Words from class, week 1

Rubicon, crossing the Rubicon

As in: "The Rubicon between our species and others does not fall on the symbolic, but rather on the syntactic" (claim by Calvin/Bickerton).

What this means: C/B claim that what sets human language apart from the communication systems of other species is not the ability to coin words (some combination of sounds or movements used to express meaning) but rather grammar, the ability to combine a limited number of words to express an infinite number of complex propositions.

Where the word comes from: "Rubicon" is the ancient name of a river in Northern Italy. When Caesar's army crossed the Rubicon, it was clear that there would be an attack on Rome. "Crossing the Rubicon" means taking a decisive step towards a risky and potentially harmful course of action. (Would this expression be a word? A phonological word? A listeme? Not a word?) Earliest documentation in English (according to the OED): He hath passed his commission (as Caesar did,) and is waded vp to the chinne through the bloudie Rubicon [1613]. 

The word also has a second meaning, related to playing cards ("A target score which increases the penalty of a losing player who fails to reach it."). In this meaning, the word can also be used as a verb, i.e. one can get rubiconed. 

Gamut, running the gamut

As in: "The answers ran the gamut from the brilliant to the insane."

What this means: Answers ranged from the brilliant to the insane.

Where the word comes from: "gamma" and "ut" are Latin symbols for musical notes (According to the OED, the word was orginally spelled "gamma-ut" in English). In the 16th century, the "gamut" was the lowest note in the medieval scale. The meaning of the word then broadened to encompass the whole range of notes in the medieval scale and later the full range of notes an instrument could produce. Today, the word is used mostly figuratively, often in the expressions "running the gamut" or "the whole gamut." Running the gamut can also still mean performing all of the notes on a scale. (Would you say that "running the gamut" is a word? A phonological word? A listeme? Not a word?)

Maven, language maven

As in: "Who's your favorite language maven?"

What it means: a public authority on language, not necessarily a linguist

Where the word comes from: The compound "language maven" was popularized by political journalist and speech writer William Safire, who for many years wrote the popular column "On Language" for The New York Times. He called himself a "language maven" and published books with titles like "Quoth the Maven" (an allusion to Poe's poem "The Raven") and "The Language Maven Strikes Again." The origin of the word is meyvn, the Yiddish word for "expert," related to the Hebrew word for teacher. In Yiddish, the plural of the word is mevinim. (I'm mentioning this because recently there was quite a kerfuffle -- one of my favorite words! -- over the spelling of the word Knaidel/Kneydel, also of Yiddish origin, in English, which was the winning word in this year's National Spelling Bee.)