Er...

As many of you probably know, I'm the kind of guy that likes to understand things. I can't just accept as fact something that somebody tells me. For some people, it's enough to give them a cord and tell them to plug it into an outlet and their device will work. For me, I like to know every function that device has, how it's accessed, what functions can be done with it outside the scope of its intended purpose, and what problems may arise with its use. I also like to know how the electricity powering the device is being produced and how electricity itself powers things.

It was so much easier to be a kid and just believe that some things worked by magic. Now, this post has nothing to do with electricity, or with electronic devices. To be honest, I'm not sure why that first paragraph is there. Today's topic is "words". "Words."

Where do words come from? What do they really mean? Does their meaning change over time? Most people don't care, and for good reason: it's really boring stuff. Unfortunately, I can't help be think about them.

One class of words that has intrigued me recently is words that describe an action, but have evolved into a motionless word. Take the word "Movie", for example. We talk about movies a lot, we go to movies, we watch movies, we make movies (in some cases we make movies we wish we hadn't).

So what is a movie? I'll give you a hint: they pre-date "Talkies". That's right. They're called movies because they're pictures that move. Most everyone in the world probably knew that before they turned 27. Not me, though. To me, a movie was a movie just as a frog was a frog. That's just what it was.

I saw a sign today above a garbage can saying that "wrappers" belong in it. A wrapper. That's the stuff that's on candy and stuff. The stuff that "wraps" around something else. Is it odd that, at 32 years old, I'm just now starting to understand these things?

How about a "Shutter"? You know those things; they hang out on windows. Sure, most of them are decorative and no longer "shut" the way you'd think they would, but they're still there.

How did these words make it into our vocabulary? Seriously! Why aren't shutters called "openers" because they also open or movies called "Changies" because the picture changes?

But it brings up questions about how butter got its name. Was it originally made by goats butting their heads against a milk jug, or by some other less hygienic method?

Flowers? Did they used to be more liquid than they currently are?

Mister? Did men used to spray a lot when they talked? If so, I'm glad most of us have evolved out of that stage.

Number? Did people hate math so much that they felt it was numbing to their brains?

Sewer? Were the things that people used to sew really so bad that they were good for nothing but to be sent down the drain? Who knows.

Summer? I guess I enjoy counting how many summers I have left rather than how many winters, but is that really how the name came about?

I'm not offering any answers. I'm not even sure what my questions are. My point (if there is one) is that there are a lot of words that are really, really strange if you stop to look at them closely. Maybe it's best if we don't.