I'm rereading HHGTTG too (got the one-volume collection for Christmas, yay!)--it's my bedtime easy-reading book. Still makes me giggle.

Me neither brenda. *sits in corner with brenda*

Or maybe I just need a direct link to Erin's brain.

try www.talksoutofherass.com

I know travel and travail are from the same root. Lemme cite....yeah, [Middle English travelen, alteration of travailen, to toil, from Old French travailler. See travail.]

And on the Merc stuff, I'm not sure if it comes into the Latin from the Hebrew. "Mercare" means to trade, but I looked up the Mercury ref, and apparently it may stem from Hebew first. EDIT: Oops, "mercari"

The Hebrew word so rendered is from a root meaning "to travel about," "to migrate," and hence "a traveller." In the East, in ancient times, merchants travelled about with their merchandise from place to place (Gen. 37:25; Job 6:18), and carried on their trade mainly by bartering (Gen. 37:28; 39:1). After the Hebrews became settled in Palestine they began to engage in commercial pursuits, which gradually expanded (49:13; Deut. 33:18; Judg. 5:17), till in the time of Solomon they are found in the chief marts of the world (1 Kings 9:26; 10:11, 26, 28; 22:48; 2 Chr. 1:16; 9:10, 21). After Solomon's time their trade with foreign nations began to decline. After the Exile it again expanded into wider foreign relations, because now the Jews were scattered in many kands.

Um. And...

MERCHANDISE transitive verb (1350-1400): derived from the Late Middle English verb ‘marchaundisen,’ which is from the noun ‘marchaundise.’

(Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, Merriam-Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary, Ayto’s Dictionary of Word Origins, OED)

FYI, using "to merchandise" as a verb was first recorded in 1932.

I've never read HHGttG. Mayhap I should pick it up.

Thanks for the loan of brainspace, Erin! I'm actually really happy that "travel" and "travail" are from the same source, since in practice they are so closely related.

And that does clarify the Mercury-merchant thing...I assumed the word "merchant" was later than ancient Rome, but with its roots being earlier, and in fact Hebrew, it's cool to see how the god of commerce got his name from an existing word.

Which actually makes me wonder whether the Romans were aware that their gods were constructs, or did they say "He really exists, but since we aren't given to know gods' names, we made them up" ?

I'm re-readintg Ellen Kushner's Swordspoint for about the third time. I love this book. It's in the SF/fantasy section of the library, but there's nothing really supernatural about it. Love, lust, betrayal, politics, intrigue in Renaissance-type setting. I love it.

I just read that a few weeks ago Connie - really liked it.

Which actually makes me wonder whether the Romans were aware that their gods were constructs, or did they say "He really exists, but since we aren't given to know gods' names, we made them up" ?

I would think they would have to have been, given how closely most of them are modeled on the Greeks. But it's been a long time since I read or studied any of this stuff, so I could be talking out of my ass.

My impression has been that a lot of the Romans paid lip service to religion whereas Greek culture tended to be more devout. I've always heard it lectured that Vergil's Aeneid, for example, was a literary work rather than a sincere religious work like its Homeric forebears.

HPHBP is going to be 672 pages long. And the deluxe edition will be 704 pages long.

Deluxe edition?

From Harry Potter Automatic News Aggregator.

I don't suppose the deluxe addition has the missing scenes where Sirius comes back and has a lovely little "reunion" scene with Remus?

Edit on reading the article: Guess not.