Showing posts with label "words". Show all posts
Showing posts with label "words". Show all posts

Saturday, February 27, 2010

Inter-lude

"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"