11 October 2020
Some "B" Band Name Origins
08 October 2020
Meliorism
I discovered "meliorism" via Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day podcast. It's a word that I think we need right now as we are in the second half of what may well be a full pandemic year.
Meliorism (MEE-lee-uh-riz-um) is the belief that the world tends to improve and that humans can aid its betterment.
It is not pessimism and not optimism but some place in between though closer to the optimistic side.
Somehow I missed this word, though it's not new. British novelist George Eliot believed she had coined meliorist back in 1877 when she wrote, "I don't know that I ever heard anybody use the word 'meliorist' except myself." But the podcast sais that there is evidence that meliorist had been around decades before Ms. Eliot used it.
It probably comes from the Latin melior, meaning "better" with a nod the English melior descendant, meliorate, a synonym of ameliorate which means "to make better or more tolerable" which was introduced to English in the 1500s.
Meliorism is a word for 2021 when I would love to believe that the world will improve and that we can aid its betterment.
09 September 2020
Jefferson Airplane
Paul Kantner put together the original Jefferson Airplane and one member he recruited his college friend, blues guitarist Jorma Kaukonen. Kaukonen is given credit for the band's name because he has said that, "I had this friend [Steve Talbot] in Berkeley who came up with funny names for people. His name for me was Blind Thomas Jefferson Airplane [for blues pioneer Blind Lemon Jefferson]. When the guys were looking for band names and nobody could come up with something, I remember saying, 'You want a silly band name? I got a silly band name for you!'"
So the name has no real meaning. But it survived the reincarnation of the band as Jefferson Starship, but not the final version that was simply Starship.
Something that used the band's name as a direct reference is the practice of making a quick roach clip for a marijuana joint by splitting a matchstick into a “V” formation allowing the user to smoke the very end of a joint without burning their fingers. That makeshift clip became known (at least on the West Coast) as a Jefferson Airplane.
Jefferson Airplane is the eighth and final studio album by the band. It was released on Epic Records in 1989. Marty Balin, Paul Kantner, Grace Slick, Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady all returned for the album and supporting tour, though Spencer Dryden did not participate. The album and accompanying tour would mark the last time Jefferson Airplane would perform together until their 1996 induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Jefferson Airplane evolved into Jefferson Starship in January 1974. Between 1974 and 1984, they released eight gold or platinum-selling studio albums and had nine top 40 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. 1975's Red Octopus marked the official return of Marty Balin. The Balin penned single "Miracles” peaked at #3 on the chart, and along with the single “Play on Love” helped to propel the album to eventual multiple-platinum status and topping the Billboard 200 chart. It would be the biggest selling album of the band's career.
Starship was initially a continuation of Jefferson Starship, but because of a different musical direction and loss of personnel, a lawsuit settlement led to a name change that required dropping the "Jefferson" in the name. Their 1985 pop album Knee Deep in the Hoopla had two number-one hits -"We Built This City" and "Sara."
MAIN ALBUMS of the Original Band Lineup
Jefferson Airplane Takes Off (1966)
Surrealistic Pillow (1967)
After Bathing at Baxter's (1967)
Crown of Creation (1968)
Volunteers (1969)
Bless Its Pointed Little Head (1969)
26 August 2020
First Known Use of a Word
In researching words and names for this site, I am often looking for the first known use of a word in English. I recently found an interesting online tool called Time Traveler that allows you to enter a year and see the words first recorded in that year. The site is part of Merriam-Webster.com so these results are based on their dictionaries.
I took a look at words from 1953 and was surprised that some words only appeared that year and that some came that early in history. The list is a kind of lens on what was happening in that year.
Here are a few words that had their first known use in 1953.
- ballpoint pen
- bench press
- blacklight
- cherry bomb
- flea collar main manmalathion
- male-pattern baldness
- Medicare
- random-access memory
- real-time
- rebar
- RSVP
- saber saw
- stiletto heels
- sunblock
- trans-fatty acid
- UFO
- videotape and videotape recorder
- wax museum
- whoopee cushion
With each word or phrase, you can look at the origin. For example, with "UFO" you find:
UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECT
"All right." The President sighed. "Is there anybody around this table who thinks UFOs and this signal from Vega have anything to do with each other?" — Carl Sagan
In 1966, the first UFO "abduction" was described in journalist John G. Fuller's book The Interrupted Journey. — Keay Davidson
First Known Use of UFO, 1953, in the meaning defined above
The site cautions that the date may not represent the very oldest sense of the word.
Many obsolete, archaic, and uncommon senses have been excluded from this dictionary, and such senses have not been taken into consideration in determining the date.
The date most often does not mark the very first time that the word was used in English. Many words were in spoken use for decades or even longer before they passed into the written language. The date is for the earliest written or printed use that the editors have been able to discover.
These dates also change as evidence of still earlier use emerges.
The First Known Use Date will appear in one of three rounded off styles:
For the Old English period (700-1099), "before 12th century"
For the Middle English period (1100-1499), by century (e.g., "14th century")
For the Modern English period (1500-present), by year (for example, "1942")
20 August 2020
Nyctophiles and Night
Night image from Pixabay |
This word has Greek origins – nyktos literally means night and philos stands for love. We have a lot of words using phile from phileein meaning to love or to show a love of something. Bibliophiles love books. Cinephiles love the cinema. Astrophiles love astronomy and the stars. I am all of those things.
I do like (love?) nighttime and I am more active at night (nocturnal? not really). But I started to wonder what the actual difference is (if there actually is a difference) between words like night, dusk, evening, nightfall, twilight, eventide, and sundown. When is it officially "night"?
Dusk, evening and twilight are commonly used interchangeably to mean the period from sunset/sundown until nighttime. But I've also seen nightfall, eventide used for that period. I don't think anyone would correct you if at sundown you said "I love the light at dusk."
Looking up these terms it seems that "dusk" is a period of time occurring at the end of the day during which the sunsets. "Evening" is the time of the day between dusk and night, when it gets dark. Dusk occurs when the geometric center of the Sun is 18° below the horizon in the evening.
In the 48 contiguous U.S. states, it takes anywhere from 70 to 100 minutes for it to get dark after sunset and the further north you are, the longer it takes for true darkness to arrive after sundown.
What about twilight? That is the time between daylight and darkness and seems to be applied to the time after sunset and also before sunrise when the light appears diffused and often pinkish. The sun is below the horizon, but its rays are still scattering because of the Earth's atmosphere to create the colors. So, there are two twilights - the periods between the dawn and sunrise, and the time between sunset and dusk.
Is that clear or more confusing? By the way, sunrise and sunset are defined as the exact times when the upper edge of the disc of the Sun is at the horizon. That's an easy one to identify.
12 August 2020
Black Sabbath
Photo: Warner Bros. Records - Public Domain, Link
Black Sabbath was an English rock band formed in Birmingham in 1968 by guitarist Tony Iommi, drummer Bill Ward, bassist Geezer Butler and vocalist Ozzy Osbourne. They are often cited as pioneers of heavy metal music. Their albums, Black Sabbath (1970), Paranoid (1970), and Master of Reality (1971) helped define the genre. The band had multiple line-up changes following Osbourne's departure in 1979, with Iommi being the only constant member throughout its history.
23 July 2020
Name Changing: Washington Redskins and Kansas City Chiefs
July 23, 2020
The logo that was controversial and that has been retired |
The Washington Redskins team is only one example of the larger controversy, but it receives the most public attention due to the name itself being defined as derogatory or insulting in modern dictionaries and the prominence of the team representing the nation's capital.
a "less controversial" script logo used by the Redskins (1972–2019) Sportslogos.net, Public Domain |
When an NFL franchise was bought for Boston in 1933, the team was set to play at the home of the baseball Boston Braves so it adopted the same name. The following year, the Braves moved to Fenway Park and changed their name to the Redskins. The Redskins name traveled with the team to become the Washington Redskins. Of course, the baseball Atlanta Braves, also use American Indian imagery - and a pretty tasteless "chop" motion in the stands by fans.