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the word obvious comes from ob + via, in other words something blocking the path (to understanding) Are you sure it meant blocking understanding? I thought it

by gruseom 15y ago

the word obvious comes from ob + via, in other words something blocking the path (to understanding) Are you sure it meant blocking understanding? I thought it was more like "in front of you", as in "you can't miss it". According to http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=obvious http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=obvious, the original meaning was "commonplace", i.e. something you're likely to encounter along the way, and the modern meaning "evident" doesn't appear until the 1630s.

Alex3917 15y ago
Interesting you may be right then, my version is just what I was told by my latin teacher.
- gruseom 15y ago
  It does explain how obvious and obviate got to mean conflicting things. It's pretty cool when a word evolves into its opposite meaning, but I can't remember any right now, other than slang examples like "wicked" and "sick" which don't get to count.
  - buddy_nuggs 15y ago
    invaluable? I suppose the etymology may be that something invaluable is so important that any value ascribed to it still does not approximate its true worth.
    - gruseom 15y ago
      Right. Same as "priceless".
  - Alex3917 15y ago
    That is interesting. Something I've noticed is that if you believe that words should be defined in such a way that they are logically consistent with other words, it's possible that there are words that literally everyone uses incorrectly. And under this paradigm, there are many words that mean the opposite of what they 'should' mean. As far as I know though I'm the only one who believes this, although it wouldn't surprise me if other people have explored the idea before.
  - davidvaughan 15y ago
    For enantiodromes, I recommend 'anathema', which was once a thing devoted to the gods but came to mean accursed, and 'cleave' which still occasionally means 'adhere to' but more commonly means 'to split'. It's interesting (and frustrating) when this phenomenon appears across different languages. The French 'pas terrible' means not very good rather than not terrible.
  - wglb 15y ago
    Didn't the words "objective" and "subjective" switch meanings some time ago?

by gruseom 15y ago

Alex3917 15y ago

Interesting you may be right then, my version is just what I was told by my latin teacher.

gruseom 15y ago
It does explain how obvious and obviate got to mean conflicting things. It's pretty cool when a word evolves into its opposite meaning, but I can't remember any right now, other than slang examples like "wicked" and "sick" which don't get to count.
- buddy_nuggs 15y ago
  invaluable? I suppose the etymology may be that something invaluable is so important that any value ascribed to it still does not approximate its true worth.
  - gruseom 15y ago
    Right. Same as "priceless".
- Alex3917 15y ago
  That is interesting. Something I've noticed is that if you believe that words should be defined in such a way that they are logically consistent with other words, it's possible that there are words that literally everyone uses incorrectly. And under this paradigm, there are many words that mean the opposite of what they 'should' mean. As far as I know though I'm the only one who believes this, although it wouldn't surprise me if other people have explored the idea before.
- davidvaughan 15y ago
  For enantiodromes, I recommend 'anathema', which was once a thing devoted to the gods but came to mean accursed, and 'cleave' which still occasionally means 'adhere to' but more commonly means 'to split'. It's interesting (and frustrating) when this phenomenon appears across different languages. The French 'pas terrible' means not very good rather than not terrible.
- wglb 15y ago
  Didn't the words "objective" and "subjective" switch meanings some time ago?