Re: Insane Question

Sarah Marie Parker-Allen scripsit:

> Why does "ceiling" rhyme with "feeling"?  I find myself confused by "ing" as
> an ending (gah, there it is again); why do so many words end with it and is
> there a catalogue of the various ways that they're allowed to?
Well, its principal use, of course, is to form the present participle/gerund
associated with verbs: feel - feeling.  In the case of "ceiling" the verb
"ceil" is nearly obsolete, but means (obviously) "to furnish with a ceiling",
and is < Late Latin "caelare", to carve.  When a derived adjective or noun
like this shifts to a basic noun, it sometimes gets a specialized meaning:
"shirting", e.g. is material for making shirts from.

> Meanwhile, I'm going to try and find a place that will list all the "lys"
> out there (or rather, ways that words are allowed to end with them, and the
> rules to accompany them).  That should be easy, I'm pretty sure it's just an
> adverb thing.
Almost always.  There are a few adjectives that carry the ending: kindly,
goodly, e.g.  It derives from the Old English word "lice" = "body",
which also gives us "lyke-wake" (the wake over a corpse) and "lich", both
the monster and the gate into a cemetary through which the body is brought.

Bizarrely enough, the corresponding Romance suffix "-mente" comes from
the Latin ablative of "mens", mind (which is why the adjective is always
feminine): "lentamente" = "with slow mind", originally and literally.

--
Deshil Holles eamus.  Deshil Holles eamus.  Deshil Holles eamus.
Send us, bright one, light one, Horhorn, quickening, and wombfruit. (3x)
Hoopsa, boyaboy, hoopsa!  Hoopsa, boyaboy, hoopsa!  Hoopsa, boyaboy, hoopsa!
  -- Joyce, _Ulysses_, "Oxen of the Sun"       jcowan@reutershealth.com