate source is the Latin christianus, "Christian".
While the original meaning of cretin was, literally, "Christian", the word "Christian" was not being used as we would use it today. In our pluralistic, multi-cultural society, we recognize Christianity to be just one of many competing belief systems. Thus, to say that someone is a Christian is to state that s/he is not a Buddhist, a Marxist, a Hindu or a Jew. This seems rather obvious to us, doesn't it? Yet this wasn't quite how the word was understood by the medieval inhabitants of remote Alpine valleys. From their limited and parochial perspective it seemed that everyone in the world was Christian. Thus, the word became synonymous with "human being".
Due to the lack of iodine in the medieval Alpine diet, certain regions of
We must admit that we were quite surprised to find that the word Christian itself was not used in English until 1526. How did English-speaking Christians refer to themselves before that date? Did they not need such a word before they came into contact with non-Christians?
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Yeah, Buddy! There you have it!
6 comments:
ONWARD CRETIN SOLDIERS!
That was very inspirational, dude, but watch it.
All of us who are (or were) Catlicks (fadda) react viscerally to those kine of exhortations, so you have to be careful about bandying them about.
On another note, I wonder what the origins of "croutons" might suggest....
I also want to point out that there is a difference of opinion as to the classification of cretins. dude asserts that they are idiots, but the article I referenced (stole) says they are imbeciles. Hmmm.
Hey, vantz:
you're right -- I shouldn't forget that there are plenty of folks who get nostalgic/inspired when they are reminded of the Crusades. What a kinder, simpler time, to be sure. And all those benefits -- left dozens of forts all over the place, mixed-up the gene pool, so as to minimize the idiots in the world...
(That was my questionably successful attempt to bring this conversation full-circle...)
I guess I have to admit to being a little afraid of the crouton-direction of this exchange...being a devote bread-worshipper. And we all know that nothing good can come from mixing food and religion...
Wen i was last in frantz, i had a cretin and it was good. i like the kind wit sugar on them.
wait, wut was the queschen?
OK, I'm back, but not much action on this blog since I left...HELLO! ANYONE HOME?!
Inexplicably, I have two things to talk about:
1. The death of playgrounds as we have known them.
My main beef here is that playground design and management has been wrested from the "old guard" who rightfully saw them as places for kids to have fun, but not without a certain element of danger. The "new guard," recreation do-gooders believe that sand isn't soft enough to fall into, you gotta have some kind of rubbery shit all over the place. They think that metal isn't an appropriate material for climbing structures, and that monkey bars, swings of all sorts, and see-saws oughta go. However, the unfortunate evolution of our playgrounds in which safety is emphasized over real learning misses the point: Playgrounds are a powerful metaphor: We shouldn't sugar-coat life for our kids, or someday, due to their lack of vigilence, they're gonna get smacked in the teeth by a see-saw. That should be enough to start the conversation -- don't make me get into my feelings about dodgeball and lawn darts -- also classic metaphors for development of much needed survival skills.
2. I was sitting listening to my daughter doing her calc homework, and we started talking about PI (3.141592654....etc.). It occurred to me that this is such an awkward number, having infinitely non-repeating decimal places, but, nevertheless, vital to our knowing some basic things about how our universe is constructed.
So (and here's my point), why shouldn't PI be a simple number, like "1" and then construct our math around it? In other words, adopt a math system in basePI. Perhaps something beautiful would be revealed? Whattaya think?
Faithfully,
dude
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