Re: The cost of time

William Annis wrote:
> In English one "spends" time.  Sometimes you pass time.
>
> It just occured to me I have no way in Vaior to say "I spent much of
> today reading."
>
> How do other languages handle this idea?  I'm thinking mostly about
> natlangs, but conlangs that have avoided the monetary associations
> would be interesting to me, too.
German uses "verbringen": "Wir verbringst du deine Zeit?" = "How do you pass
your time"; "Ich habe drei Wochen in Zermatt verbracht" = "I spent three
weeks in Zermatt".

Not sure how to translate it, as the only thing I can think of off-hand that
one "verbrings" is time. Etymologically, I assume it's ver- (a prefix
indicating, among other things, that something is done too far or
wrongly[1]; or a sense of distributing[2]) + bringen "to bring". I don't
have my Duden handy at the moment, however.

Cheers,
Philip

[1] For example "hauen" = "to hit"; "verhauen" = "to beat up". Or "sprechen"
= "to speak"; "(sich) versprechen" = "to mis-speak; to say something even
though one meant to say something else". "urteilen" = "to pass judgment";
"verurteilen" = "to condemn". "hören" = "to hear"; "verhören" = "to
interrogate".

[2] as "teilen" = "to share"; "verteilen" = "to distribute". And there's
also "bauen" = "to build" vs "verbauen" = "to use (something) as building
material" (but it can also mean "to obstruct through building", which is
more like [1]). A versatile prefix which it is hard to pin down a meaning
for.

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