Editing 2722: Etymonline
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==Explanation== | ==Explanation== | ||
+ | {{incomplete|Created by an ETYMONLINGUIST - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}} | ||
− | This comic | + | This comic appears to be an entry from a dictionary posted in the far future (at least the year 2384 based on the textual reference). The entry defines the term "etymonline" in a way that makes it clear that it has simply supplanted the word "etymology" in the intervening centuries. This is a reference to the internet service known as [https://www.etymonline.com/ Etymonline] or the Online Etymology Dictionary, and implies that Etymonline as a source became synonymous with the concept of etymology. This may have been because Etymonline grew into such a comprehensive and reputable source that it truly deserved the all-encompassing identification with the concept of etymology; alternatively, humans' efficiency of language removed the original term in favor of the name for the tool they used when they needed to learn a word's origin. All we know is that the origin of the "modern" term is simply cited as a modification of a more archaic English form, without any mention of the digital resource. This is a mild failure on the part of the dictionary entry, since the suffix "online" should at least have been noted as the modifier resulting in the current form, even if a discussion of the specific internet service was not relevant in the entry, unless the very concept of "online" has been so superseded by whatever its successors or usurpers might have become that it has been even more lost to common, or indeed academic, knowledge. |
− | + | The title text plays with this (replacing "etymologist" with the derived term "etymonlinguist"). It is a comment from some present-day scholar attempting to communicate with the author of the futuristic entry by clarifying what they know about the etymology of the word "blimp". The comment references two theories of the etymology (that it is simply onomatopoeia or that it was constructed from the phrase "Type B - Limp") and rejects the latter as a folk etymology (consistent with {{wiktionary|blimp|the explanation}} on Wiktionary). It is interesting to note that the current [https://www.etymonline.com/word/blimp Etymonline entry] only lists the B-Limp origin and does not mention onomatopoeia, though it does at least acknowledge that the origin is "obscure". | |
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− | The title text plays with this (replacing "etymologist" with the derived term "etymonlinguist"). | ||
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==Transcript== | ==Transcript== | ||
+ | {{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}} | ||
:[A picture of a dictionary definition that is askew in the frame to imply that it is printed or written on physical paper rather than a digital resource.] | :[A picture of a dictionary definition that is askew in the frame to imply that it is printed or written on physical paper rather than a digital resource.] | ||
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:[Caption below comic:] | :[Caption below comic:] | ||
:Ironically, the popularity of Etymonline eventually caused the loss of the word "etymology" from English. | :Ironically, the popularity of Etymonline eventually caused the loss of the word "etymology" from English. | ||
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{{comic discussion}} | {{comic discussion}} | ||
− | + | [[Category:Language]] | |
[[Category:Comics with lowercase text]] | [[Category:Comics with lowercase text]] | ||
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