Gathering interesting information is useful if you’re always on the lookout for illustrations.
Today I Found Out has provided a lot of general knowledge information which I didn’t know.
Here, for instance, is a post on the origin of the maritime terms ‘Port’ and ‘Starboard’.
I’d always known of these terms but didn’t know how they came about.
Turns out it’s pretty simple.
I was somewhat relieved to find out my school-teacher daughter didn’t know either.
Now this is a way of illustrating how words can begin with an obvious meaning, but how time and history can remove the obvious and just leave you with the word.
Consider the biblical term ‘repentance’ which a lot of folk think simply means sorry. The Bible tells us that sorrow precedes repentance, and helps produce it. Repentance originally referred to the change of mind and behaviour which flowed from sorrow, being in the original language a joining of two words meaning ‘change/turn’ and ‘mind’.
Anyway, if you don’t already know, go and find out about ‘port’ and ‘starboard’.
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