The Grice Club

Welcome

The Grice Club

The club for all those whose members have no (other) club.

Is Grice the greatest philosopher that ever lived?

Search This Blog

Sunday, January 31, 2010

Alsace

Apparently, Alsace means, etymologically, "the other place". Elsewhere. As Tapper notes, there´s some oddity in "elsewheres", _sic_ in plural.

In Cambridge, the _other_ place is *not* Alsace.

ObG:ObG
Posted by at

3 comments:

  1. Larry TapperJanuary 31, 2010 at 9:17 AM

    I would very much like to believe that 'Alsace' means 'the other place', but some quick Googles say that it means 'situated on the river Ill'. Whence the 'other', JL?

    Alsace is the ancestral home of Marx. Groucho, that is.

    http://www.marx-brothers.org/marxology/one4all.htm

    ReplyDelete
  2. Luigi SperanzaJanuary 31, 2010 at 10:22 AM

    else
    From an online source:

    O.E. elles "other, otherwise, different," from P.Gmc. *aljaz (cf. Goth. aljis "other," O.H.G. eli-lenti, O.E. el-lende, both meaning "in a foreign land;" see also Alsace), an adverbial genitive of the neut. of PIE base *al- "beyond" (cf. Gk. allos "other," L. alius; see alias). Synonym of other, the nuances of usage are often arbitrary.

    -- ??

    ReplyDelete
  3. Luigi SperanzaJanuary 31, 2010 at 10:24 AM

    So perhaps "Ill" means, "the other river".

    It _makes_ sense that 'ill' means "the other state, when I'm not feeling so _well_."

    I never believed in ill-intentions.

    I find "ill-" otiose, most of the times.

    The path to heaven is paved with _good_ intentions, only!

    Etc.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)