Bibliolater 📚 📜 🖋 @bibliolater@qoto.org

Sometimes, words were saved from death because they were borrowed.

The descendants of Proto-Germanic *uzgōlīn (pride) became extinct in Germanic, but borrowings live on in Romance: e.g. French 'orgueil' and Italian 'orgoglio'.

Proto-Germanic *haifstiz (conflict) was even brought back to Germanic thanks to Old French borrowing 'haste'. Here's how:

"A straight line can be readily drawn among each of the two series of points corresponding to maxima and minima, thus showing that there is a simple relation between the brightness of the Cepheid variables and their periods."

Henrietta Swan Leavitt was born #OTD in 1868. Her discovery of how to effectively measure vast distances to remote galaxies led to a shift in the understanding of the nature of the universe. via @Wikipedia

#books #science #astronomy

"Where words are restrained, the eyes often talk a great deal."

Samuel Richardson died #OTD in 1761. In his first novel, Pamela, he explored the various complexities of the title character's life, and the letters allow the reader to witness her develop and progress over time.  The novel was an experiment, but it allowed Richardson to create a complex heroine through a series of her letters. via @Wikipedia

Books by Samuel Richardson at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/1959

#books #literature

"Nelle belle sere dell'autunno passato una grande stella rossa fu veduta per più mesi brillare sull'orizzonte meridionale del cielo; era il pianeta Marte..."

Giovanni Virginio Schiaparelli died #OTD in 1910. Schiaparelli worked on binary stars, discovered the large main-belt asteroid 69 Hesperia (29 April 1861) , and demonstrated that the meteor showers were associated with comets. via @Wikipedia

Books about or by Schiaparelli at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/2523

#books #science #astronomy

Today is publication day in the US for my book, The Gutenberg Parenthesis, in which I examine society's entry into the age of print for lessons as we leave it. Bloomsbury just gave me 25% off discount codes: TGPJJ23US (US) or TGPJJ23UK (worldwide).
https://gutenbergparenthesis.com/

Single line pen plot
#penplotter #generativeart #mathart

2/
How do we know *rīks was not the native Germanic word?

Proto-Indo-European *ē became *ē in Proto-Germanic (a long vowel close to the one in British 'there'), not ī (as in 'fleet').

Thus, *h₃rḗǵs should've become *rēks.

What would the descendants of *rēks have been?

Proto-Germanic *ē became *ā (as in 'father') in Proto-North (*rāks) and Proto-West Germanic (*rāk); subsequently:
- Icelandic *rákur
- Swedish *råk
- German *Raach
- Dutch *raak
- English *reak
- West Frisian *riek

'Rich' stems from a Celtic word meaning "king".

This word, *rīxs, a cousin of Latin 'rēx', was first borrowed into Germanic.

Next, an adjective meaning "powerful; wealthy" was derived from it. It was this word that eventually became 'rich'.

Click the image to learn more:

I love the gothic Fractur typeface used here* for German terms (nowadays merely italicized).
(*Foreword [1873] to Hegel's Logic [in Ency. 1817], 1975 OUP.)

Could the Greenland Ice Sheet collapse in the next 15 years? A new study says more than a fifth of the world's potentially catastrophic tipping points could occur as soon as 2038. Here’s more from Live Science.
https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth/climate-change/catastrophic-climate-doom-loops-could-start-in-just-15-years-new-study-warns
#ClimateChange #ClimateScience #Science

Since we’ve got more arrivals from the birdsite, this directory of directories may be helpful. The spreadsheet dedicated to #histodons , which we started back in November, has now exceeded 1,000 entries, with info on interests, time period speciality, and Mastodon handle. https://github.com/nathanlesage/academics-on-mastodon

Regional languages of China

https://mapsontheweb.zoom-maps.com/post/162042043035/languages-of-china

#map #language #china

The Rarest Sounds Across All Human Languages: Learn What They Are, and How to Say Them

https://www.openculture.com/2023/06/the-rarest-sounds-across-all-human-languages.html

"The study of mathematics, like the Nile, begins in minuteness but ends in magnificence." – Charles Caleb Colton (1777–1832)
#quote #mathematics #math #maths

I spent waaay too much time on this 🙈:

A curated list of Mastodon accounts to follow if you're interested in #cartography, #maps, #geoviz'ualisation, visual aspects of #GIS and #geography etc.

Maybe a good way to get your feed going if you are #newhere…

https://cartolab.at/cartography-on-mastodon/

Let me know if you want to be included/removed or feel misrepresented. #gischat

Blaise Pascal, the philosopher born just over 400 years ago, made what is know as "Pascal's Wager" about the existence of #god.

He argued for betting on the existence of God. “If you win, you win everything; if you lose, you lose nothing,” he wrote, positing that although one cannot know for certain whether or not God exists, we are better off believing in God’s existence than not.

His #philosophy is all of life is a wager.

Read more:
https://theconversation.com/400-years-ago-philosopher-blaise-pascal-was-one-of-the-first-to-grapple-with-the-role-of-faith-in-an-age-of-science-and-reason-199659

And would you take his wager?