Difference between revisions of "Ghyll talk:Exingians"

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(Nope, he meant potsherds.)
 
(Easter egg)
 
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Nope - he meant "potsherds". See http://www.answers.com/potsherds. --[[User:Morbus Iff|Morbus Iff]] 21:18, 18 Jun 2005 (EDT)
 
Nope - he meant "potsherds". See http://www.answers.com/potsherds. --[[User:Morbus Iff|Morbus Iff]] 21:18, 18 Jun 2005 (EDT)
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:Huh, I never would have guessed. I bet that originally was a typo, and then those crazy archaeologists liked it and kept using it - like the word "Filk". --[[User:Dfaran L'Eniarc|Dfaran L'Eniarc]] 00:45, 19 Jun 2005 (EDT)
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::In fact it's the other way around: "sherd" is the older form, though less popular today; it's related to "shear".  See [http://www.bartleby.com/61/roots/IE467.html] for full details.  English underwent a partial sound-change that changed "er" to "ar" in the 17th century; this affected the name of the letter R and the words "varsity" (from "university"), "parson" (which used to be just a different meaning of "person"), "sergeant" (which kept its spelling with "er"), and "shard" among others.  However, in the great majority of words with "er" the sound-change reversed itself; we no longer say or write "marcy" for "mercy", for example.  --[[User:Jcowan|John Cowan]] 14:13, 20 Jun 2005 (EDT)
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== Easter egg ==
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This entry is an olla-podrida of bits from H.P. Lovecraft's weird tale "The Call of Cthulhu", other entries mentioning the Exingians, and things intended to sound suitably terrifying.  --[[User:Jcowan|John Cowan]] 09:19, 27 Jul 2005 (EDT)

Latest revision as of 09:19, 27 July 2005

Nope - he meant "potsherds". See http://www.answers.com/potsherds. --Morbus Iff 21:18, 18 Jun 2005 (EDT)

Huh, I never would have guessed. I bet that originally was a typo, and then those crazy archaeologists liked it and kept using it - like the word "Filk". --Dfaran L'Eniarc 00:45, 19 Jun 2005 (EDT)
In fact it's the other way around: "sherd" is the older form, though less popular today; it's related to "shear". See [1] for full details. English underwent a partial sound-change that changed "er" to "ar" in the 17th century; this affected the name of the letter R and the words "varsity" (from "university"), "parson" (which used to be just a different meaning of "person"), "sergeant" (which kept its spelling with "er"), and "shard" among others. However, in the great majority of words with "er" the sound-change reversed itself; we no longer say or write "marcy" for "mercy", for example. --John Cowan 14:13, 20 Jun 2005 (EDT)

Easter egg

This entry is an olla-podrida of bits from H.P. Lovecraft's weird tale "The Call of Cthulhu", other entries mentioning the Exingians, and things intended to sound suitably terrifying. --John Cowan 09:19, 27 Jul 2005 (EDT)