Tuesday, July 17, 2012

1784 Morning Thoughts

Another day for some of those random observations that accumulate in my mind.
I was reading a book that had a lot of medieval dialogue in it. And one of the characters wished another one "good morrow." It was delivered in the present tense and what he meant by it was "good morning."
"I'll see you on the morrow" was once a way to indicate one would see one the next morning, and by implication the next day. The word tomorrow captures some of that flavor. "I'll see you to-morrow" means "I'll see you come morning" or "I'll see you in the morning."
So here's the question: When we say "I'll see you tomorrow morning" are we being redundant? "I'll see you in the morning morning." ?
Like when people say "RSVP please." The SVP in the RSVP stands for s'il vous plait, which is French for please. The R stands for repondez, which means respond. So "RSVP please" means "respond please please."
Maybe it's for the really desperate.
"Please please respond by tomorrow morning."
Medieval language can be fun though. I remember talking about the medieval weapons my lawyer has. Words. The other day I was threatening someone and told them, "My lawyer is gonna open up a can of whereas."
From medieval words to medieval instruments. Like the lute. How did we end up getting a soundalike word that means stealing stuff during a riot and a tame tinkling stringed instrument?
The ways of language are mysterious. Like the mandolin. Not a very manly instrument at all. Is there a different dolin for a woman? A femdolin or maybe a gender neutral persondolin?
The way they hold it to play I've always thought of mandolins as guitars for the extremely nearsighted.
America, ya gotta love it.

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