June 30, 2005
The Vulgar and the Common
I may start another blog to post interesting etymologies I find, a descendant of my former RT newsletter (a note to my fellow Spareinkers: maybe we should create categories on the blog & then I can just have a category for these here?). Funny, as a side comment, how creating a traditional web page (such as my etymology page) just doesn't cut it anymore for me: no one will know if/when I update it and if I do put the updates on the top, then it's really a blog. Until I create another blog for this, if I do, I will post them here:
The English "vulgar" comes from the Latin "vulgus," meaning "common" -- the common descending into the vulgar is a great example of the pattern that words degrade over time.
Now, thinking more politically, I will add that this descent is also a linguistic recognition of Aristotle's political point that, that which is cared for by all (that which is common) is indeed cared for by none (it devolves into the vulgar).
Tonight I was looking for other contemporary English words that come from the same root, vulgus. The most interesting one I found is divulge. Here's what dictionary.com has to say on it:
[Middle English divulgen, from Old French divulguer, from Latin divulgare, to publish : di-, dis-, among; see dis- + vulgare, to spread among the multitude (from vulgus, common people).]
Next time you divulge something (that is: publish something), remember that it's the commoners that you're telling it to!
Posted by Morgan at 12:36 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
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