Chapters on a web site

[Dennis Baron]

 From the OED: 1601 SHAKES. Twel. N. I. v. 242 Ol. Where lies your
Text? Vio. In Orsinoes bosome. Ol. In his bosome? In what chapter of
his bosome?

the figurative use of chapter is well-established, and the word itself
comes from L. meaning 'little head,' and referring both to actual and
figurative heads / headings, as well as to separate rooms, units,
houses, categorizations (the chapter, and chapter house, of an
ecclesiastical order). So the extension of chapter to a section of
digital text is as reasonable as saying that we "board" an airplane,
even though planes aren't made of wood planks (or that we "light" a
pipe, even though it's the tobacco, not the pipe, that is fired up).

In chapter two of this email, I will treat the subject of  . . . . .
(ok, enough, back to work).

D
____________________
Dennis Baron
Professor of English and Linguistics
Department of English
University of Illinois
608 S. Wright St.
Urbana, IL 61801

office: 217-244-0568
fax: 217-333-4321

http://www.illinois.edu/goto/debaron

read the Web of Language:
http://www.illinois.edu/goto/weboflanguage








On Aug 20, 2009, at 10:21 AM, Barbara Need wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Barbara Need <bhneed at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Chapters on a web site
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Last night a speaker, in talking about tabs across the top of a web
> page, referred to the sections as "chapters".
>
> Barbara
>
> Barbara Need
> Chicago
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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