Author Topic: Dear Expert (Read 161803 times)

Marianne Dashwood · « **Reply #475 on:** May 23, 2012, 10:33:42 AM »

To be fair, they changed the name of the organization to "The National FFA Organization" from "Future Farmers of America" in 1988 to reflect the diversification of careers related to agriculture.

Of course, I don't have a career related to agriculture either. But I did regale my inlaws by naming the four stomachs of the cow the other day.

Tante Shvester · « **Reply #476 on:** May 24, 2012, 08:02:03 AM »

Moe, Larry, Curly and Shep?

Marianne Dashwood · « **Reply #477 on:** May 25, 2012, 10:55:29 AM »

Well, in the Vulgate, yes.

Marianne Dashwood · « **Reply #478 on:** May 25, 2012, 11:07:45 AM »

Hey I have a question for the expert:

The other day we spent some time with my husband's uncle, who is an extremely pleasant fellow. They got on the topic of their family history, which is very complex because they're recent immigrants from a very poor country that doesn't have a lot of good records, and there are all sorts of half-siblings and mistresses and things and huge numbers of cousins. My husband's uncle (his name is Esdras) was mentioning that one of his cousins (named Mario) always referred to him (Esdras) as his primo hermano and he'd only recently figured out that this was because their fathers were full brothers and this plus the fact that they are related on the father's side, in their rather machismo-laden society, meant that being primos hermanos made them closer than normal primos.

Then just today I was reading a short story that referred to a character as a "cousin-german" to the protagonist. All I could find about the term "cousin-german" is that it means first cousin and it's etymologically related to the word germaine.

I'm wondering now if there's a Latin connection between hermano and germaine. And if there's any relationship to Germany and Germania or if that's just coincidental.

Marianne Dashwood · « **Reply #479 on:** May 25, 2012, 11:12:43 AM »

Oh. I just realized I spelled germane wrong because I was thinking in French. But I'm on my iPod and it's super hard to edit. Apologies.

Jonathon · « **Reply #480 on:** May 25, 2012, 11:40:37 AM »

Hermano comes from the Latin germanus, which can mean "relating to brothers and sisters" or "full, own". It's related to the word germ, meaning "bud, seed". The "german" in "cousin-german" is apparently the same word, but it's not clear whether the demonym German is related, because there's no good explanation of how the sense is related. It might be of Gaulish origin.

Marianne Dashwood · « **Reply #481 on:** May 25, 2012, 11:49:58 AM »

Interesting! And as I suspected. Do you have any good sources about how the Romance languages diverged? I always wondered why French and Italian used frere/soeur and fratello/sorella while Spanish and Portuguese used herman(o/a) and irmã(o).

Jonathon · « **Reply #482 on:** May 25, 2012, 12:47:28 PM »

I don't really have any good sources. I know that a certain amount of lexical replacement is normal as languages evolve. People start saying "frater germanus" all the time, and then they drop the "frater" part, at which point they're just using "germanus" (or whatever its early Romance reflex was) to mean "brother". But changes like this tend to be pretty arbitrary. Spanish kept the Latin word for "cheese" (cassius, which became queso), while French and Italian replaced it with fromage/formaggio. All three replaced the Latin word for "horse", equus, with a different stem, caballo/cheval/cavallo. There doesn't appear to be much rhyme or reason to it.

Ela · « **Reply #483 on:** June 04, 2012, 05:53:05 PM »

Minor question. Which is more correct:

The phone line is available from at 8 am to 5 pm Central Time.

or

The phone line is available from 8 am to 5 pm Central Time Zone.

I contend the word "zone" is not necessary, but someone edited to include it.

Tante Shvester · « **Reply #484 on:** June 04, 2012, 05:54:57 PM »

I like it without the zone. That's the way I'm accustomed to seeing it.

Jonathon · « **Reply #485 on:** June 04, 2012, 06:16:50 PM »

I can't articulate a good justification for leaving it off, except that maybe the zone designates a geographic area, and you're not really talking about the area but about the time associated with it. All Chicago says on the matter is "Time zones, where needed, are usually given in parentheses—for example, 4:45 p.m. (CST)." But note that they don't say "Central Time Zone" or "CTZ".

rivka · « **Reply #486 on:** June 04, 2012, 08:16:25 PM »

Quote from: Jonathon on June 04, 2012, 06:16:50 PM

the zone designates a geographic area, and you're not really talking about the area but about the time associated with it.

That would certainly be my reasoning. I think adding the word "zone" sounds dreadful.

Ela · « **Reply #487 on:** June 04, 2012, 09:35:43 PM »

That's what I thought, rivka.

Ela · « **Reply #488 on:** June 05, 2012, 01:49:24 PM »

So would you write 8 a.m to 5 p.m central time or Central Time?

Does it make a difference if you write 8am or 8 a.m.?

Jonathon · « **Reply #489 on:** June 05, 2012, 02:03:50 PM »

I think it's lowercased if you spell it out, so either "central time" or "CST" (though the problem with that is that it technically only refers to the non-DST part of the year).

I also think that "a.m.", with a space between it and the time, is the usual form.

rivka · « **Reply #490 on:** June 05, 2012, 03:11:21 PM »

I would capitalize Central Time.

I would also use either 8 a.m. OR 8 AM, but the most important thing is to be consistent, at least within a single document.

pooka · « **Reply #491 on:** June 06, 2012, 07:25:08 AM »

I think plain "Central" is descriptive enough. Add more than that, and kids start calling you on daylight or standard, just to mess with you.

Ela · « **Reply #492 on:** June 06, 2012, 10:50:48 AM »

Not for an article, I don't think, pooka. I'd rather go with Central Time. Which is what I ended up doing. I don't what to specify CST or CDT because the article will probably be used for reference.

Porter · « **Reply #493 on:** June 06, 2012, 09:53:53 PM »

I hate it when co-workers schedule something during the summertime for, say, noon EST instead of EDT.

Jonathon · « **Reply #494 on:** June 06, 2012, 10:23:25 PM »

All the more reason to abolish DST!

Ela · « **Reply #495 on:** June 06, 2012, 11:21:34 PM »

Hear, hear!

Tante Shvester · « **Reply #496 on:** June 07, 2012, 04:59:23 AM »

I, on the other hand, want to save daylight all year round. I appreciate sundown moved back an hour to give me more time to make Shabbos.

Ela · « **Reply #497 on:** June 07, 2012, 09:09:46 AM »

I hate having Shabbos be so long on Saturday night. I'd rather have it start early Friday than end late on Saturday night.

I just universally dislike daylight savings time. I don't want to save any daylight.

Tante Shvester · « **Reply #498 on:** June 07, 2012, 09:19:16 AM »

Get outta my time zone! I'm trying to save some daylight here!

You know, comes the apocalypse when the infrastructure loses its structure and there's no electricity, you'll be sorry you didn't save more daylight, so that you could use it during all those long dark nights.

rivka · « **Reply #499 on:** June 07, 2012, 12:05:26 PM »

Quote from: Tante Shvester on June 07, 2012, 04:59:23 AM

I, on the other hand, want to save daylight all year round. I appreciate sundown moved back an hour to give me more time to make Shabbos.

I'm with her.