Foolish Consistency

21 August 202424 August 2024 By Simon

Insanity - definitions

Albert Einstein supposedly said:

“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.”

It sounds like something he might have said, but there’s no evidence that he did. According to Quote Investigator®, the most likely source of this saying is a Narcotics Anoymous pamphlet published in November 1981, in which they say:

“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

Here something that Einstein did actual say that has a somewhat similar meaning:

“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”

He also said:

“Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.”

Another quotation that I came across the other day that has a related meaning is:

“a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds”

This appears in Self Reliance, an essay by Ralph Waldo Emerson that was published in Essays: First Series in 1841. Here’s a longer version:

“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words, and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said to-day.”

Apparently he meant this as criticism of a refusal to change one’s mind or adjust one’s position in light of new facts or different situations.

So what is an actual definition of insanity?

Here are a few:

The state of being insane; madness.
Unsoundness of mind or lack of the ability to understand that prevents someone from having the mental capacity required by law to enter into a particular relationship, status, or transaction or that releases someone from criminal or civil responsibility (law)
Extreme folly or unreasonableness
Something utterly foolish or unreasonable

Insanity is a combination of in- (not), sane and -ity (the state of). It comes either from Latin insānus (unsound in mind, mad, insane) and -itās; or from in- (lacking, without), sanitās (health, sanity). Insānus and sanitās both come from sānus (sound, sane, well, correct), possibly from PIE *seh₂-no-, from *seh₂- (to satisfy), or from PIE *swā-n- (healthy, whole, active, vigorous).

Incidentally, what is a hobgoblin when it’s at home?

A small, ugly goblin that makes trouble for humans. [from 1520s]
A source of dread, fear or apprehension; a bugbear.

From hob (elf, from Hob, a variant of Rob, short for Robin Goodfellow, an elf in German folklore), and goblin (a malevolent and grotesque diminutive humanoid).

In some of the stories I read, such as Wandering Inn, hobgoblins are larger varieties of goblins, and don’t always make trouble for humans, and are not a source of dread, fear or apprehension for those who get to know them.

Sources:
https://www.inc.com/kevin-daum/26-genius-quotes-from-albert-einstein-that-will-make-you-sound-smarter.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Emerson_and_Wilde_on_consistency
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/insanity
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sanus#Latin
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/insanity
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hobgoblin

Language Quiz

18 August 202417 August 2024 By Simon

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Here’s a recording in a mystery language.

Do you know, or can you guess, the language?

Superfluously Redundant

14 August 2024 By Simon

What does the word redundant have to do with surges and waves? Let’s find out.

Meanings of redundant [ɹɪˈdʌn.dənt / ɹɪˈdan.dənt] include:

Superfluous; exceeding what is necessary, no longer needed.
Repetitive or needlessly wordy (of words, writing, etc).
Dismissed from employment because no longer needed (mainly UK, Ireland, Australia & New Zealand).
Duplicating or able to duplicate the function of another component of a system, providing backup in the event the other component fails.

It comes from the Latin word redundāns (overflowing, abounding), from redundō (to overflow, abound, pour out), from red- (again, back) + undō (surge, flow, abound), from unda (a wave, billow) [source].

Words from the same roots include undulate (to move in a wavelike motion, to appear wavelike) and redound (to contribute, reverberate, attach, reflect) in English, and ridondare (to overflow, abound, overwhelm) in Italian, redundar (to redound, result) in Spanish, and ondoyer (to sway, undulate) in French [source].

The word superfluous (in excess of what is required or sufficient) has a similarly overflowing origin – it comes from Middle English superfluous (redundant, immoderate, excessive), from Latin superfluus (running over, overflowing, superfluous, unnecessary), from superfluō (to run over, overflow, be superfluous), from super- (over, above) + fluō (to flow, stream, pour) [source].

Another word from similarly flowing roots is mellifluous, which means sweet, smooth and musical, or pleasant to hear, and usually refers to a person’s voice, tone or writing style. It can also mean ‘flowing like honey’, and comes from Latin mellifluus (honey-dropping, flowing with honey, mellifluous), from mel (honey, sweetness, pleasantness) + fluō (to flow, pour, stream) [source].

If someone has a mellifluous voice, you might describe them as melliloquent, an old word meaning ‘speaking sweetly or harmoniously’, from Latin mel (honey, etc) + loquens (speaking, talking) [source].

Back in 2008, I was made redundant from my job as a web developer in Brighton. Or rather, my position was made redundant – that’s how they put it. They gave me a substantial redundancy payment and that was that. At the time, I couldn’t really afford to stay in Brighton, and fancied a change of scenery anyway, so I moved to Bangor and did an MA in Linguistics. I’ve been here ever since, working on Omniglot full-time, and am fortunate enough to make a living from it.

Language Quiz

11 August 202410 August 2024 By Simon

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Here’s a recording in a mystery language.

Do you know, or can you guess, the language?

Rucksacks & Mistletoe

9 August 20249 August 2024 By Simon

What links the Italian word zaino (rucksack, backpack) with the English word mistletoe? Let’s find out.

Zaino [ˈdzaj.no] means rucksack, backpack, sack or bag in Italian [source]. It comes from Lombardic *zainjā (basket), from Old High German zeina (basket), from Proto-Germanic *tainijǭ (wickerwork, wicker basket), from *tainaz (rod, twig), the origins of which are unknown [source].

Words from the same roots include teen (twig, thin branch) in Dutch, Zain (rod, branch, whip) in German, tein (twig, offshoot, spindle) in Norwegian, ten (small stick or rod) in Swedish, and zana (a shallow, oval basket) in Italian [source].

Misletoe (a parasitic evergreen plant with white berries which grows on oaks, apple and other trees* – see above) comes from Middle English mistelto, mistilto (misletoe), from Old English misteltān, misteltān (misletoe), from mistel (mistletoe, basil, birdlime) + tān (twig, branch) [source].

*This refers to European misletoe,Viscum album. Other varieties of mistletoe are available [source].

Mistel comes from Proto-West Germanic *mistil (mistletoe), from Proto-Germanic *mistilaz (mistletoe), from Proto-Indo-European *me (with, mid) + *sed- (to sit) + *-ilaz (diminutive suffix), so mistletoe is a little plant that sits on other plants – a good description. The English word mistle, as in mistle thrush (Turdus viscivorus – see below), comes from the same roots, and used to be used to mean misletoe [source].

The Old English word tān (twig, branch) comes from Proto-Germanic *tainaz (rod, twig) [source], like the Italian word zaino, so there we have our connection. In Lancashire dialect, a tan used to refer to a twig or branch [source].

Incidentally, mistletoe in Italian is vischio [vi.skjo], which comes from Vulgar Latin *visclum, from Latin viscum (mistletoe, birdlime), the origins of which are uncertain [source]. The Portuguese word visgo (viscosity, any viscous substance secreted by or extracted from plants, mistletoe) comes from the same roots [source], as do viscous, viscose and viscosity in English [source]

Language Quiz

4 August 20244 August 2024 By Simon

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Here’s a recording in a mystery language.

Do you know, or can you guess, the language?

Forest Cities

31 July 202431 July 2024 By Simon

What is a forest, and can cities such as London and Berlin by classified as forests?

There are hundreds of definitions of what constitutes a forest involving things like the number of trees, the height of trees, the land use, legal standings and ecological function.

According to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), a forest is

“Land spanning more than 0.5 hectares with trees higher than 5 meters and a canopy cover of more than 10 percent, or trees able to reach these thresholds in situ. It does not include land that is predominantly under agricultural or urban use.”

Some people say that by this definition, cities like London and Berlin are technically forests as they have 20% or more of tree cover. However, as the land is predominantly under urban use, such claims do not really hold water. There are apparently almost as many trees as people in London, by the way, and over 40% of the city is made up of green spaces (see above), and about a third of Berlin is composed of forests, parks and gardens, rivers, canals, and lakes (see below).

Other definitions of forest include:

A dense uncultivated tract of trees and undergrowth, larger than woods [source].
A complex ecological system and natural resource in which trees are the dominant life-form [source].
A dense growth of trees and underbrush covering a large tract; a tract of wooded land in England formerly owned by the sovereign and used for game [source].
An extensive wood; a large tract of land covered with trees; in the United States, a wood of native growth, or a tract of woodland which has never been cultivated [source].

Historical, a forest in England was an area of land set aside as royal hunting ground or for other privileged use.

The word forest comes from Middle English forest (a forest, a wood, a preserve for hunting exclusive to royalty), from Old French forest (royal hunting ground, forest), from Early Medieval Latin forestis (a large area reserved for the use of the King or nobility, often a forest and often for hunting or fishing), possibly from Proto-West Germanic *furhisti (forest), from *furhiþi (forest) +‎ *hursti (thicket, grove) [source].

Proto-West Germanic *hursti is also the root of horst (an elevated land overgrown with shrub) in Dutch, Horst (the nest of a bird of prey, an eyrie; bush, thicket, small forest [literary]) in German, and hurst (a wood or grove) in English, which appears mainly in placenames such as, Hurstpierpoint, Lyndhurst, Sissinghurst and Woodhurst [source].

Incidentally, in Middle English wode referred to forests and woods, as well as wood (material), and it also meant to hunt, to take to the woods, or to hide oneself in the woods. A forester or forest warden was a wodeward [source].

Sources and further information:
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/forest#English
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forest
https://www.timeout.com/london/things-to-do/did-you-know-that-london-is-the-worlds-largest-urban-forest
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin

Language Quiz

28 July 202427 July 2024 By Simon

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Here’s a recording in a mystery language.

Do you know, or can you guess, the language?

Water Parties

23 July 202423 July 2024 By Simon

The other day I came across the Spanish word aguafiestas. I guessed it had something to do with water, (agua) and parties (fiestas), so could mean something like ‘water parties’.

In fact it means party pooper, wet blanket, spoilsport, killjoy or buzzkill, or in other words, a person who takes the fun out of a situation or activity. The fiestas part does refer to parties, but the agua part comes from the verb aguar (to water, water down, spoil, mar), so aguafiestas is someone who spoils parties by figuratively pouring water on them.

Related words and expressions include:

aguar la fiesta = to put a damper on things, spoil the fun, rain on sb’s parade
aguado = watery, flaccid, weak, boring, stale
aguadito = a kind of soup
desaguar = to drain

The opposite of una aguafiestas is el alma de la fiesta (the life and soul of the party).

If you’re neither una aguafiestas nor el alma de la fiesta, maybe you comes pavo (“eat turkey”) or eres la fea del baile (“are the ugly one at the dance”), or in other words, you’re a bit of a wallflower*.

*A person who does not dance at a party, due to shyness or unpopularity; by extension, anyone who is left on the sidelines while an activity takes place. Any person who is socially awkward, shy, or reserved.

I can be a bit of a wallflower at times, and even wrote a song about it called Two Left Feet: