On 1/4/2012 2:33 AM, Peter Blodow wrote: > Kent, > another physicist thinks that solder is derived from the french word > souder which, in turn, comes from latin "solidare" meaning "get solid, > solidify". So, the "l" must have been missing already somehow when taken > over from French in the first place. > Next discussion: why did the "l" reappear in spelling? > By the way: in German the word for this is "löten" and is, via the > common Germanic laguage, connected with english "lead", we have no > problem with " l " 's. > > Peter > > I'm sure you're right, Peter. You and I have already agreed that most every useful word comes from Latin or Greek, and the French word souder you cite is very similar to the earliest example of English usage (soudr...) I found in my OED. Those ancient Romans must have learned to solder when they were assembling all the lead pipes and cookware that slowly poisoned those people wealthy enough to afford them.
It's amazing we manage to communicate at all given the twists and turns our languages have taken. Regards, Kent PS - my grandchildren would say the missing "l" is just a sign of the season - "NoEl". ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ridiculously easy VDI. With Citrix VDI-in-a-Box, you don't need a complex infrastructure or vast IT resources to deliver seamless, secure access to virtual desktops. With this all-in-one solution, easily deploy virtual desktops for less than the cost of PCs and save 60% on VDI infrastructure costs. Try it free! http://p.sf.net/sfu/Citrix-VDIinabox _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users