September 19, 2009

palimpsest

Mad Men's history: "a palimpsest of
the years of history that preceded it"
—James Poniewozik

noun


/pal-imp-sest/


Palimpsest corresponds to two related definitions:

1 a parchment or other surface on which writing has been applied over earlier writing which has been erased.


2 something reused or altered but still bearing visible traces of its earlier form: The house is a palimpsest of the taste of successive owners.

Compact Oxford English Dictionary (COED)


ETYMOLOGY


Palimpsest: from the Greek words palin, "again" and psestos, "rubbed smooth." COED



PALIMPSEST IN CURRENT USE


In commenting on the third season of the television drama Mad Men, Time magazine's James Poniewozik puts palimpsest into supple play, using it not only to link the past to the present (1963 in the story line) as one would expect with the word, but also to link present time to future time, through a reference to plot foreshadowing:

Mad Men's history is more real for being less obvious. It isn't so much a story about 1963 as it is a palimpsest of the years of history that preceded it, all of which shape the future and private lives. (The JFK assasination is deftly foreshadowed by the date on a wedding invitation.)
"The Pause that Refreshes," Time, August 24, 2009, 54.


WHAT MOTIVATED MEDIEVAL MONKS TO MAKE PALIMPSESTS?


snarkmarket.com/blog


Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature suggests that

the motive for making palimpsests usually seems to have been economic — reusing parchment was cheaper than preparing a new skin. Another motive may have been directed by Christian piety, as in the conversion of a pagan Greek manuscript to receive the text of a Church Father.
—Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, Incorporated, Publishers, 1995, 852.


A HISTORICAL PALIMPSEST IN TODAY'S NEWS


The Archimedes Palimpsest


In recent months, the most widely reported story about a historical palimpsest concerns the Archimedes Palimpsest, which, as Wikipedia recounts, "originally was a copy of an otherwise unknown ancient [mathematical] work of Archimedes of Syracuse and other authors, which was overwritten with a religious text."

The Archimedes Palimpsest is a palimpsest on parchment in the form of a codex [which is a book] in the format used for modern books, with separate pages normally bound together and given a cover. It was a Roman invention that replaced the scroll.

Archimedes lived in the third century BC,but the copy of his work was made in the tenth century AD by an anonymous scribe. In the twelfth century the codex was unbound and washed, in order that the parchment leaves could be folded in half and reused for a Christian liturgical text. It was a book of nearly 90 pages before being made a palimpsest of 177 pages; the older leaves folded so that each became two leaves of the liturgical book. The erasure was incomplete, and Archimedes' work is now readable after scientific and scholarly work from 1998 to 2008 using digital processing of images produced by ultraviolet, infrared, visible and raking light, and X-ray.


Those of you interested in learning about the mathematical theory recovered from the Archimedes Palimpsest or in understanding the current technology being used to decode the document will find this link enlightening: ArchimedesPalimpsest.org



FINALLY, WHAT DOES THE ARCHIMEDES PALIMPSEST LOOK LIKE?


"In [the] short video clip [below] Abigail Quandt, Senior Conservator of Manuscripts and Rare Books at The Walters Art Museum, turns some pages of the book. It might surprise some people that Abigail is not wearing gloves. Actually it makes conservation sense. Her clean hands do no damage to the parchment and she can be more sensitive to the fragile folios if she is not wearing anything on them."—Archimedespalimpsest.org

To view the video, click select this link:

http://www.archimedespalimpsest.org/palimpsest_making1.html


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September 13, 2009

tomboy


noun

The Oxford English Dictionary cites

tomboy as "a girl who behaves like a spirited or boisterous boy; a wild romping girl; a hoyden."

That final synonym, hoyden, gives a hard kick, so be careful with it:

hoyden: "A rude, or ill-bred girl (or woman); a boisterous noisy girl."


EARLIEST CITATION


Tomboy, in the sense of "a romping girl," appeared in a 1592 comedy by John Lyly titled Midas. In an early scene, two conversing pages, Licio and Petulus, are pleased to be interrupted by the arrival of the maid Pipenetta:

Enter Pipenetta


Licio. But soft, here comes Pipenetta : what newes ?


Pipenetta. I would not be in your coats for any thing.


Licio. Indeed if thou shouldest rigge vp and downe in our jackets, thou wouldst be thought a very tomboy.


IN CURRENT USE


The present media news cycle finds tomboy appearing in blog commentaries about the sex-orientation testing of South African sprinter Caster Semanya (right).


The Pale Observer notes:

All interviews with Caster's family, friends and community at large have described her as a tomboy — a girl who favoured trousers and football to lipstick and boyfriends... They were all adamant that she is a girl, and that the world should abandon the ridiculous and judgemental notions of what a girl should look like, be like... hollisramblings.blogspot.com

And in The Huffington Post, Marcia Descanctis asserts:

Let's hope this poor child [Caster Semanya] will not spend the rest of her life as a punchline. Every flat-chested girl? Caster. Every tomboy? Caster. Every woman with biceps? Caster. The woman at the bar with a too-low voice? Caster. It is very unfair, and it could and should have been avoided. huffingtonpost.com.

ETYMOLOGY OF TOMBOY

The Brewer Dictionary of Phrase & Fable (in the Wordsworth Reference Edition of 1993) defines tomboy as "romping girl, formerly used for a harlot." It cites the following associations: Anglo Saxon tumbere, a dancer or romper; Danish, tumle, "to tumble about"; French, tomber, and Spanish tumbar: our tumble. "The word may either be tumble-boy (one who romps like a boy), or a tumber (one who romps), the word boy being a corruption."

WORD LORE

Webster's Online Dictionary, that ever-useful and ofttimes witty source of etymological lore, tells us that
[h]istorically tomboys were defined by both behaviour (according to the sterotypical gender role of boys) and wearing boys' clothing. In recent times, as the use of "traditional" clothing such as dresses, blouses, and skirts steadily declines among females, the distinction has become almost solely one of behaviour. This "middle" philosophy was defined by one girl as
No I don't have any pink outfits or shorty shorts, I don't go for cheerleading tryouts, and I don't constantly stare in the mirror — but I also don't only shop in the boys department, dislike people for acting prissy, or get sweaty playing football every afternoon.

websters-online-dictionary.org/definition/tomboy.



"You romp!"


If you find yourself in a situation in which the word tomboy would work but you want a word with a little more edge, something short of the pointed hoyden — which most people would not recognize anyway — go for the noun romp:

One who romps; especially a play-loving, lively, merry girl (or woman),
as did Thomas De Quincy in 1846:
Such a girl..you might call a romp; but not a hoyden, observe; no horse-play.
(Works. III. 171). —OED.

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