Camels vs. dromedaries?

[Joel S. Berson]

At 4/4/2008 02:02 PM, Brenda Lester wrote:
>joel,
>   camels and astronomy.

More than I wanted to know about elephants.

Joel




>"Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET> wrote:
>   ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
>Sender: American Dialect Society
>Poster: "Joel S. Berson"
>Subject: Re: Camels vs. dromedaries?
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>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
> >>
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