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 depicts an entry from a dictionary written in the far future (at least the year 2384 based on the textual reference). The entry gives the definition of the word "etymonline" and makes it clear that this word has simply supplanted the word "{{w|etymology}}" in the intervening centuries. | ||
− | This | + | 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. |
− | + | The caption to the comic states that it is ironic that the popularity of Etymonline eventually caused the loss of the word "etymology" from English. | |
− | + | Perhaps Etymonline grew into such a comprehensive and reputable source that it deserved the all-encompassing identification with the concept of etymology; or it simply gained such ubiquity and market dominance that it became, to all intents and purposes, the only service people used to meet their etymological needs, and popular usage removed the original term in favor of the name for the tool associated with learning a word's origin. | |
− | + | All we know is that the brief etymology given in the entry cites "modification" of a more archaic English form (the one we are familiar with), 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. Perhaps a discussion of the specific internet service was not relevant in the entry, or the very concept of "online" has been so superseded by whatever its successors or usurpers might have become that it was lost to common, or indeed academic, knowledge. | |
− | The | + | The entry about etymonline uses as example of the use of the word a case regarding the etymology (etymonline) for the word {{w|Blimp}}. This example is a quote from a book from the year 2384 called ''Jovian Blimps: a History''. This thus date this etymonline entry as being later than this year. It also states that by the year the word blimp no longer refers to the airships still used on Earth at the time of this comics release, but now instead to the cities floating in the atmosphere of {{w|Jupiter}}, the so called Sky-cities of Jupiter. The quote states that it is still known that Blimp was ones used for Earth airships. It also states that it is unknown why those airships was called Blimps, i.e. that the origin of the word blimp for airships are unknown. |
− | + | The title text plays with this (replacing "etymologist" with the derived term "etymonlinguist"). It is a comment from some present-day scholar directed to 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 and the {{w|Blimp#Etymology|Etymology section}} on the Blimp article). 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". | |
==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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**Neither of these words was in the top six of trending words on the day the comic was released [https://web.archive.org/web/20230109202315/https://www.etymonline.com/ 2023-01-09]. | **Neither of these words was in the top six of trending words on the day the comic was released [https://web.archive.org/web/20230109202315/https://www.etymonline.com/ 2023-01-09]. | ||
**Here an example screenshot of the Etymonline page 2023-01-11: | **Here an example screenshot of the Etymonline page 2023-01-11: | ||
− | [[File:2722 Etymonline - trending word.png | + | [[File:2722 Etymonline - trending word.png]] |
{{comic discussion}} | {{comic discussion}} |