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Complex Numbers #1047949 added April 10, 2023 at 10:29am
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Hem
Today's entry for "Journalistic Intentions"  [18+] is about something that I never notice until it fails.
Hem
This word has a few definitions, but since the overall theme of this month's JI is clothing, I'm going to assume it's not referring to a makeshift fence or one of the sounds of indecision (along with "haw," which also pairs well with "hee.")
A while back, some bored scientists decided to program a computer to trace the evolution of language (specifically English, because these were UK scientists) backwards and forwards, both predicting where it might go from here, and delving deep into times from which few written records survive.
This, of course, was reported in various outlets as "Scientists discover oldest words in English!!!" Which is sensationalist and misleading as all fuck. There's an press release on it here, but it only gets more sensationalized the further you get from the source.
If you can't be arsed to click, their candidates for Oldest Word in English are I, we, who, one, two, and three.
As these words supposedly predate English, and long predate Modern English, it's a matter of definition to call them the oldest words in the language. And a while back, I did a blog entry on the word "lox," which they think hasn't changed in 8000 years. Here's the blog entry; unfortunately, the link is already broken: "Lox Pie" . I did, however, find an updated link to the original article, or at least some version thereof.
So, what's all this hemming and hawing about? Well, in the course of researching this entry, I discovered that the word "hem," as used in fashion, dates at least from the 12th century C.E., and possibly from even earlier. Which makes it about 1/10th as old as "lox," but also puts it firmly into a time when some form of English was being used.
This wasn't, presumably, figured out by a computer that may or may not have been programmed correctly, but from what sparse written records survive. I can't be sure about that, but I would believe that "hem" is quite old, because, in general, shorter words live longer, and the idea of hemming a cloth garment is not something that's changed over time (though obviously, the technology to do it has).
One hems a garment to adjust its size, but the primary practical use is to keep a cut edge of cloth from fraying. Like a splice on the end of a rope, only in two dimensions.
So when it comes to discovering the origins of words, there's no need to be a-frayed. |
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