"basilar"

[Dan Goncharoff]

Looks Vulgate to me.

DanG

On 5/19/2010 12:25 AM, Douglas G. Wilson wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society<ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Douglas G. Wilson"<douglas at NB.NET>
> Subject:      Re: "basilar"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Arnold Zwicky wrote:
>
>> OED2 has "basilar" (derived from "basis") in two senses:
>>    Of, pertaining to, or situated at the base, esp. at that of the skull. =
>> basilar membrane, spec. the membrane in the cochlea that bears the organ =
>> of Corti.=20
>>    Of or belonging to a low moral nature or condition.
>>
>> neither of which is relevant to the many examples i pull up for "very =
>> basilar", which all seem to mean 'basic, elementary'. the question is =
>> how people arrived at "basilar".
>>
>> arnold
>>
> --
>
> So the two senses in OED are (1) = basal, (2) = base. Hard to know
> exactly why we need "basilar" as an alternative in either sense.
>
> Here is the third sense, then: (3) = basic. Again hard to know exactly
> why "basilar" instead.

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