On Aug 25, 2004, at 10:40 PM, James Bailey wrote:
Words are actually fun for me, and knowing the etymology of a word is
interesting to me. I like to know where the words in my language come from.
I've learned that while I'm not alone in this, I am something of an anomaly.
And don't get me wrong, I realise that languages evolve and change over
time, I just like to know where words come from, and to use them in the most
appropriate place. As I said, for me it's fun.
OK, that makes sense. It's fun for me, too.
But if you're into etymology, surely you have to realize that words evolve, and when a word travels to another language or to a specific field, the original word and the specialized word are going evolve separately so that their meanings diverge. When "allegro" was first used musically, it did indeed mean "happy", and it's interesting to know that. But to say that that is the correct definition of the word in English is just wrong. It's not.
Also wrong is your claim that in order to make good use of a word either the composer or the performer needs to know what it means in the original language. When a musician reads "D.C. al coda", he needs to know where to go next, but he doesn't need to know that it means "from head to tail". In other words, the musician needs to know the musical meaning of the term but not the meaning of the same word in its original language.
mdl
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