Wednesday 4 November 2009
on not knowing everything
it turns out it can be useful not to know everything, and it's a skill to be able to resist google-ing or wiki-ing something you don't know as soon as you realize you don't know it. yes, i have an iPhone. but sometimes it's just nice not knowing.
on the train from putney to waterloo yesterday afternoon, i found my eyes were too tired to read (john stott's 'basic christianity') and there wasn't enough time to listen to the latest 'this american life' podcast (an hour long program). so i started thinking about the word 'edible.'
edible. edible, adj. edible...ness? edibility? n.
is something edible because it can be eaten, because it is meant to be eaten, or because it is beneficial to be eaten?
i wondered about this because i was doing a stationery order for the office. usually i wait to order stationery until there's a 'free chocolate box if you order over £100!' offer. i'd successfully done this last week, so i thought i'd try again yesterday. the small print, after all, only said '1 per order' and not '1 per customer.' but alas, sam informed me that it was 1 per customer after all. sensing my disappointment, she tried to cheer me up: 'i could send you some free batteries! how about 50 batteries, aa and aaa?' i told her the aaa's might come in handy, but not the aa's. 'sorry, i'd have to send you all of them. that's all i can offer you - nothing edible, i'm afraid.'
on the contrary, i thought. surely batteries are edible. they're narrow and slick enough to swallow. but then i thought no, edible means they are made for eating. but not everything is made - mushrooms can be edible, but lots are poisonous (my friend jon and i discussed this at great length during a walk on the heath last weekend) - therefore, inedible.
so by the time the train was pulling into waterloo (only 15 minutes from putney) i was satisfied that edible means (as merriam-webster confirms) 'fit to be eaten' or, as my brain put it, 'meant' to be eaten.
in general, thinking about precise denotations, subtle nuances and etymologies of words makes for fun entertainment when you're passing 15 minutes on a train.
on the train from putney to waterloo yesterday afternoon, i found my eyes were too tired to read (john stott's 'basic christianity') and there wasn't enough time to listen to the latest 'this american life' podcast (an hour long program). so i started thinking about the word 'edible.'
edible. edible, adj. edible...ness? edibility? n.
is something edible because it can be eaten, because it is meant to be eaten, or because it is beneficial to be eaten?
i wondered about this because i was doing a stationery order for the office. usually i wait to order stationery until there's a 'free chocolate box if you order over £100!' offer. i'd successfully done this last week, so i thought i'd try again yesterday. the small print, after all, only said '1 per order' and not '1 per customer.' but alas, sam informed me that it was 1 per customer after all. sensing my disappointment, she tried to cheer me up: 'i could send you some free batteries! how about 50 batteries, aa and aaa?' i told her the aaa's might come in handy, but not the aa's. 'sorry, i'd have to send you all of them. that's all i can offer you - nothing edible, i'm afraid.'
on the contrary, i thought. surely batteries are edible. they're narrow and slick enough to swallow. but then i thought no, edible means they are made for eating. but not everything is made - mushrooms can be edible, but lots are poisonous (my friend jon and i discussed this at great length during a walk on the heath last weekend) - therefore, inedible.
so by the time the train was pulling into waterloo (only 15 minutes from putney) i was satisfied that edible means (as merriam-webster confirms) 'fit to be eaten' or, as my brain put it, 'meant' to be eaten.
in general, thinking about precise denotations, subtle nuances and etymologies of words makes for fun entertainment when you're passing 15 minutes on a train.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)