Re: USAGE: glittering gold (was: phat/vet/fat)

--- In conlang@y..., John Cowan <jcowan@R...> wrote:

 > The poem says "All that is gold does not glitter" = "Not all gold things
 > glitter" = "Some things that are gold do not glitter" = "Some things
 > are much better than they seem".

Ah, that was in Aragorn's "fraternity handshake", right?


 > Mark Twain's miner in _Roughing It_ tells us that *nothing* that glitters
 > is gold, at least in its natural state.

Is that the origin of the phrase?  Does that mean the phrase was
logically consistent in its original context and is now mis-used
world-wide?  ;-)

Though I find myself wondering about the truth in that statement...
most metals only appear as oxides in nature, but gold as a "noble
metal" is rather chemically inert...  "nuggets" are natural
formations, right?


-- Christian Thalmann

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