Camels vs. dromedaries?

[Joel S. Berson]

I'm so glad this chain (for which I too refuse to change the Subject
line) has told me so much about camels and dromedaries.

Joel

At 4/4/2008 12:18 AM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>At 11:59 PM -0400 4/3/08, Michael Covarrubias wrote:
>>Ah better -- I'd not heard that half of it.
>>
>>But then some semantic shift has gotten in the way of it working
>>perfectly. Crescent is used to describe the moon before the first
>>quarter -- when it's waxing crescent -- and also after the third quarter
>>-- once it's waning crescent.
>
>I was using "crescent" in the etymological sense = 'growing'.  As you
>say, somewhere along the way, we (they) started to call the
>decrescent (3/4) moon phase "crescent" too, which makes it less
>obvious that the moon is lying.
>
>>So when it's 'C' it *is* crescent.
>>
>>Waning Crescent. Maybe that one will end up next to 'jumbo shrimp' in
>>all those email forwards that say our language is impossible to
>>understand because of the oxymorons.
>
>Indeed, but then again we do refer to things growing smaller.  Or
>maybe this just shows once again that if you keep repeating a lie
>often enough (especially if you're a heavenly body), people end up
>believing it.
>
>LH
>>
>>
>>Laurence Horn wrote:
>>>and "C" when it's crescent, or else it would only be lying half the time
>>>
>>>>that mnemonic always seemed like too many steps.
>>>
>>>But it's so elegant!  (In the northern hemisphere, anyway.)  Now, if
>>>we can prove that camels have two humps and dromedaries one when
>>>they're south of the Equator, we'll really be on to something.
>>>
>>>LH
>>
>>------------------------------------------------------------
>>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
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>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org