Thursday, February 18, 2021
Super-random language note
Reading old Italian tech books, I was struck by a difference in terminology. In French an electromagnet is electro-aimant. In Italian an electromagnet is elettrocalamita.
Lover or attractor seems like a pleasant word for magnet, but calamity?
Turns out both assumptions are wrong.
Per this online dictionary, the aimant in electro-aimant comes from adamant, hard as a diamond. (Pyrite isn't really diamond-hard, but it's considerably harder than plain iron.)
The calamity comes from Latin calamus, a straw or piece of wood, because early compasses were made with a magnetic needle floating in a bit of wood or cork.
Calamity as disaster comes through French from the same Latin root, but the transfer of meaning is obscure.
My misassumption shows my basic bias. I think of the world in terms of function, not material. I was trying to translate both words as functions, but they were really named after qualities of the materials. The English word magnet is named after the place where magnetite was first found.
Labels: Asked and not worth asking, Language update
¶ 2:05 PM
