Re: Another English History Question (YAEHQ?)
From: | Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...> |
Date: | Tuesday, August 8, 2006, 3:15 |
On 8/7/06, Gary Shannon <fiziwig@...> wrote:
>
> You can disolve a substance in water or you can solve a problem. Either
> way you
> have solution.
Two 's's in "dissolve", which I point out not to be pedantic about spelling
but to call attention to its etymology as "dis-" + "solve". It's a case of
a verb and its morphological opposite yielding the same result. Perhaps the
components of a problem solution should be dubbed "dissolutes" and the tools
used to arrive at such solutions "dissolvents", just to complete the
parallel. :)
--
Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...>