LOL..just read the origin of the word "testify"

[box_type]

there are words in all languages (not only in english, for that matter) that can not be translated word for word into another language (say Tagalog or Pilipino), like yung "clue" nga, pwede po natin sabihin or intranslate sa tagalog as in "wala akong kamalay malay" or "ni sa hinagap" as an example...my 2 cents

[dbuzz]

there are words in all languages (not only in english, for that matter) that can not be translated word for word into another language (say Tagalog or Pilipino), like yung "clue" nga, pwede po natin sabihin or intranslate sa tagalog as in "wala akong kamalay malay" or "ni sa hinagap" as an example...my 2 cents

Just a clarification regarding this thread:

This is not about the translation of the word actually.

This all about the "STORY" behind the word.

of course a funny or interesting story behind the word. Yun bang how the WORD evolve to its present state. as what i set as an example in the first post that the word "testify" came from the word "testicle" and i backed it up with story which is true and documented in:

Gen 24:9 "put your hand under my thigh, and I will make you swear by the Lord ...."

another one in Genesis 47:29..."And the time drew nigh that Israel must die: and he called his son Joseph, and said unto him, If now I have found grace in thy sight, put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh, and deal kindly and truly with me; bury me not, I pray thee, in Egypt

Note: This means "put your hand under my testicles," which is the manner in which oaths were taken at that time; "testament," "testify," and "testicle" that's how this word evolve.

This is all about a funny story or a good story behind the word. and if you happend to incounter or know one, well, share it.

[dbuzz]

[SIZE=4]Just a clarification regarding this thread[/SIZE]:

This is not about the translation of the word actually.

[SIZE=3]This all about the "STORY" behind the word.[/SIZE]

of course a funny or interesting story behind the word. Yun bang how the WORD evolve to its present state. as what i set as an example in the first post that the word "testify" came from the word "testicle" and i backed it up with story which is true and documented in:

Gen 24:9 "put your hand under my thigh, and I will make you swear by the Lord ...."

another one in Genesis 47:29..."And the time drew nigh that Israel must die: and he called his son Joseph, and said unto him, If now I have found grace in thy sight, put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh, and deal kindly and truly with me; bury me not, I pray thee, in Egypt

Note: This means "put your hand under my testicles," which is the manner in which oaths were taken at that time; "testament," "testify," and "testicle" that's how this word evolve.

This is all about a funny story or a good story behind the word. and if you happend to incounter or know one, well, share it.

[dbuzz]

[SIZE=3]The origin of the word nerd, it has grown considerably, in part due to various controversies about the word's origins as well as to new information and speculation about its history. My views on the term's origin have not changed much, as you can see by the fact that Dr. Seuss's Nerd has joined in the page's icon (assuming that you're not viewing the page in the "Full Width" style), but it does seem like time to reorganize the material. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]The factor that made me decide that nerd might be a label worth reclaiming was its early association with Dr. Seuss. Having grown up with the Cat in the Hat, Horton and the Grinch, there are worse things to identify with than a hirsute curmudgeonly Seuss character, especially when one is a hirsute curmudgeonly engineer.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=6]Controversy[/SIZE]

[SIZE=5]Nerd vs Knurd[/SIZE]

[SIZE=3]The biggest surprise has brought is the vehemence of a number of readers that the original spelling is "knurd' and that the word derives from reversing the sense of the word "drunk", despite the lack of any documentation in support of the assertion. This origin origin was through an article published in the IEEE Spectrum (April 1995, page 16). It was also mentioned in the Jargon File, but was dismissed there as "a bogus folk etymology". [/SIZE]

[SIZE=4]Just a clarification regarding this thread[/SIZE]:

This is not about the translation of the word actually.

[SIZE=3]This all about the "STORY" behind the word.[/SIZE]

of course a funny or interesting story behind the word. Yun bang how the WORD evolve to its present state. as what i set as an example in the first post that the word "testify" came from the word "testicle" and i backed it up with story which is true and documented in:

Gen 24:9 "put your hand under my thigh, and I will make you swear by the Lord ...."

another one in Genesis 47:29..."And the time drew nigh that Israel must die: and he called his son Joseph, and said unto him, If now I have found grace in thy sight, put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh, and deal kindly and truly with me; bury me not, I pray thee, in Egypt

Note: This means "put your hand under my testicles," which is the manner in which oaths were taken at that time; "testament," "testify," and "testicle" that's how this word evolve.

This is all about a funny story or a good story behind the word. and if you happend to incounter or know one, well, share it.

[SIZE=3]The first documented use of the word Nerd is in the 1950 Dr. Seuss story, If I Ran the Zoo[/SIZE]1[SIZE=3], in which a boy named Gerald McGrew made a large number of delightfully extravagant claims as to what he would do, if he were in charge at the zoo. Among these was that he would bring a creature known as a Nerd from the land of Ka-Troo. The accompanying illustration showed a grumpy humanoid with unruly hair and sideburns, wearing a black T-shirt. A fitting image, these days, for a nerd. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]Dr. Seuss connection from the American Heritage Dictionary's word history in their [/SIZE][SIZE=3]nerd entry[/SIZE][SIZE=3]. According to that entry some experts 'maintain that Dr. Seuss is the true originator of nerd and that the word nerd ("comically unpleasant creature") was picked up by the five- and six-year-olds of 1950 and passed on to their older siblings, who by 1957, as teenagers, had restricted and specified the meaning to the most comically obnoxious creature of their own class, a "square."' [/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]The problem with this is that the second documented occurrence of the word comes only a year after If I Ran The Zoo. The The October 8, 1951 issue of Newsweek states on page 16 that [/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]In Detroit, someone who once would be called a drip or a square is now, regrettably, a nerd, or in a less severe case, a scurve. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=3]If the patois throws you, you're definitely not in the know, because anyone who is not a nerd (drip) knows that[...] [/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]Once more, "nerd" is tied to "drip" and "scurve", and from a city not far from Detroit, 8 months after the first sighting. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]It seems a little hard to believe that in just one year, a Nerd can go from being a unkempt grouchy looking fellow to a scurve or a square. And so we find ourselves looking for an earlier source…. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=5]N.E. R[/SIZE]&[SIZE=5]D[/SIZE]

[SIZE=3]This next connection is highly speculative, but still appealing. Peter, [/SIZE][SIZE=3]wrote[/SIZE][SIZE=3] to suggest that the term originated at the Northern Electric Research and Development Laboratories in Ottawa. Northern Electric, now called Nortel, is Canada's equivalent of Western Electric in the US. Their first R&D lab, called the Special Products Division was founded in 1937. Plastic pocket protectors were invented in Chicago in 1947, and the N.E. R&D labs were established, with that name, in 1959, he points out, and concludes by saying, [/SIZE]
[SIZE=3][/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]Now I 'know' that somewhere out there is a picture of one of these Northern Electric R&D boys wearing the white shirt, sleeves rolled up, black thick framed glasses and a pocket protector with 'N.E.R.D. Labs' printed right on it... I've seen pictures of my father (sans glasses) in a General Electric lab of that vintage 1955-1960 with a similar pocket protector. It will be found... and I will send it to you. ;-) [/SIZE]

[SIZE=3]He paints a nice picture here, but sadly it remains pretty speculative. Clearly R&D activities and departments had existed at Northern Electric for more than a decade at the time Dr. Seuss wrote his book, but the earliest date that the actual name "Northern Electric Research and Development Laboratories" is given by the [/SIZE][SIZE=3]site[/SIZE][SIZE=3]that Peter used is 1959, though it mentions an R&D site at Belleville established by Northern Electric in 1957. In either event, these labs were created 6-8 years after the word showed up in Newsweek. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]I'd love to see solid documentation of the "N.E.R.D. Labs" acronym being used back in the 40s, especially if it came in the form of a picture featuring a NERD Labs pocket protector. The image is just too perfect. But for now it remains just a wonderfully creative suggestion. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]One tantalizing aspect of the whole N.E. R[/SIZE]&[SIZE=3]D Labs thing is that the two earliest pieces of documentation we have for the use of nerd meaning square, come from Michigan, with the earliest, being in Detroit just over the border from Northern Electric's home province of Ontario. That might be coincidental, but it is interesting. [/SIZE]