ETYMOLOGY
101
The word radical comes from the Latin word
radicalis, meaning “of or
having roots.” Anyone familiar with mathematics is aware
that when one takes the square root of a number, one is also
taking the “radical,” or “root” of
that number (it is suggested the square root symbol 
first used in the 16th century, is a modified r, which was
shorthand for the Latin radicalis).
One who is a radical is one who seeks “change from the
roots.” This use was first recorded in the early 19th
century.
Consider also that the radish is quite literally a root.
PLAIN
ENGLISH
The
words farther and further
are often confused, but each has a slightly different meaning.
Farther should be used when speaking
about distances—e.g. “We live farther
from town than you do.” You should
use further when you mean “additional” or “additionally”
—e.g. “There are two further points I want
to make.”
To help distinguish between the two, remember that you say
furthermore, and not farthermore,
when making additional points.
SONNET
CXVI
Let
me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
—Shakespeare |
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WELL I'LL BE!
THE ANSWER TO A QUESTION YOU NEVER ASKED
Why
do we have a best man at weddings?
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The
custom of having a best man at weddings is believed to be
a survival of primitive marriage capture, when a man seized
a woman and carried her away by force. He would naturally,
under such circumstances, choose a faithful friend or follower
to go with him and ward off attacks of the girl's kinsmen
while he stole away with her. Thus, if this notion is correct,
the appearance of the bridegroom with his chief groomsman
or best man at the bride's home really represents a prehistoric
marauding expedition. Best man is
of Scottish origin and probably does not date back further
than the 18th century.
| Groom
is derived from an old English root meaning male
child, man, servant, or attendant.
Groomsmen were originally the attendants who went
along to assist the best man of the bridegroom. Bridesmaids
symbolize the female attendants or “girl friends”
who used to help defend the bride against her abductors.
Source: George Stimpson, A Book About
A Thousand Things, pg. 181.
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