Versatility?

[alex gross]

Thanks, Angus, i purposely did not go into the measurement side of "el," 
(beyond mentioning the maid unwilling to give an inch) since it quickly gets 
muddled
over French, Scottish, & English els, cubits, etc.

> I dispute whether the bones are important to me every day.  Sure, I use 
> them all the time, but how often do I have to discuss one of them?  I 
> would venture to say never in my life.  I've known the words "radius" and 
> "ulna" since I was at least ten years old, and I still don't know which is 
> which.

The ulna or el is the lower one that merchants used to put down to measure
cloth amid cries of dishonesty from customers.

Is the subject intrinsically unimportant to you, or could our available 
vocabulary
possibly be playing a role?

Even today these bones are still important to people who need to know
something about anatomy: artists and illustrators, martial artists, dancers,
acrobats, and of course massage therapists, acupuncturists, & western
doctors.  Or to anyone foolish enough to enter an arm wrestling contest
with the wrong opponent.

All the best!

alex

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Angus B. Grieve-Smith" <grvsmth at panix.com>
To: <funknet at mailman.rice.edu>
Sent: Saturday, March 19, 2011 12:06 PM
Subject: Re: [FUNKNET] Versatility?


> On 3/19/2011 5:39 AM, alex gross wrote:
>> "A. Take the two bones in our lower arm. The only names we have for them 
>> today are ulna and radius. These are the 'scientific names,' the ones 
>> medical people--and few others--learn. Those bones are important to you 
>> every day, yet you have no everyday way of referring to them at all. But 
>> there is clear evidence from historical linguistics that these bones once 
>> had other names. The ulna was once called the 'el,' the radius possibly 
>> something like the 'spoke.' We know about the 'el' from Seventeenth 
>> Century poetry (maid to lover: 'if I give you an inch, you'll soon take 
>> an el') but also from modern German, where the words are die Elle and die 
>> Speiche."
>
>     An ell is also a unit of length equivalent to one's forearm; it's 
> mostly used in measuring coils of rope and such.  I've known this from a 
> young age, although maybe it's because my father was an audio engineer who 
> studied classics and Old English at the graduate level.  It's also used in 
> the /Lord of the Rings/ where Sam measures a rope in ells.
>
>     I dispute whether the bones are important to me every day.  Sure, I 
> use them all the time, but how often do I have to discuss one of them?  I 
> would venture to say never in my life.  I've known the words "radius" and 
> "ulna" since I was at least ten years old, and I still don't know which is 
> which.  I don't see anything wrong with using vague words like "arm" and 
> "forearm," and leaving the specialized terms to the specialists.  If 
> someone said to me, "she broke her el," instead of "she broke her arm," I 
> wouldn't feel particularly better informed.
>
> -- 
> -Angus B. Grieve-Smith
> grvsmth at panix.com
>
>