"Lude," as you may know, is a French word that comes from the word "luddite," a person in the middle-ages who rejected the new technology of heavy clothing. No chainmail, wimples, chastity belts, or corsets, these people insisted on breathable togas and taigas and frocks. Hence, the English word "lewd," for all ye scantily-clad wenches. You can find all of these definitions on the innernet.
But Janet Smithers luv the innernet! So we aren't exactly luddites in the contemporary sense. We can't rescue every word from the pitfalls of modern misusage, but we can certainly recuperate "lude" by wearing less clothing. It's that simple. Plus, it's springtime.
We chose the word "inter" to capture a key part of cooperation: shit we share. "Inter" is not just a button on the keyboard. It's a prepositional prefix that shows how ideas relate. In this case, we relate by sharing the same house, food, air, bacteria, viruses, consensus practices, toothpaste, toilets, stds, etc. What a great world!
Coming soon: "janetary"
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The relationship between the French "lude" and the English "lewd" is well documented. Indeed, the seminal sex-theory work Homo Ludens (literally Man the Player)* describes the ambivalent relation between technology and pleasure: “For archaic man, doing [it] and daring are power, but knowing [in the biblical sense] is magical power.” (Note the conspicuous lack of mechanical apparati)
ReplyDelete* "Player": e. slang (orig. and chiefly U.S., esp. in African-American usage). Also in form playa. A sexually successful person, usually a man; a playboy; (hence more generally) a successful, respected, or influential person, (sometimes) esp. a pimp; a criminal.
Therefore "luddite" = "lewd" = "player"...or something.