Re: Hot, Cold, and Temperature

Jonathan Knibb wrote:

> At one level, the pervasiveness of this way of thinking in English
> idioms makes me think that the choice Celsius was induced to make was
> not merely motivated by historical precedent.  At another level, is
> this an example of a way in which English orientates its scalar
> metaphors in parallel with each other?  If so, is this specific to
> English, or are there actually deep-seated cognitive reasons to align
> such scales along directional axes?

Well, it seems the obvious reason for "hot" = "up", "cold" = "down" is
that the liquid in a thermometer rises when the temperature gets warmer.
But how long have thermometers been in use? Were there idioms relating
to the temperature "rising" or "falling" before thermometers?

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