Ben,
Just wanted to thank you for this plausible hypothesis concerning the
possible background of Peirce's "interpretant". A useful bit of
terminological information for me.
Just a wild guess: As a scientist, Peirce might also have wanted to
create an association to "resultant" - could explain the abbreviation of
"interpretament". One standard dictionary gives this for "resultant":
ADJECTIVE:
Issuing or following as a consequence or result.
NOUN:
1. Something that results; an outcome.
2. Mathematics: A single vector that is the equivalent of a set of vectors.
And in the Century Dictionary (sorry, do not have time to clean it up
the moment):
resultant (r.-zul'tant), a. and n. [< F. rdsul-
taut = Sp. Pg. 'esultante = It. risultan te resul-
tante, < L. resultan(t-)s, ppr. of resultare, spring
back: see result.] I. a. Existing or follow-
ing as a result or consequence; especially, re-
suiting from the combination of two or more
agents: as, a resdtant motion produced by two
forces. See diagq'am under force1, 8.
The axis of magnetisation at each point is parallel to the
direction of the resultant force.
Atkinson, tr. of Mascart and Joubert, I. 289.
Resultant diagram. See diagram.-- Resultant rela-
tion. See relation.--Resultallt tone, in musical acous.
tics, a tone produced or generated by the simuItaneous
sounding of any two somewhat loud and sustained tones.
Two varieties are recognized, differential and sumwa-
riohal tones, the former having a vibration-number equal
to the difference between the vibration-numbers of the
generating tones, and the latter one equal to their sum.
It is disputed whether resultant tones, which are often
perceptible, have a genuine objective existence, or are
increly formed in the ear. Differential tones were first
observed by Tartini in 1714, and are often called Tartinis
tones. The entire subject has been elaborately treated
by Helmholtz and recent investigators.
II. n. That which results or follows as a con-
sequence or outcome. (a) In mech., the geometrical
sum of several vector quantities, as displacements, veloci-
ties, accelerations, or forces, which are said to be the com-
ponents, and to the aggregate of which the resultant is
equivalent. (b) Ill alg., a function of the coefficients of two
or more equations, the vanishing of which expresses that
the equations have a common root; an eliminant. To10i-
eal resultant, the resultant of a number of linear equa.
tions considered as implying the vanishing of matrices.
=Syn. Result, Resultant. A result may proceed from one
cause or from the combination of any number of causes.
There has been of late a rapid increase in the use of re.
sdtant in a sense secondary to its physical one-- namely, to
represent that which is the result of a complex of moral
forces, and would be precisely the result of no one of them
acting alone.
resultate, (re-zul'tat), n. [= D. resdtaat = G.
Best,
Mats
Benjamin Udell wrote:
Since then I ran into an old word "interpretament" from Medieval Latin
/interpretamentum/ which meant intepretation, apparently in the sense
only of product, and this arising from a chiefly technical use -- the
interpretament was an explanatory gloss. (At this Webpage look for
yellow-highlighted "interpretamentum" -- it's bad OCR of the
/Encyclopedia Britannica/ 11th edition, some of it is
garbled) http://64.233.187.104/search?q=cache:4DjOTI7LpFMJ:encyclopedia.jrank.org/GEO_GNU/GLOSS_GLOSSARY.html+interpretamentum&hl=en
<http://64.233.187.104/search?q=cache:4DjOTI7LpFMJ:encyclopedia.jrank.org/GEO_GNU/GLOSS_GLOSSARY.html+interpretamentum&hl=en>
The Century Dictionary has *interpretament* (/obs/.) (in-te^*¨*
r/*'*/pre-ta_*¨* _*¨* -ment), /n/. [< L. /interpretamentum/,
explanation, > /interpretari/, explain: see /interpret/.]
*_Interpretation_*. [Rare.] This bold /interpretament/, how commonly
soever sided with, cannot stand a minute with any competent reverence to
God or his law, or his people. /Milton/, Tetrachordon.
My suspect that Peirce indeed knew this word but thought, why not a
briefer word, and one without an established meaning of an explanation
in a glossary.
Best, Ben Udell
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