hemi-thoughts
Some of my best, and also some of my most obscure, thinking is done in the shower. This morning was obscure: I was trying to figure out what the different terms were for "twice a year" as opposed to "every two years". I concluded it was a matter of prefixes: semi (meaning half) for the former, bi (meaning two) for the latter.
But why do we use semi-, instead of hemi- or demi-? All of those are prefixes mean half. Why do we need three? This got me thinking. How much smaller the world would seem if we spoke of semispheres, instead of hemispheres. How much sillier the Gnostic gods would seem if they were called semi-urges, rather than demiurges. How a demi-plie means a bend in ballet, but a hemi-plie sounds like a surgery. How semi-civilized refers to a culture in history, but demi-civilized sounds like a popular twitter feed.
Tee Hee. A (s)demitasste of things to think about. English is a strange, but delightful, language.
But why do we use semi-, instead of hemi- or demi-? All of those are prefixes mean half. Why do we need three? This got me thinking. How much smaller the world would seem if we spoke of semispheres, instead of hemispheres. How much sillier the Gnostic gods would seem if they were called semi-urges, rather than demiurges. How a demi-plie means a bend in ballet, but a hemi-plie sounds like a surgery. How semi-civilized refers to a culture in history, but demi-civilized sounds like a popular twitter feed.
Tee Hee. A (s)demitasste of things to think about. English is a strange, but delightful, language.
posted by Bronwyn at 2:49 pm
10 Comments:
And of course, while demi-bra sounds cute, hemi-bra sounds redundant, and semi-bra sounds scandalous.
Hemi-bra sounds like the BIG girl's hefty version of the demi. It's the H-ness of it. It recalls Hummer, Haul, Heft, Hunch, Hoist, Heavy, Husky, Hardy, Hulky. You get the picture.
oh my word, Pearsons - you just took it to a whole new level :)
Well, there are a lot of women whom I love who have been amply blessed, and I think they might prefer the sound of demi. Now, coming from a demi's perspective, myself, I could use a litle hemi from time to time, but that bra they call a "miracle" (as in: "you need one if you want to feel like a hemi".
Doesn't "biannual" mean both "twice a year" and "every other year" depending on the context?
Oh Elle, that just confuses me!!! I thought I had it figured out but now I will have to do some more serious research than just thinking it through in the shower....
Okay: so dictionary.com says that biannual can mean:
1. occurring twice a year; semiannual.
2. occurring every two years; biennial.
But Webster's says that it actually means occurring twice a year (so semiannual and biannual are the same thing). Webster's says if you want it to mean occurring every two years you need to spell is biennial. bizarre. that will be useful to keep in mind for a weird plate of scrabble letters one day.
I thought hemi- referred to a half. And semi- was a portion (not necessarily a half, exactly). I rarely use demi- so I won't comment on that. BUT then again, I am not a "word" person and I could have just been using all of these prefixes wrong for years! :)
Demi-bras are on sale at Costco right now :)
No wonder non-native speakers have such a hard time picking up English. We should have stuck with French. (Incidentally, my word verification is "suffr".)
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