Blog-IT-o ergo sum

	7/11/2003

Etymology Update

In several conversations this week I had the opportunity to enlighten people on the origins of three of my favorite words which establish the importance of the phrase, "words have meanings."

Service (Latin, fr - servus, slave.) As in, "We are becoming a servus society."

Mortgage (OF., fr mort, dead + gage, pledge or contract) As in, "The economy is in trouble when it is being kept alive by people living off their second and third death contracts."

Entrepreneur (F., enterprise, entre to the ground) One who assumes the risk and management of a business, an undertaker; also, grave digger. As in, "He put his whole life into his small business and while some complained he only paid his factory workers $7/hr to start, it was he the entrepreneur who worked himself into an early grave."

10:45:41 PM

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