Language, Time, and History

by Cliopatria

We use words to discipline history and history both discards them and summons up new ones:

At Cabinet Magazine, Sasha Archibald and Daniel Rosenberg have"A Timeline of Timelines."

Magistra,"Feminist History and the History of Feminism," Magistra et Mater, 24 June, contemplates the fact that"I call myself a feminist and a historian, but I'm not sure I'm a feminist historian. ...."

Jonathan Wilson,"Thomas Aquinas on the Right to Resist," The Elfin Ethicist, 6 July, includes a flow chart to illustrate the process of St. Thomas's reasoning.

Now that we've done a language history quiz, Jon Dresner recommends The Phrontistery's Compendium of Lost Words. These are 400 words, once but no longer used in English, so that they otherwise appear nowhere else on the internet. Jon is particularly fond of

modernicide n 1774 -1774 killing or killer of modern people."While the Luddites were radical traditionalists, they never engaged in modernicide."

Via Mutant Frog Travelogue.

At the more recent end of the language-line, Ludus Historiae reflects on the fact that"google" will premier in the next print edition of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary.

And, while we're dealing in words, Brian Ulrich looks at the meanings of"Jihad and Martyrdom" in Islam.

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William Hopwood - 7/8/2006

"I hope I will not be accused of ad hominem (or feminem) tactics if I nominate the word "malkin," which according to the OED means "a sloppy, slovenly woman; a slattern"

My Goodeness. Who would dream of there being other than a scholarly motive for only showing the definition of "malkin" outlined above?

Just to fill out the picture, however, here is some more about that word from, I believe, the same source:

"Mawkin, Merkin and Malkin were all diminutives of Maud, itself a shortened form of Matilda (Germanic maht "might" + hild "battle"). Due to its widespread use by the lower class, the name Malkin was often applied to peasant woman, much as Churl (i.e. Charles) was used for peasant men. That is how a boy dancer, dressed as a girl in the traditional May-day morris dance, came to be called Malkin. Sometimes, though, she (he?) was called Maid Marion."

Greg James Robinson - 7/8/2006

I hope I will not be accused of ad hominem (or feminem) tactics if I nominate the word "malkin," which according to the OED means "a sloppy, slovenly woman; a slattern"

Rebecca Anne Goetz - 7/7/2006

How about "historianess?" Heh heh...

Jason T. Kuznicki - 7/7/2006

I nominate the following words for immediate rehabilitation:

--namelings. No other word quite means what this one does. "Eponyms" is the closest, but even it suggests a causation that might or might not be present. I am a nameling with maybe a few hundred thousand Jasons, but the Jason of myth is the only eponym.

--tantuple. For the same reason.

--saburrate. To put sand or gravel in something. While I suspect that it would mostly be a metaphor nowadays, still, it's a great metaphor to have.

--uglyography. Need I say more?