Jungle gyms and monkey bars

[Arnold Zwicky]

On May 3, 2012, at 4:53 PM, Jon Lighter wrote:

> BTW, I hear "campus" used more and more (and more) as the preferred term
> for areal "grounds" of any kind, particularly those related to prisons,
> hospitals, and office buildings. Not in OED.
>
> There was a time when it sounded odd to me even when applied to high-school
> grounds. It got odder when it hit the elementary schools.

this is beautiful.  if you're an etymology-is-destiny adherent, then the wide use of "campus" is the *correct* one, since the etymon is Latin "campus" 'field'.  but the borrowing into English was in fact for the narrow sense (at Princeton, I see from the OED), so that if you're an lexical originalist, then you object to the widening.  cute.

arnold

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