Tag: Aristotle

• How the word “climate” has changed

  Rooted in a Greek verb meaning “to slope,” climate originally referred to seven latitudinal zones spanning the Earth.   On Thursday, President Trump withdrew from the Paris Agreement, a 2015 landmark effort to combat climate change joined by nearly 200 countries—minus Syria, Nicaragua, and, now, the US. Where does the word climate come from it, and how…

  John Kelly

  June 2, 2017

  Feature

• Why is it called “virtual” reality?

  This week, Oculus VR released the Rift, the first virtual reality headset of its kind. But why is virtual reality called virtual? Let’s put on our, er, etymological goggles for this one; I promise it’ll be immersive.  Virtue, mansplained Today, we associate virtue with moral rectitude, often citing specific qualities like charity, patience, and temperance…

  John Kelly

  April 1, 2016

  Uncategorized

• meteor (re-post)

  Somehow, the link to the original post on meteor burned up like, well, a meteor in Earth’s atmosphere. Or should I say it had a meteoric rise — and fall? After some fruitless troubleshooting,  I’ve re-posted in the hopes this link, like a meteorite, makes impact. This week, we’ve had quite the show. No, I’m not talking about Donald…

  John Kelly

  August 14, 2015

  Uncategorized

• meteor

  This week, we’ve had quite the show. No, I’m not talking about Donald Trump: I’m talking about the Perseid meteor shower. It’s fitting a stargazer can behold so many shooting stars during these annual Perseids, because the origin of meteor is in many ways all about plurals. Meteor The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) first cites meteor in the late 15th-century in a plural…

  John Kelly

  August 14, 2015

  Uncategorized