So I am going to put contact in. Contact. As a noun. So from the 1620s, action, state, or condition of touching. Condition of touching – that’s nice. From the Latin contactus "a touching", a touching of something unclean, contamination. From the Latin, touching, that is quite nice. From past participle of contingere "to touch, seize,". An assimilated form of com "with, together". con- and tangere – with, together. To touch. And the PIE root is tag – touch or handle. It is nice this idea of contact and touch. Whether that is a passive or an active thing. The figurative sense of contact – a connection, communication, that is meaning from the 1800s. To make contact. Can also refer to contact as in a mechanical or electrical circuit. Contact – to bring together or put in contact, get in touch with. Contact – to contact. It is interesting when contact means a touching, when the verb becomes a noun. Contiguous, contiguous is an adjective – touching, meeting, joining a surface or border. Near. Touching. Bordering upon. Again from the root of contingere to touch upon.
So, I wanted to look at this maybe difference between inert, inertia and passivity. So inert – inertia. So inertia as a noun – that property of matter by virtue of which it retains its state of rest or of uniform rectilinear motion so long as no foreign cause changes that state. So state of rest or rectilinear motion. Latin sense of inertia has connection to unskillfulness, ignorance, inactivity and idleness, from iners (genitive inertis) "unskilled or inactive". Ah, so here inertia and inert might seem different. The classical sense of apathy – passiveness and inactivity from the English from 1822. Inert – without inherent force, having no power to act or respond. From the French inerte or directly from Latin inertem. Unskilled, incompetent; inactive – interesting how it shifts from not having a force into incompetency. Helpful, weak, worthless. So the point of there being a value is interesting. Used of stagnant fluids. Uncultivated pastures and expressionless eyes. It is a compound of in- "without, not, opposite of" and ars in the genitive sense of artis or "skill". So without art. Opposite of art or skill. See art – noun. Art, noun - skill as a result of learning or practice. So without the skill as a result of learning or practice. Also from the Sanskrit rtih meaning "manner, mode;" and the Greek artizein "to prepare". This is interesting – if you said, inert as in without preparation.
I am not sure if we have done this – I thought I would put disorientate. Disorientation. Disorientation as a noun from 1846 - deviation from an east-facing position. Ah, I see, because orient-east, deviation from an east-facing position. Confusion as to direction – see dis- + orientation. Perhaps its immediate origin in some cases is as a noun of action or state from disorientate in the 1700s. So maybe I should go first … it splits it into dis and orientation. So orientation – arrangement of a building etc, to face East or any other specified direction. Noun of action from orient. To orient – verb. Meaning "process of determining the points of the compass is by 1868, hence the extended sense of "action of determining one's mental bearings," with reference to new ideas. Meaning "introduction to a situation" is from 1942. Sense of "the position or arrangement (of something) relative to the points of the compass". Orientational. It is interesting how we use this word. I am going to go to orient. To orient. Orient or orientate. If I look at the verb – to arrange to as to face East, to take one’s bearings from the East. Literally to face the East. To orientate is to face the East. From … the Old French orient "east". Place or range. Yes, it is very much about placement and arrangement originally in reference to the East. But it can be to another direction. Something about the horizon – where the sun first appears. A point of orientation – east. And if, now, disorientate – I might jump here. I will put in settle. Come to rest. So, I suppose I put settle in with disorientate because it feels like they are somehow doing different things. Come to rest, cause to sit, place, put. Settling – also to settle, colonise, coming from the German siedeln "to settle, colonize." From c. 1300 of birds, etc., "to alight." And from the 14th century, to "sink down, descend; cave in." Settle. Descend. Also reference to suspended particles in a liquid – that’s nice. So particles settling in a liquid. And to establish a permanent residence. So around residence and living. To settle can also mean to decide. Settle, to reconcile a quarrel or differences. Reconciliation. Settle down. Become content. I am not very good at this – OK I am going to … put proximity. Nearness. In place, time or relation. It is interesting putting these words orientation, settle or proximity – they all have this sense of place or position. Proximity – the noun meaning nearness in place, time, or relation. That’s nice. From the French proximité "nearness" – that is 14th century. Also from Latin proximitatem - "nearness, vicinity," next, most direct; adjoining. And figuratively, latest, most recent; next, following, most faithful. And proximal as an adjective. This is nice – proximal, situated near the central of the body as opposed to distal, or extremital, as in furthest away from the centre of the body. Also linking up closely with … it has brought me to immediacy. Immediate, close connection, proximity. Nearly. Close at hand. Almost, all but, within a little of. And these are related – vicinity, nearness in place. Pertaining to. Neighbours. Nearness. Ah, going back to proximity. A superlative of proper, near. Near. I am wondering if I put plane in I will end up with another kind of positioning. Plane. Flat surface – simplest of all geometrical surfaces. Flat surface – plane.
Yes, so, maybe I will look at passivity. Compared to inertia or inertness. Passiveness. Middle English had passion in a sense of "fact or condition of being acted upon". Also, passabilite "capacity for being acted upon or for suffering". Passible - "capable of feeling or suffering; susceptible of impressions from external agents, capable of being changed." Capacity for being acting upon or for suffering. I want to go back to passive – of matter, "capable of being acted upon;" of persons, "receptive". That’s interesting – of matter it means capable of being acted upon but of person’s it also means receptive. Also in the grammatical sense of "expressive of being affected by some action". Capable of feeling or of suffering. Again, to suffer – see passion. The meaning of "not active or acting" is recorded from late 15c. Sense of unresisting, not opposing, enduring suffering without resistance is from 1620s. A passive verb. Passive resistance. Used throughout 19c, re-coined by Gandhi. Passive-aggressive with reference to behavior or personality characterized by indirect resistance but avoidance of direct confrontation – only attested to from 1971. Passion – this has the connotation of the suffering of Christ on the cross. Passion. Compared with affection – the distinctive mark of passion is that it masters the mind, so that the person becomes seemingly its subject or its passive instrument, while an affection, though moving, affecting, or influencing one, still leaves him his self-control. Now this is interesting – so the difference between affection and passion – but maybe this is taking away from passivity. Maybe as an opposite of that or to see how it fits … I want to look at uprightness. Oh this is interesting – if I put in uprightness first I get improbity – improbity, want of integrity, from the Latin improbitas. Improbitas. "Badness, dishonesty," – from in- "not" + probitas "uprightness, honesty," from probus "worthy, good". And it connects to prove which is interesting. Maybe I will hold fire on that. The other that comes up is rectiture – "straightness, quality of being straight or erect." Straightness, uprightness – from the Latin rectus "straight" (from PIE root *reg- "move in a straight line," "to direct in a straight line". Rightness. Upright. Erect – to face upward. Up and right. Right meaning morally correct, proper, fitting, straight not bent. Direct or erect. Literally straight. A vertical front as a noun – 1560s in the sense of a vertical front, the sense of something standing erect. And then there is the French, estante, estante, upright, from the present particle of estere – to be upright or to stand, to stand or make firm from the PIE root *sta. We have had this PIE root before – to stand, to set down, to make or be firm. With derivatives meaning place or thing that is standing. I remember this sense of epistemology. But also resistance, rest, restive, restitution, static, station. Stay. Then there was also this reside which connected to something that came up before – to remain at a place, to sit down or to settle. To sit down to settle – to rest, remain behind, linger, be left. From re- meaning back again, and sedere "to sit" (from PIE root *sed- meaning "to sit"). PIE root meaning to sit. Resting place. Seat, chair, face of a geometric solid. Heavy as well, this heaviness. Heaviness as an adjective – having much weight or importance, oppressive, slow or dull. This is interesting – from the PIE root *kap meaning to grasp. How does it connect to grasping? Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to grasp." Heave; heavy; heft. Able to hold much. Ah, so holding. Holding and heaviness. To grasp, to hold, to be large enough for, to comprehend. To have, to hold, maybe this grasping and holding. Heaviness and holding, holding.
Understand. To comprehend. To grasp the idea of. To receive from a word or words or from a sign, the idea it is intended to convey. But also, literally, this sense of standing in the midst of. From under and standan to stand. The literal sense of understanding is a standing in the midst of. Under not in the usual word meaning beneath but from the old English under from the PIE *nter meaning between or among. Closer to inter. More like inter-stand, standing between. This is nice. Inter meaning between among and during, among between betwist in the middle of. Intestines. That’s interesting. Among. Between. The Greek entera / plural meaning intestines. So, this sense of understanding from the midst of and understanding from inter from in between. Literally I stand upon. Compound means put together. So, on the one hand this grasping and taking is in comprehend and on the other hand this inter-stand, this understanding from in the midst. Comprehend is more to understand, to take into the mind, grasp by understanding. So maybe there is something of this understanding that’s not linked to comprehension, to grasping and taking and seizing but one that’s from in the midst, an inter-standing.
Proprioceptive. But proprioceptor comes up as a noun. A sensory structure which receives stimuli arising within the tissues. From Latin proprius, own. See proper and reception. The act or fact of getting or receiving something. Also, in the manner of a receptor. Also coming from recepere to hold or contain. More in a formal ceremonial manner. I’ll just go back to proprioceptor. Proprio. That’s as far as I can get with this. I’ve put voice in. Voice. To be commonly said, from voice, from 1600s, to express or give utterance to, also can be in relation to a feeling or an opinion - or to utter, a letter-sound with the vocal chords. Voicing. to voice. Voice as in the noun. Sound made by the human mouth. Voice, speech, rumour, report. Voice, sound, utterance, cry, call, speech, sentence, language, word. Also, the source of Italian voce, Spanish voz, related to vocare, to call.
I was also interested in proprioception. Proprioceptor. This noun. From the Latin proprius. That’s interesting - own. See proper. This relationship to proper and properness. The idea of proper-reception, I thought interesting. Adapted to, purpose, act, or fit. Also own from the French propre, particular to one’s own, or particular to itself, from the individual, one’s own as individual. So, I suppose there is something about this kind of private or personal or particular reception. A reception that is belonging or pertaining to oneself, that’s individual, intrinsic. Pertaining to a person or thing in particular, special, distinctive, characteristic. So proper, actually I’ve not known this aspect of properness which is less to do with correctness or rules and acceptability but is something that’s to do with fit for purpose and in particular one’s, of the individual, a reception of one’s own. And linked to that, to per. Indian-European root meaning forwards. Infront of. Before. I was also interested in manifestation. This sense of the privacy of proprioception, the private of one’s ownness. With manifestation it is the action of disclosing what is secret, obscure, or unseen. I got this sense of that, disclosure from the Latin manifestare, to discover, to disclose and also to betray. That’s interesting. This betrayal of what is secret, obscure, unseen. An object, action, or presence by which something is made manifest. The spiritualism, sense of phenomena by which the presence of a spirit or ghost is supposed to be rendered perceptible. Comes from the middle 1800s. Actually, if you scroll down on the same page, there is epiphany. To manifest, to display, to come suddenly into view. From epi - onto, and phainein - to show. And also, the sense of embodiment, an investment in or manifestation through a physical body, bringing into or presentation in and through a form. So, manifestation and embody have a connection. Embody, reference to a soul or spirit, meaning to invest with an animate form. But also to express, arrange or exemplify intelligently or perceptibly. From em – in and body. Going back. Manifest, adjective. Clearly revealed to the eye or the understanding, open to view or comprehension, so it’s evident, palpable, to make plainly apprehensible, clear, apparent, evident. To probe by direct evidence, also caught in the act. This is interesting. Caught in the act comes from manus hand and festus which is related to in-fest or infest. Infest. Infestare. To attack or disturb or trouble. In as in the opposite of festus. Infest meaning able to be seized. Infest meaning seizable. So maybe manifest is seizable by the hand. Caught in the hand. Grabbing grasping. To show plainly to discover to disclose, to betray. To reveal as in operation. So, there’s something about this sense of making clear to eye or to hand. So maybe there is something about understanding and manifestation. Manifesting which is … cognitive form, man. It’s a proto-indian root meaning hand. Manus. To give into one’s hand. In command. Also, in emancipate which is interesting, to set free from control. To take someone out of paternal authority. To declare someone free. So, it comes from ownership. So something about ownership in manifest and interesting also in proprioception.
Pattern. Noun. Maybe it’s a verb? Pattern the noun is coming from a modern variant of patron. Pattern retaining Its other old sense of outline, plan, model, an original proposed for imitation, from Old French patron - patron, protector; model, pattern. The difference in form and sense between English patron and pattern wasn't firm before 1700s. The meaning "a design or figure corresponding in outline to an object that is to be fabricated and serving as a guide for its shape and dimensions. Extended sense of "repeated decorative design" a part showing the figure or quality of the whole." Meaning "model or design in dressmaking" recorded by 1792 Pattern-book, pattern-maker ; pattern baldness . I have a different sense of pattern, not so much as a thing, but something that is in the body. Let me see. Pattern. To make something after a pattern, to pattern after. Hmm. Sampling. Hmmm. Maybe I’ll put this word projecting in that comes up a lot. Project. Projecting parts. To project. To thrust forward. Plan or scheme. Stretch out, throw forth, hold in front, fling away, drive out. So from pro- forward, from PIE root *per- forward and the combining form of iacere, past participle iactus- to throw, from PIE root *ye- to throw, impel. And there is a notion to cast forward in the mind. To move ahead perhaps with thinking. To cast forward – in the mind. So it can be physically. Or as a notion, or in thinking. Also, project means to stick out, protrude beyond the adjacent parts, extend beyond something - in an architectural sense. I’m just thinking maybe also something that’s even in the thinking, if it protrudes or extends beyond, it has run ahead, or is ahead of the main structure or the main thing that is happening perhaps. Also, to cast an image on the screen. Psychoanalytical sense, attribute to another unconsciously. So to project. To throw the mind – ah this is nice, probable figurative use meaning to throw the mind into the objective world. Meaning convey to others through one’s manner. To throw the mind into the objective world. Projected plans. To put forth as. Projectile caused by impulse, impelling, throwing, capable of being thrust forward. Projector as one who forms a project or projects. Hmm. Or the sense of a camera with a light source for throwing an image on a screen. I quite like this idea of a thinking screen and a projecting in the mind. An idea of light source. Maybe light source as an idea. Ye proto-indian root. Ye to impel. Also forms part of abject, abjection, adjective, adjacent, aphetic … lots of things … conjecture, ease, interject, subject, trajectory. So there’s a sense of moving. Jet. Also jetty, pier, joist, jut. This root linked up with project, reject, rejection, subject, so it’s the ject. The per meaning forwards afford approach approve appropriate perfect proper reciprocal. Reciprocal. Existing on both sides. I am just thinking of us on both sides now of the screen. Returning the same way. Alternating. Also this from resus from back see re. So re back and pro forward. That’s nice. Reciprocal. Given, felt, shown in return. Reciprocal, a sense of moving backward and forward, having an alternating back and forth motion. It says here this sense is obsolete but in a way it still makes sense, an alternating back and forth motion, that which is reciprocal to another. So. there’s this per and the re.
So this verb to support. To hold up. Prop up. Put up with or tolerate. To tolerate. To support. That’s interesting. From the old French supporter, to bear, endure, sustain. Support and sustain. From the Latin supportare to convey, carry, bring up, bring forward. So, this comes from an assimilated form of sub, so sup to sub which is ‘up from under’ and potare ‘to ‘carry’, from the pie roots *per. So, there’s quite a lot here to look at. Up from under. To carry up from under is sub - sub meaning under, beneath, behind, from under, at the foot of. Also, so. Close up. Close to. Spatially. So the sub as in spatially close to, up to and towards but in time meaning within or during. Figuratively, subject to or in the power of. A variant of the root *upo - under, also up from under. Upo. I’ve never seen this before. Up from under. Related words. Ahh hyphen, that’s interesting. Open. Succumb. Supple. Supine. Hmm. Supine. An eavesdropper. Also, kind of surge. Suspect. Suspend. Sustain. Uproar. Supine. Lying on the back. Bent backwards or thrown backwards. Figuratively meaning inactive or indolent. Supine. So this comes from the roots of sub and this upo. Go back to support, this pie root *per, meaning forwards or in front of. Now this is interesting, so a kind of support has ‘up from under’ and also ‘in front of’. By extension in front of. Before. First. Near. Against as in approach. Before. Forth. Perform. Also, in privilege and proper. Provoke. Also, in reciprocal. That’s interesting. Existing on both sides, exclusive or interchangeable.
2.
I’ve put blur in. Hmm. As in blur, first as the noun. 1540s. A moral stain. Around 1600s, a smear on the surface of writing, perhaps akin to blear, extended sense of ‘a confused dimness’ is from 1860 - in reference to the Orion Nebula. Interesting. Blear. Let me just look at blear. So blear. Of the eyes. Blere. Watery. Rheumy. Sore or dim with watery discharge. Related to blear as in the verb. Comparing to Middle-High German blerre, having blurred vision. Low German bleeroged, ‘blear eyed’. And now I am with blear, to dim the vision with tears, rheum etc, also to have watery or rheumy eyes. Early 14th Century, of uncertain origin, possibly from an unrecorded Old English *blerian which is perhaps related to blur. Bleared. Blearing. I’m just going to go back to what it says. Blur verb. It’s interesting to blear is more how we have been talking aroundd vision. And to blur is to blot out by smearing ink over, coming from blur, to obscure without defacing, also to dim the perception of. In an intransitive to become blurred. Related blurred and blurring. And also here, blurry. Confused and indistinct. Blurrily and blurriness. It seems to have run to an end. So may if I would put together with that, periphery. Late 14th century periferie. Atmosphere around the earth. Old French periferie. Mediaeval Latin. Late Latin peripheria, from Greek peripheria circumference. Outer circle. Line around a circular body. Literally a carrying around…
Oblique. Early 15th century, slanting sloping sideways. Crooked, not straight, or direct. Originally of the muscles of the eyes. Now this is interesting. So, the blearing of the eyes and the slanting or obliqueness of the eye. From the Old French oblique and the Latin obliquus -slanting, sidelong, indirect. So possibly from the part *ob, meaning against and the root of *licinus bent upwards. So, against, bent upwards. From the pie root meaning to bend, be movable. So see the source of limb. So licinus bent upward seems as if there is a source of limb. Closest in form and meaning are līmus or tranverse and sublīmis transverse from below upward, and the latter would be morphologically similar to oblīquus. So let me just look at limb. So limb part of the body distinct from the head or trunk. The Old English plural is often limo or limen. To go out on a limb. In a figurative sense to ‘enter a risky situation’. So limb, seems there is also a connection with limp. To hang down limply. Something that twists, goes round or binds. Limbal. Limbo. Limbate. The border or the hem or the fringe or the edge. So this *ob against – word-forming element towards against, before, near, across, and down. From the pie root *epi, also *opi near or against. So, the sense of sloping, slanting, slant. To strike obliquely against something. To slip sideways. To fall on one’s side. To give a sloping direction to. The noun, an oblique directional plane. Slant meaning a way of regarding something from 1905. Ahh the slant. A certain slant. Slantways. Aslant. It’s making me think also of the word we had athwart. Aslant or in a sloping direction. Not perm[p]endicular or at right angles. And sloping, similar, to be in a slanting position. Go in an oblique direction. Inclination meaning an incline. A slant of ground. Declivity. A downward slope. From the French déclivité. A slope declivity. Sloping downwards. From *de meaning down and *clivus a slope from the pie *klei-wo suffix form of the root *klei to lean. This is interesting. So lean has also the connection to low, to cause to bend. Inclination. To cause to bend down, turn aside and then low, not high, below the usual level. Lying on the ground or in a deep place. Low. Low down. Humble. Lying flat or low. So, the connection to the abject. Low more often used with respect to nature, condition, or rank. Low. Near the ground, not high. I thought lower would be. Lower to descend to sink to grow less or lower. Transitive meaning let down, cause to descend. I’ve also got this word tension. A stretched condition. From the root *ten. This might be interesting. To stretch. Something stretched. Also, there in abstain. Attend. This is interesting. Attend as a stretching. Intend. Tenacious. Tendency and tender. Attend. To stretch towards, add meaning to and toward and tendere to stretch.
I’m going to put in continuum. 1640s. A noun a continuous spread or extension, a connection of elements as intimate as that of the instants of time. From Latin continuum a continuous thing, neuter of continuous, joining, connecting with something, following one after another. From continere, intransitive, to be uninterrupted, literally to hang together. Plural is continua. See contain. Contain. Retain. Restrain (someone). Control (oneself). Behave (in certain way). From the Old French contein-, tonic stem of contenir, from Latin continere, to hold together. Enclose. Continuum. To contain. Feels like a jump. I suppose to continue, I suppose, that can make sense, to continue around perhaps, to hold together, enclose. From assimilated form of com with, together or see con, tenere to hold, to hold with, from the pie root *ten- to stretch. Which is coming to your .. touched upon with tension. From 14th century to have something as a constituent part. To have something inside. Enclosed. Contained. Containable. Ten. Continuous. Self-contained. Let me go to con. Word-forming element meaning together, with. Used in Latin before consonants except -b, -p, -l, -m, or -r. In native English formations, such as co-star, Co- tends to be used where Latin would use con-. So co…together, with. That’s quite nice. Maybe I’ll put side in - no sideways. From side and way. To look sideways, to cast scornful glances. 1844. Very much leading me to two words. Old English, side, flanks of a person, the long part or aspect of something. From proto Germanic *sido Old Saxon sida, Old Norse, sioa, Danish, Swedish sida, Middle Dutch side. Long. Broad. Spacious. Hanging Down. From the pie root *se long, late. Also related to soirée. Some sort of original sense preserved as in like country-side. Side, as in the sense of a position or attitude of a person or set of persons in relation to another, as in choosing sides. Meaning one of the parties in a transaction. Sense in sporting contest, this is different to how we have been using it. Meaning music on one side of a phonograph record, like one side of a flat or surface. Close together. Abreast. Side splitting, affecting with compulsive laughter. And the verb to side. To cut into sides. Meaning to support one of the parties in a discussion or dispute. To hold sides. Siding. Sided. Alongside. Alongside, parallel to the side of. This is very different to wat we have been talking about, the sides round. Twist, mid 14th century flat part of a hinge, now obsolete. Old English twist divided object, fork, rope, candletwist, wick, from the pie root *dwo- two. That’s interesting, we had that before, the dwo and the two and the twofold. Twist. Original sense suggests a dividing in two, Old Norse tvistra to divide and separate, in two, asunder, Dutch twist, German zwist quarrel, discord, though these senses have no equivalent in English, but later ones are of combining two into one, hence the original sense of the word may be ‘rope made of two strands’. Ahh to twist. Twist meaning thread or cord composed of two or more fibres, meaning act or action to turn or turning on an axis, beverage consisting of two or more liquor …. A popular rock 'n' roll dance craze from 1961, so called from the motion involved, but twist was used to describe popular dances in 1894 and again in the 1920s. To get one's knickers in a twist, to be unduly agitated. Slang. Twist the verb implied in past tense form to wring, sense of to spin two or more strands of yarn into thread, meaning to move in a winding fashion. Twist to provoke, to twist someone arm, sense of having pressure on oneself. Twist. Twisting. To twist off.
Binary. Unravel. Crystallize. Binary. Unravel. Let me just try these. Binary. Unravel. Crystallize. So I will use this tool. Dual. Something dual, two-fold. Double. Late Latin – consisting of two. From bini – two fold, two a piece, two by two. Used especially of matched things. From bis ‘double’, from the root *dwo, two. So this idea of binary code in computer terminology. But this is used later. So this idea of dual, twofold, double – this is nice. This sense of twofold, twofold – this is slightly different than how we are using this sense of binary as opposition, as two ends of a pole, or as a that or that, or a front and back. But this doubling, or this two fold feels much more to have this roundness or this folding, or two things existing at the same time. Yes, consisting of two. Two apiece. Two by two. Ah, that is interesting – it opens another kind of two-ness up which is not necessarily opposites, in opposition. That’s rather lovely. So in combination with unravel. From the 1600s, it is either reversive or intensive, according … as ravel is taken to mean tangle or untangle. So unravel, unraveling, unraveling, unraveling. Ravel is taken to mean tangle or untangle. So I am thinking unravel, to untangle something that is all knotted, to try and untangle, to make sense of, to pull threads out of one another. Perhaps not necessarily to untangle in a way of wanting to make sense of but perhaps more to unravel … to untangle, to unravel. Perhaps more as activity that will reveal other kinds of senses, in combination with the two-ness. This ravel/unravel – if you are unraveling, you create other kinds of connections and entanglements. Loosening – a kind of loosening of the knots.
To lean. Action or state of leaning. Deviation from a vertical position. To recline, lie down, rest or incline. To cause to rest. So also this inclining the body against something for support. To trust for support, to lean on something. But then there is this sense, leaning has this sense of inclination. So to lean or incline also tilts into the sense of inclination – to mentally favour. Incline – a mental tendency. Leaning as a mental tendency – literally meaning to slant or slope. To bend or bow towards, to turn, divert, from lean – back from lean. So this root is *klei, the proto Indo-European root meaning to lean. In re-cline. Also in proclivity – causing to bend, to turn to the side, to slope, to slant. Inclination. A condition of being disposed to – this inclination of leaning, a tendency to slant or slope or deviate from the vertical. To bend. Yes, to bend, to bend or bow. To bring into a curved state, to make crooked or curve. To turn away from the straight line. So there is something interesting about on the one hand even sounding as if there is a submissiveness about it, a capacity to be bent, or be bowed, but also something of resistance, this deviation from the vertical. Maybe I will look up this other word – resistance. Resistance is to make a stand against – this is interesting because suddenly my image went from the diagonal to standing uprightness. Resistance felt as if it had an uprightness, this standing up against. To what would resistance look like … so holding out, making a stand against, to stand back or withstand, to take a stand, stand firm. So it has all these qualities somehow of uprightness, from the root *sta – to stand, set down, make or be firm, with derivatives meaning place or thing that is standing. And there are all these words that originate from it – epistemology, distance, institute, obstinate, persist, resist, also rest – this is interesting. Rest – to remain. To support upon which something rests.
So transition, from the Latin, transitionem, (transitio), a going across, a over. Noun of action. From past-participle stem of transire “go or cross over”. Transient. Transitional. I need to understand how I get … transient, transitional, transit. Trans – prefix for many things, so going from transition, going across or over. Trans. Transition. I am going to put in cross … this is a shortening of across, I suppose transition as crossing. Falling athwart, lying athwart - the main direction, passing from side to side, meaning intersecting, lying athwart each other. From the 1600s – athwart. I am not sure … sense of adverse, oppose, obstructing, contrary, opposite. So thinking of this transition from there to there, often this transition brings a sense of the movement between. It is interesting that this doesn’t brings up sense of there is an opposite, there is a here and a there, or from this and from that. This is interesting. I need to find what this athwart is. Athwart – crosswise, from side to side. Thwart. To cross the line of a ship’s course. To thwart, if you thwart you are blocking the way, thwarting someone’s progress. I was going to put in the word gravity – because I am always using it. 1500s – weight, dignity, seriousness, solemnity, deportment of character, importance. From the Old French gravité, seriousness, thoughtfulness. And directly from the Latin, gravitatem, gravitas – weight, heaviness, pressure. Pressure. So the scientific sense is this downwards acceleration – of terrestrial bodies due to gravitation of the earth, first recorded in the 1620s. So actually this word gravity as a noun existed before it found its scientific sense. Or before it was used scientifically to mean a downwards force. But gravity and gravitation have been more or less confounded; but the most careful writers use gravitation for the attracting force, and gravity for the terrestrial phenomenon of weight or downward acceleration which has for its two components the gravitation and the centrifugal force. That’s nice – this distinction between gravity and gravitation. Gravitation as an attracting force. So maybe there is this sense of the seriousness, the downward pull – we have been talking a lot about the forward pull and the backwards. But I suppose in terms of the uprightness, there is this downward pull and also I was thinking of these phrases – it pulls us up, up and forwards. There are other activations of the body – that bring us more down. Perhaps I look simply at the word – back. Germanic. Back. Many Indo-European languages show signs once have distinguished the horizontal back of an animal or a mountain range from the upright back of a human. In other cases, a modern word for back may come from a word related to spine (Italian schiena, Russian spina) or "shoulder, shoulder blade" which is coming from the Spanish espalda, Polish plecy. And by synecdoche, "the whole body," meaning upright part of a chair, to turn one’s back on someone or something, meaning ignore. To know something like the back of one’s hand. To keep something back, meaning to hinder, from back meaning to cause to move back. Move or go back. Furnish with a back or backing, meaning to support. Being behind, away from the front in a backwards direction.
Also cross like athwart - so reverse, to cross, the opposite. From the Latin, reversus, turn back, turn about, come back or return. The noun is the opposite or the contrary of something. But also, in the transitive sense, to change or alter. To reverse, turn around, roll or turn, turn about, turn back. Revert. So revert is to come to oneself again. So this is different from reverse. Reverse is the opposite. Reverse means opposite – to turn back. But here this sense of coming back, to come to oneself again. To re-turn or change back. So it comes from this re- as back. Re- meaning back, this is interesting. So back as re- : a coming back. From back-ness, a coming back. So, back as re- … re- the prefix meaning back, back from, back to the original place. Also again, anew, once more – conveying the notion of undoing or of backward. From the Latin, an inseparable prefix meaning back, again, anew. To turn. A turning back. So both a sense of opposition and also restoration to a former state. Back as again, repetition of an action. So some connection here … where the precise sense of re- is forgotten, lost in secondary senses, or weakened beyond recognition. Receive. Recommend. Recover. Remain. Recourse – a process, way or course. I cannot see here – if the sense of re- is lost in these words. Yes, places where this re- , this back-ness, loses its identity as a prefix. Restive. Rest. Rally as a bringing together. But this re- as back I find interesting. Or back as re- meaning a returning back, back to the original, to come to oneself again or to revert. So it comes from re- meaning back and vertere – meaning to turn, from the PIE root *wer- to turn or bend. This is interesting – one of the meanings is to raise, to lift or hold suspended. This is interesting – there seems to be some connection between heaviness and lifting. To lift or raise up. And then this sense of *wer meaning to bend, turn, to turn around or roll, to wheel. To convert, to transform, translate or be changed. And then also there is this third meaning of *wer - to perceive or to watch out for. To take heed of, be-ware. To observe with fear, to keep a guard. And also to cover, to enclose, to wrap. To wrap, to shut, to close. Maybe I look up wrap. This back as wrapping. The winding of something around something else – to cover something or conceal. To fold something up or back upon itself. So this two-fold mentioned, this two-folding, folding of something back upon itself. Wrapping. To wind something. It is interesting – I think of rewind, in the sense of going backwards. As in re- again and -wind. Like backwards a rewinding, from wind. Wind or wind – by turning or twisting, to turn, twist, plait, curl or swing. Related to wend, which in its causative form is to wander. Re-wind. To go back again. Rewind and reverse as a backward-ness, or as a coming back. Returning back. To cause to move back or to go back. Away from a forward direction. Towards the rear, but also back to the original starting place. Aback. Back and aback. So aback is towards the rear. The adjective aback – towards the rear. Contraction of backward, behind or at the back. Now surviving mainly as taken aback.
So I am going to put micro in. Micro-organism. Micro-second. Micro. Word forming element meaning small in size, hence microscopic. In science, indicating a unit one millionth of the unit it is prefixed to. Oh, that’s interesting. So a micro articulation is one millionth of normal articulation, for example, of the shoulder joint. Attic form of Greek smikros "small, little, petty, trivial, slight," perhaps from PIE *smika, from root *smik- "small". Mica – a type of mineral in the way … mica as in crumb or bit or morsal, grain. It is bringing a sense of the material, we often think of micro as scale. This idea of small, I like this idea of the one millionth, which in a way really brings it into this very very tiny, what we are experiencing in the sense of the micro, it is not even perceptible, or in certain conditions would not be perceptible. It is linked to be able to notice … a grain of salt, mica. It is linked to these many words, like microbe, micro-biology. I suppose looking into a microscope, microscopic – being able to see or sense what is normally visible, what is normally invisible. Thinking of the microscopic as well. Also with this relationship to bio-, to biology and we have been talking around movement and how that biological system, the biological systems of how the body is moving, it is quite interesting. Perhaps in relation to the techno-biological body of David Wills … so it is also a prefix – micro-manage, micro-instruction.
So perhaps as an adjective meaning possibly. Per-hap. Per-hap. From the mid fifteenth century, per or par meaning "by or through". See per. And then the plural of hap or chance – see happen. Per-chance. Perhappons "possibly, by chance" is recorded from late fifteenth century. Per meaning forward, by extension, in front of, forward. Per. Through, during or by means of. Hence, through or in front of. So through chance, or through happenings, what happens, to come to pass, occur, to happen by chance. Yes, happening. It happens to be as a certain way to say is. Hap – to come to pass. Chance, fortune or fate. Interesting – there seems to be a connection to this notion of befall. So to occur, about to fall. To happen or to befall. To happen or come to pass – exactly the same in the sense of the hap, to happen or to come to pass. To come to pass or to befall. To come about, to make or cause. To cause to fall, by happening. Going back to this per-chance – maybe, possibly, perhaps, all these uncertain words. Yes, maybe, this is an interesting word. Often written as two words – something that may be or may happen. Yes, may. May – to be able, to have power. To be able to have power. Maybe – to have power to be.
We talked last time about nostalgia. Nostalgia – from 1720. A morbid longing to return home to one’s native country. It can be a severe home-sickness, almost to the extent of a disease. Homesickness – from home and woe. From Greek, algos "pain, grief, distress". And nostos "homecoming". To reach some place, to escape, return, get home. And there is a PIE *nes- "to return safely home". Old Norse. Sanskrit. Sanskrit – approaches, joins. Something around recovering and around healing – so it is an Old English genesen, coming from German ganisan "to recover, to heal”. And this word, in french, nostalgie is found a French army medical manuals. So yes, there is a kind of pain. Also to look up, ah, a transferred sense (the main modern one) of "wistful yearning for the past" – this is quite late, recorded by 1920. So coming up a lot in french literature which transformed it into a longing, a longing for a distant place, which also necessarily involves a separation in time. Ah, so this is interesting in relation to time, so time, so longing to be in a place that you feel distanced to. Nostalgie – ah, this is moving into the pain area. Also related to -algia, algos "pain," algein "to feel pain," of unknown origin. Oh that is interesting, also related to alegein, to care, to care about and to feel pain. So just go back, this idea of homesickness or longing. This idea of home as a dwelling place, an abode, also a sense of to make oneself at home, linking up with a sense of familiarity, of homing. To establish a home or going home, action of going home. Maybe while I am here I will switch into this other word, otherwise. Contraction of Old English phrase oðre wisan "in the other manner", and from other and wise. Otherwhere. So otherwhere, elsewhere, otherwhat, something else. Wise, wise, a way of proceeding, manner. So this is different from wise as in Old English wis "learned, sagacious, cunning; sane; prudent, discreet; experienced; having the power of discerning and judging rightly. To see and hence to know, so this idea of seeing, and being aware, cunning, there is also this otherwise which is more of a noun, a way, a way of proceeding. A manner, fashion, a custom, a habit, a condition.
I wanted to look at both spontaneity and also delight, somehow as having a connection. It is interesting – spontaneity is next to mechanical. I don’t know whether this is because them being somehow the opposite. So mechanical – pertaining to machines and their use. Spontaneity – a native formation of spontaneous. Occurring without external stimulus. From the Latin, spontaneous, willing of one’s own free will. Of one’s own accord, acting of one’s own accord. This is interesting, I think I might of expected something more time based in it, like immediacy. Then this latter part, this -ity part of spontaneity, a word forming element meaning the condition of quality of. This is interesting – the condition of quality of something. Yes, dorsality, of course, this condition or quality of being dorsal. Yes, all these other examples – anonymity, atonality, accountability, ambidexterity. This is also interesting in relation to the conversation around the left and the right. This ambidexterity as a way of not being one or the other. This ambi- - both, on both sides. Ambi- ¬word forming element meaning both or on both sides. Ambi- around, ambiguous, yes, ambidexterous, this sense of ambivalence also. I am not getting distracted. I want to look at delight. To have to or take great pleasure in. Allure, delight, charm. Delight, also from delicious. Spelled like delite, that is interesting, until the sixteenth century. And the modern unetymological form is from the influence of light and flight. The association of lightness within delight is a modern unetymological addition, then, it is not connected … but the notion of the delicate comes in. Delightful – sensitive, of things delightful, alluring. To allure, to entice. From de- away. This is interesting, not de- as in un- or not, but de-as in away. Actually, this is nice in terms of delight, de-light, no etymologically, but to de-light, like away from the light. It also makes me think of the murkiness and the shadows that we were talking about, so delight as a movement away from the light. De- as a word forming element, the Latin de- down, down from, off, concerning down, off, down to the bottom, totally, completely. But it also has this function of undoing or reversing a verb’s action. Not, do the opposite of, undo. So these two dimensions of it – de- as in undoing or reversing and the opposite of undoing, and also of away, down, away from. This undoing of light or a movement away from light or a movement towards the shadows.
So, to sway. To go quickly. To move or go quickly, or to move along or to carry. This is interesting – I would not think that. I think I saw it more in this static movement. So probably from a Scandinavian source – to bend, to swing, to give way. The whole group might be related to swag, or to swing, the sense of swing, to waver, moving in a swaying or sweeping motion, to move from side to side. To cause to move from side to side. To cause to be directed to one side, or prejudice. Swag. To move heavily or unsteadily, to swing or sway. Lurching or swaying. This is interesting – I had imagined sway more graceful in a way. This unsteadiness, meaning to swing. To swing – to beat, strike; scourge, flog; to rush, fling oneself. To swing, swingle, oscillate – meaning moving freely back and forth. Yes, maybe this is what I had more in mind, this moving freely back and forth, to cause to oscillate, to bring about or make happen. Ah, this is swinging – to engage in promiscuous sex, to enjoy oneself unconventionally. Swing. Swag. Sway. Waver. Maybe closer to waver – in the sense of showing indecision, a restless wavering. A frequentative form of the root of wave. To move back and forth, to waver, fluctuate, restless, unstable. Undulation or hovering about – a movement to or fro, to weave. This is interesting – to waver, to weave. This interlacing, ah yes, this interlacing of yarn. To weave, also to move quickly. I am interested that these waves and sways and weaves have this urgency or quickness, where my sense of it was more slow. Something woven, a weave – to move from one place to another, sorry, to move from one space to another. Wave - uncertain origin, perhaps from weave. To move to and fro, to move side to side.
I am sure we did this before, when we talked last time – sentient. Sentient. Sentient. Sentient. Adjective. Capable of feeling. Having the power of or characterized by the exercise of sense-perception. From the Latin sentientem – feeling. Feeling – present participle of sentire "to feel". Sentience – as a noun, the faculty of sense; sentient character or state, feeling, consciousness – ah yes, sentience, conscious. Susceptibility to sensation. Susceptibility to sensation. That is quite nice, because it indicates this potential possibility but not necessarily being aware of it happening. Sentience. Interesting – there is animal next to it. I am not quite sure how this works, I am following something that I am not quite sure about … under sentience, sentience (noun) it has got animal (adjective). Which is interesting. Oh yes here, pertaining to the animal spirit of man, pertaining to the merely sentient as distinguished from the intellectual or rational or spiritual qualities of a human being. So, this link with the animal, pertaining to sensation, pertaining to or derived from the senses. It is interesting this link to the animal. Animal kingdom rather than vegetable or mineral – having life, living, animate. Sense – to perceive an object by the senses, consciously, inwardly of. Sense – to perceive or understand a fact or situation, not by … hmm, a sense of to perceive or understand a fact or situation not by direct perception is from 1872. Oh, this idea of sensing, coming a little bit away from the immediacy of working with the senses, perceiving things. I suppose sometimes we might slip between that.
Yes, so, I am curious about this ‘straightforward’. I am not sure whether it will …. Ah, yes, straightforward as an adjective, directly forward or right ahead. Of two adjectives – straight and forward. It is interesting – I like looking at these nearby references, so there is a nearby reference to ingenious, honourably straightforward. There is this word – how do you say this: tergiversation. Tergiversation – a noun meaning turning dishonestly from a straightforward action or statement; shifting, shuffling, or equivocation. Shifting, evasive, declining, refusing. From tergiversari "turn one's back on, or to evade," from tergum "the back", mmm, tergum, the back, and versare "to spin, turn," frequentative of vertere "to turn". This is the same component that is in conversation, so conversation, versare, to turn together. So, to turn or bend one’s back – I want to look at this deviation. Turning from a straightforward direction, shifting or declining. What is this tergi part then? How do you say this – tergiversate? Back formation – to be evasive, to turn one’s back, to turn one’s back. I cannot see where this tergi comes from. Tergi. There is no way to connect here. Evasive, evasive – to get away or to escape, evasion, a way out. To escape. It is now making we want to look at back. Surely we have looked at this. The back – the horizontal back of an animal or a mountain range. Yes, I recall this. The modern word for back may come from the word for spine. By synecdoche, "the whole body,". To turn (one's) back on (someone or something) or to "ignore", or to know (something) like the back of one's hand, implying familiarity. I want to go back to this straightforward – it is interesting that there is nothing in it that suggests a sense of value as such, it is quite minimal in its etymology. Straight - "direct, undeviating; not crooked, not bent or curved," ah, here we go, of a person, "direct, honest;" properly "stretched,". This is interesting. Why would this be? Ah yes, straight from Old English streht, past participle of streccan "to stretch". Properly stretched. True direct and honest, unambiguous, unconvoluting or uncomprising. As in straight whisky. As an adverb from the thirteenth century – as in "a straight line, without swerving or deviating." Sometimes meant as serious. To go straight, to become respectable. The straight arrow, the decent conventional person. To stretch. To reach or extend. Perhaps a variant of stark. Stark. Stiff. Strong. Rigid. Obstinate. Stark - stiff, strong, rigid, obstinate; stern, severe, hard; harsh, rough, violent. This straightness as stiffness or starkness – the same root as stern. Stern as in severe, strict, grave, or hard. To be stiff or obstinate.
So notice, noticing the verb. Notice. This is interesting – there is one meaning, to give notice, or notify of, notice - noun. To sense or to point out, to remark upon – from the 1600s. the meaning to take notice of, perceive, to become aware of … by 1757. But it was long execrated by purists in England as an Americanism (also occasionally as a Scottishism, the two offenses not being clearly distinguished). Let’s see – notice, noticing. So noticing – information, knowledge, intelligence. from Old French fourteenth century notice. From Latin notitia – a being known, celebrity, fame, knowledge. Notice, known. Past participle of (g)noscere – come to know, to get to know, to get acquainted (with). This is all relevant in a way – to get acquainted with. PIE *gno-sko-, a suffixed form of PIE root *gno- "to know." So something around knowledge but also this idea of coming to know or getting to know, rather than being known. This is interesting. Oh yes, also this meaning of giving information. Or notice. Noticable – this idea of being worthy of notice, likely to attract attention. capable of being noticed or observed. That is quite interesting – and bringing attention to something or is something capable of being noticed or observed. Also, this relationship to turning towards or noticing as an act of choice or turn, turning towards. Or an act, an action of attracting attention, or of being available to attract attention. But this prefix “gno” is nice because it forms part of all these words – like knowledge, acquaint, agnostic, astrognosy – ah, and also is part of cognition. Ignore. Incognito. So yes, this relationship with knowledge and also notifying, recognising, recognising. A hypothetical source of/evidence for its existence provided by the Sanskrit jna- "know;". Recognise. Hmm. It is interesting – this link with knowledge is interesting. How the process of noticing is actually moving away from knowledge as a fixed thing, and more coming-to-know, or becoming familiar with, or noticing as in becoming aware of. These other words that were coming up – the idea of experience more as a contour, as a contour, an outline, circumference, to go around.