Re: Genus, Species, ...

On 2009-01-11 Rebecca Bettencourt wrote:
> Was "generalize" created to fill that hole? Then someone screwed it up
> again by inventing "specialize?"
No. As Mark said this vocabulary was taken en_bloc
Latin eithr directly or by way of French, and as is
often the case Latin words got more specialized
meanings in the borrowing languages than they had
in Latin[^Note 1].  In latin _genus_ simply meant
'a kind, a class', and so the adjective _generalis_
came to mean 'applying to all the kinds/classes',
and the verb _generalizare_ -- probably a product
of scholastic technical vocabulary -- was derived
from the adjective in that meaning.  Just as Mark
I would use _genericize_ for 'make generic', but
I'm not a native speaker... (BIANANS?)

[^Note 1]: This tendency of increasing specialization
     and narrowing in meaning of borrowed vocabulary
     is even more the case with Greek words.  One thing
     which startles me as a tourist in Greece is how
     'technical' words have retained their everyday
     meaning in Modern Greek.  For example _fysiko
     metalliko nero_ means 'natural mineral water'!


/BP 8^)>
--
Benct Philip Jonsson -- melroch atte melroch dotte se
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  "C'est en vain que nos Josués littéraires crient
  à la langue de s'arrêter; les langues ni le soleil
  ne s'arrêtent plus. Le jour où elles se *fixent*,
  c'est qu'elles meurent."           (Victor Hugo)